Category News

Crystal Palace are anxiously waiting to hear whether their European dream is over before it even begins.

Winning the FA Cup – the Eagles’ first major trophy triumph – resulted in the south London club qualifying for the Europa League, the club’s only qualification into continental football in their 164-year history.

However, whether Palace can start planning for European football is in the hands of governing body Uefa, who must decide whether the Eagles have breached its rules on teams under one multi-club ownership structure competing in the same European competition.

Uefa’s final ruling will centre on American businessman John Textor, owner of Eagle Football – which holds a 43% stake in Palace.

Eagle Football also owns a 77% stake in French side Lyon, who – like Palace – have qualified for next season’s Europa League.

Uefa’s regulations are in place to prevent collusion between clubs. At the heart of Palace’s argument is that their historic FA Cup win and consequential European qualification was an achievement accomplished entirely on their own merit.

Palace are insisting they are an entity that operates entirely independently, and not within the structures of a multi-club model.

Sources with knowledge of the situation have told BBC Sport that Textor’s personal share in the Selhurst Park side does not meet the 30% threshold – which is key in Uefa determining decisive influence – and that he has just 25% of the voting rights.

Uefa’s rules state that “no individual or legal entity” can hold a majority of shareholder voting rights at two clubs in the same European tournament.

Additionally, it is understood Palace have made clear they had no assistance in winning the FA Cup, in that they have not collaborated with Lyon since Textor’s original investment into the club in August 2021 and will have no connection with the French side during next year’s Europa League.

The Premier League side are believed to have pointed out that there have been no transfers between the clubs since Jake O’Brien, now at Everton, left Palace for Lyon in August 2023.

Palace also say there has been no employee, backroom staff or coach sharing, no dialogue, no collaborative strategy, no combined partnerships, sponsorships or commercial deals and no collective scouting, analysis or software collaborations.

It is accepted, and been widely reported, that chairman Steve Parish and his leadership team make all final decisions in relation to the management and operations at Palace.

That working structure has existed for a decade and is supported by fellow shareholders Josh Harris and David Blitzer.

Indeed, Textor, who only has one vote, has publicly spoken about his lack of influence at Selhurst Park.

“As proud as we are to have been a part of the resurgence of Crystal Palace, it remains true that Crystal Palace is an independent club, run by a man with a steady hand, who has achieved a level of sustainability that is incredibly uncommon in today’s Premier League,” said Textor in May 2024.

“An integrated sporting model, such as ours at Eagle, is simply not a perfect fit for Crystal Palace.”

It has been pointed out to Uefa that Textor is an individual and minority shareholder and, when he first invested into Crystal Palace in 2021, he owned no other clubs and his investment into other teams followed later.

Under Article 5 of Uefa’s rulebook, which relates to the integrity of the “competition/multi-club ownership”, a club is required from 1 March 2025 to have complied with the requirements necessary to prove they are not “simultaneously involved in any capacity whatsoever in the management, administration, and/or sporting performance of more than one club participating in a Uefa club competition”.

In the past clubs have sought to divest the stakes of key shareholders with a view to complying with Uefa’s regulations.

For example, the City Group, Ineos, Red Bull group and most recently Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis have adapted their shareholdings in clubs accordingly to ensure their teams can compete in the same European competitions.

Last year Ineos, which owns Manchester United, put its shares in French club Nice into a blind trust to ensure both clubs could compete in the Europa League last season.

Ineos made a similar move earlier this season by placing its ownership of Swiss club Lausanne-Sport into a blind trust, before a potential conflict in the 2025-26 campaign.

Uefa’s rules regarding the 1 March deadline are clear – and clubs have sought to comply with the regulations and cut-offs. A template for Palace to follow is in place.

However, Palace are understood to have made clear that Textor’s position means he cannot be enforced by the club to place his shares into a blind trust, owing to a lack of legal authority, unlike previous precedents where a single entity owns multiple clubs.

Parish, as has been well documented, effectively holds the deciding vote at Palace with the backing of Harris and Blitzer, so existing shareholder agreements would need to be altered to enforce a blind trust scenario – which is not within the club’s power and infringes on Textor’s property rights.

There is also a sense that the chain of events that have left Palace’s position in European football in jeopardy were unforeseen and is a factor towards why they failed to meet the deadline for ownership restructuring.

Palace faced Millwall in the FA Cup fifth round on 1 March. Since then they beat Champions League clubs Aston Villa and Manchester City en route to winning the trophy.

French side Strasbourg conceded a 90th-minute goal on the final day of the season to hand Lyon the final Europa Conference League spot, before Paris St-Germain later won the French Cup to elevate Lyon into the Europa League.

If Uefa rules that Lyon and Palace cannot both compete in the Europa League, regulations state that the French side will play in the competition because of their higher league finish.

In that scenario Palace could play in the Europa Conference League, but even then there is the added complication that Danish club Brondby, who have qualified for the Conference League, are owned by Harris and Blitzer.

Having missed the deadline, Palace have expressed to Uefa that they are prepared to take immediate steps to comply with their requirements.

It is understood Palace are arguing that banning them from the Europa League would result in a disproportionate sanction and unfairly punish the club, players, staff, fans and local community.

Their thoughts are that preventing the club from competing in the Europa League next season would result in an injustice, particularly given their breach is technical and that no competitive harm has transpired.

It is believed Palace also feel that refusing them a place would contradict the promotion of football’s development that ensure that “sporting values always prevail”, as per Article 2 of Uefa’s statutes.

