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On Friday, Uefa executives will meet to decide whether Crystal Palace will be allowed to compete in the Europa League for the first time.

The Eagles won the FA Cup for the first time in their history, but Uefa must decide whether they broke the club’s multi-club ownership laws.

By Friday evening, the hearing’s outcome is anticipated to be announced.

Woody Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets’ 43% stake in Crystal Palace, announced on Monday that the deal, thought to be worth close to £190 million, has been “legally binding.”

Textor’s involvement at the club has led to Palace fearing losing their place in Europe.

Uefa has been looking into whether Palace broke the multi-club ownership regulations, which forbid linked clubs from competing in the same European competition.

Textor is a shareholder in French side Lyon, which also qualified for the Europa League.

Despite his shareholding in the club, Textor insists he has no significant influence over Palace.

Kirsty Coventry, the new president of the International Olympic Committee, says its members have shown “overwhelming support” to protecting the female category in sport.

Speaking on Thursday, she said the IOC must “play a leading role” in discussions on gender eligibility.

At her first news conference since taking over the role earlier this week, the Zimbabwean revealed a working group on the issue made up of experts and international federations would “ensure that we find consensus”.

The IOC has previously left gender regulations to the governing bodies of individual sports rather than applying a universal approach.

But having become the first woman to hold the IOC presidency, 41 year-old Coventry said its members now wanted to develop a policy “to come up with cohesion”.

However, Coventry also hinted that no retrospective action would be taken over the controversial boxing tournament at last year’s Paris Olympics, when the IOC’s handling of gender rules came under intense scrutiny.

Following a first meeting of her executive board, Coventry added, “We understand that there’ll be differences depending on the sport… but it was very clear from the members that we have to protect the female category, first and foremost to ensure fairness.

“But we need to do that with a scientific approach and the inclusion of the international federations who have already done a lot of work in this area.”

During her election campaign, former swimmer Coventry – a seven-time Olympic medalist – pledged to introduce a blanket ban on transgender women competing in female Olympic competition.

In recent years a growing number of sports federations have barred athletes who have undergone male puberty from competing in elite female competition amid concerns over fairness and safety.

However, in other sports, transgender women are still able to compete in women’s events at the Olympics.

The IOC was engulfed in controversy at the Paris Games last summer when Algeria’s Imane Khelif won the women’s welterweight boxing gold medal – a year after being disqualified from the World Championships for reportedly failing a gender eligibility test.

The IOC cleared the 25-year-old to compete – along with Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting – who was also banned by the suspended International Boxing Association (IBA). The IOC said competitors were eligible for the women’s division if their passports said they were female.

Both fighters insist they are women, have always competed in the women’s division, and there is no suggestion they are transgender.

Some reports took the IBA stating that Khelif has XY chromosomes to speculate that the fighter might have differences of sexual development (DSD), like runner Caster Semenya. However, the BBC has not been able to confirm whether this is or is not the case.

Last year, the World Boxing Organisation (WBO) said reports it had stripped Khelif of the Paris gold medal for failing gender eligibility tests were “obviously false”.

When asked if her working group could apply any retrospective action, Coventry said, “We’re not going to be doing anything retrospectively. We’re going to be looking forward. From the members [it] was ‘what are we learning from the past, and how are we going to leverage that and move that forward to the future?'”

Earlier this month, World Boxing said mandatory sex testing would be introduced in July “to ensure the safety of all participants and deliver a competitive level playing field for men and women.” It follows World Athletics which has also approved the introduction of a swab test to determine if an athlete is biologically female.

When asked if she endorsed such a policy, and if the IOC could also adopt it, Coventry said, “It’s too early to pre-empt the medical experts.

“It was very clear from the membership the discussion around this has to be done with medical and scientific research at the core, so we are looking at the facts and the nuances and the inclusion of the international federations that have done so much of this work…having a seat at table and sharing with us because every sport is different.

“But it was pretty much unanimously felt that the IOC should take a leading role in bringing everyone together to try and find a broad consensus.”

In February, the president of the International Paralympic Committee told BBC Sport that he is opposed to “blanket solutions” for transgender participation policies.

Andrew Parsons was speaking after United States president Donald Trump signed an executive order that prevents transgender women from competing in female categories of sports. He said he would deny visas to transgender athletes seeking to compete in female categories at the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028.

England Under-21s will be able to handle the pressure from Euro 2025 and end 59 years of pain with the support of defender Charlie Cresswell.

After winning the title two years ago, the Toulouse centre-back is pursuing his second European title.

After beating the Netherlands 2-1 in Bratislava, the Young Lions travel to face Germany in the final on Saturday.

Since the 1966 World Cup, the senior side hasn’t won a trophy since, and Cresswell thinks the U21s can handle any final pain.

“We’re winning, yes, but you have to deal with pressure because you play for England,” he said.

“It’s true that you’re playing for your country,” the statement read. How do you individually and collectively deal with that pressure? Everyone has a unique personality.

We must concentrate on ourselves because we have faith in this team and a resilience unlike any other tournament participant. We have faith in ourselves, and I’m confident that we will succeed.

The title-winning squad from two years ago had only one other player, Harvey Elliott.

Former England defender Cresswell, who scored in England’s opening 3-1 victory over the Czech Republic, has fond memories of watching the nation’s national team lose at major tournaments and wants to erase those memories.

“I was a huge part of my childhood, raised in England.” It would be “a big deal” for Cresswell, whose father Richard is a former striker for Leeds United, Preston, and Sheffield United, to go to the local pub and watch the first team with all of his friends, my dad’s friends, and it would be a big deal.

When England goes out, I’m in the pub with my dad’s friends crying in the bar and sat there thinking, “Oh no,” “.

It’s what it’s supposed to be, though. We adore the sport and the nation we are from. That’s how it’s supposed to be.