Therefore, sources are indicating that Palace believe a fine or temporary oversight measures – for example the monitoring of transfers – would appropriately punish a breach, without harming stakeholders who have no involvement in the ownership issue.

Ally Wollaston overturned a three-second deficit to win the Tour of Britain Women and deny British teenager Cat Ferguson victory.

The New Zealander won all three intermediate sprints on the final stage in Glasgow to draw level with 19-year-old Ferguson, before gaining another four bonus seconds by finishing third behind stage winner Lorena Wiebes and Charlotte Kool.

Wollaston, of FDJ-Suez, beat Movistar’s Ferguson by four seconds overall, with UAE Team ADQ’s Dutchwoman Karlijn Swinkels finishing third.

“I’m a little bit overwhelmed – sorry. I’m so happy, first of all. A massive ‘thank you’ to my team-mates, I couldn’t have done it without them. This means the world to me – it’s my first World Tour victory in GC [general classification],” said Wollaston.

“I knew I needed to get every second I could in the bonus sprints, and unfortunately Cat was right in my wheel every time.

“So it came down to the last sprint, and there was a moment of doubt halfway through that last lap where I thought ‘I just cannot do this today’. My team-mates really helped me pull it together and pulled me to the front for the final.”

Ferguson looked like claiming the first of three time bonuses for the intermediate sprints at the end of the fourth lap of the 8.4km city-centre circuit, but Wollaston squeezed past her with just metres remaining.

Wollaston then beat the Briton in the second intermediate sprint to trail the overall leader’s green jersey by one second.

The 24-year-old moved into the lead with victory on the third intermediate sprint to set up a thrilling finale.

European champion Wiebes launched her attack at the 300m mark before powering over the line first, followed by Kool and Wollaston, who took the last bonus seconds to win the overall classification.

Elfyn Evans’ World Rally Championship lead has been cut further, as Sebastien Ogier made it back-to-back wins with victory at Rally Italia Sardegna.

Welshman Evans finished fourth, more than five minutes behind Toyota team-mate Ogier who became the most successful driver in the Italian event’s history with a fifth success.

The French eight-time world champion has cut his series deficit to Evans from 30 points to 19, with another GR Yaris Rally1 driver, Kalle Rovanpera, a further one point back.

Rovanpera was fourth in the baking heat of Sardinia, behind Hyundai’s Ott Tanak – who finished runner-up to maintain his own championship challenge.

Ogier’s victory was his third of the season and came 12 months after losing out to Tanak by 0.2 seconds following a heartbreaking final-stage puncture in this event.

He also had a scare on Sunday’s finale, when an overshoot in the final kilometres slashed his lead over the Estonian from 17.2s to 7.9s.

“In the ruts, I just couldn’t turn the car,” said Ogier.

“There was no speed at all, so I didn’t try to force it and hit it, I preferred to stop and reverse.

“Yeah, not ideal, still, it was enough to win.”

Evans once again found the gravel roads tough on the opening day, as he did in Portugal last month.

He never challenged for overall victory and also lost time on the top three when he punctured on Saturday’s stage 11, though ironically he gained a place to fourth with Toyota team-mate Sami Pajari taking even longer over a wheel change.

Josh McErlean’s Rally Italia was over almost before it started. He was one of six drivers caught out by the newly introduced Telti – Calangianus – Berchidda loop, ripping the entire rear-left corner off his M-Sport Ford Puma on stage two.

The Northern Irish driver was forced to retire with suspension damage before restarting, out of contention, on Saturday and finishing 11th in class.

He remains 10th overall.

1. Sebastien Ogier (France), Toyota, 3 hours 34 minutes 25.5 seconds

2. Ott Tanak (Estonia), Hyundai, +7.9secs

3. Kalle Rovanpera (Finland), Toyota, +50.5secs

4. Elfyn Evans (Great Britain), Toyota, +5min 05.7secs

5. Takamoto Katsuta (Japan), Toyota, +7min 29.6.secs

Selected

1. Elfyn Evans (Great Britain), Toyota, 133 points

2. Sebastien Ogier (France), Toyota, 114

3. Kalle Rovanpera (Finland), Toyota, 113

4. Ott Tanak (Estonia), Hyundai, 108

5. Thierry Neuville (Belgium), Hyundai, 83

6. Takamoto Katsuta (Japan), Toyota, 63

Selected

10. Josh McErlean (Ireland), Ford, 12

UFC president Dana White says he cannot stop Jon Jones from retiring, despite the American having “agreed” to fight Tom Aspinall.

White was responding to the social media activity of the UFC heavyweight champion, who suggested he was retired before calling out ex-UFC fighter Francis Ngannou.

Speaking at the UFC 316 post-fight news conference, White said 37-year-old Jones had said nothing about retiring to him and that he was only interested in matching him with Aspinall.

“Tom Aspinall is the guy. If the guy wants to retire and doesn’t want to fight, there’s nothing you can do,” White said.

“I didn’t want Khabib [Nurmagomedov] to retire, I thought [Daniel Cormier] should’ve stayed in it longer, so it’s none of my business.

“I’ll do what I can to make the fight, if we can, if he’s talking that crazy, I didn’t realise that.”

With Ngannou fuelling speculation he might be open to a return to the UFC, White played down the chances even if it was to fight Jones.

Aspinall, 32, has been the interim champion for 18 months and has publicly said he believes Jones is retired.

White has been insisting since last November, when Jones last fought, the bout with Aspinall would happen next and clarified that – while Jones had agreed to the fight – he had not signed a contract.

“John agreed to fight Tom,” he said.