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Crystal Palace had never won a major trophy.

Never been in Europe.

The scenes of pure joy after their 1-0 over Manchester City at Wembley made for one of 2025’s most memorable football stories.

They believe they earned their right to play in the Europa League next season. According to well-placed sources, there are factions at Uefa who have a similar opinion.

But less than two months on, the aftermath has been tainted by acrimony, rivalries and, ultimately, Uefa rules around multi-club ownership rules.

The upshot is Palace are out of the Europa League. And Nottingham Forest take their place. Palace are now in the Conference League where the prize money and glory are significantly less.

Palace are now expected to take their case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

There are two crucial points to consider when trying to understand how Palace have come to lose their place in the Europa League.

The first is Palace’s argument that John Textor, who owns stakes in them and in Lyon, does not hold decisive control at Selhurst Park.

In their dealings with Uefa, Palace have strenuously insisted that Textor, despite his company – Eagle Football Holdings – possessing a 43% stake, has no significant influence at the club.

Speaking to Talksport earlier this week, Textor said: “I don’t have decisive influence. I don’t and I didn’t.”

Textor is at the centre of the case. Uefa has deemed that Lyon and Palace can’t both play in next season’s Europa League because of his part-ownership of both. And so as the French club finished higher in their league, they get the spot.

The other important point to consider is that Palace missed Uefa’s 1 March deadline to alter their ownership structure to ensure compliance with the governing body’s multi-club ownership rules.

In essence, that is why the south London club are in this predicament.

Forest, too, missed the cut-off but they had demonstrated to Uefa that they were in the process of complying with their rules. The issue for them was that Evangelos Marinakis also owns Olympiakos, who were were in line to qualify for next season’s Champions League. So Marinakis placed his Forest stake into a blind trust, and ceased to be a “person with significant control” of the company that owns the club. In the end, Olympiakos qualified, Forest didn’t.

Had Palace successfully convinced Uefa that Textor had no decisive control then the 1 March deadline would have been irrelevant.

Forest are set to be the big beneficiaries of Palace’s defeat. Indeed, there are some questions behind the scenes at Palace as to Forest’s role in the saga over recent weeks.

For instance, BBC Sport has learned there was a letter sent by Forest to Uefa expressing concerns over Palace’s Europa League eligibility.

Forest will say they have complied with the rules when Palace haven’t and thus deserve their place in the Europa League. It is a strong argument.

Marinakis didn’t want to place his ownership of the club into a blind trust, but he did because he knew of the potential consequences if he didn’t.

Textor put further distance between himself and Palace towards the end of last month after agreeing a near-£190m deal to sell his stake to fellow American businessman Woody Johnson.

The deal strengthened Palace’s assertions that there has never been any collusion with Lyon.

At the time, the deal appeared a significant development towards Palace maintaining their place in the Europa League.

Yet there was an acceptance at Palace that while Uefa may look favourably on Textor’s exit, it wasn’t going to be enough on its own.

Their hopes rested on Uefa deciding that Textor hasn’t held significant control at the club.

Palace fears grew the longer they waited. They felt that if Uefa agreed with the club’s argument, the good news would have been communicated before now.

Palace were given hope when Lyon were relegated from Ligue 1 in late June because of their poor financial state.

The demotion, had it stood, would have meant Lyon not longer held a licence to compete in the Europa League – opening the door to Palace.

But Palace optimism subsided as Lyon lodged an appeal against the decision with France’s football watchdog.

Once the appeal was submitted, Palace began fearing the worst amid scepticism as to whether there was a will in France to forcibly remove one their most prestigious clubs from the top flight given uncertainty over television revenue.

There were reports in May that sports broadcaster DAZN terminated its five-year domestic broadcast contract with France’s Professional Football League (LFP) for Ligue 1 after just one season.

DAZN paid a reported 400m euros for the domestic rights over five years. In contrast, in 2023, the Premier League received £6.7bn for a four-year contract – which starts next season – for Sky and TNT to show up to 270 live games a season.

There was a resultant concern that relegating Lyon would put Ligue 1 at disadvantage in terms of its global pull.

On Wednesday, the French football authorities upheld Lyon’s appeal and thus preserved their place in the Europa League.

Genesis Scottish Open second round leaderboard

-11 C Gotterup (US); -9 H Hall (Eng); -8 M Penge (Eng), M Fitzpatrick (Eng), L Aberg (Swe); -7 R McIlroy (NI), N Taylor (Can), K Mitchell (US), M Schmid (Ger), J Knapp (US), S Straka (Aut)

Selected others: -6 X Shauffele (US); -5 S Scheffler (US); -3 A Scott (Aus); -1 R MacIntyre (Sco), +2 Spaun (US); +4 C Morikawa (US)

Bob MacIntyre scraped into the weekend at the Scottish Open to narrowly avoid an early end to his title defence.

The Oban left-hander feared it was “curtains” for his hopes after a lost ball led to double bogey on 13 and left him two shots outside the cut line.

But he conjured birdies on the remaining par threes – the 14th and 17th, where he almost holed his tee shot – to post a one-over 71 and finish one under.

That allowed the home favourite to survive by the skin of his teeth at the Renaissance Club, where American Chris Gotterup holds a two-stroke lead at 11 under after equalling the course record with a blistering 61.

“Anything I tried to do to fix it just seemed to make it worse,” said MacIntyre of his second-round struggles.

“To finish the way I did, I guess growing up on a short golf course with loads of par threes helped me in the end.

“The par-four 13 – it’s one of the worst shots I’ve hit all year. I could have lost the plot there. I was like ‘I’ve got to keep fighting here, there is chances’.

England’s Harry Hall occupies second place thanks to a 64, with compatriots Matt Fitzpatrick and Marco Penge one further back alongside Swede Ludvig Aberg.

US Open winner JJ Spaun missed the cut after a 72 left the American two over and Collin Morikawa tumbled out on four over following a horror 76.

Rory McIlroy, who benefitted from the benign early conditions, made a charge with a 65 to reach seven under.

“The conditions were so good for us this morning,” said McIlroy. “It felt like if you didn’t play that first nine in three or four under, you were losing strokes to the field.

“I did a lot of good things today, a couple of loose shots here and there but overall it was a good day. I’m excited for the weekend, right in contention.”

The afternoon starters had it tougher as the wind picked up at the sun-baked East Lothian venue and Scottie Scheffler, who was playing alongside MacIntyre, mixed five birdies with three bogeys in a 68 to sit five under at the halfway stage.

Gotterup, the world number 158, recorded nine birdies in a bogey-free second round to set the early target that makes him the man to catch.

Gotterup was threatening to break 60 after his ninth birdie of the day on 14, but four pars followed.

“It [59] never really crossed my mind,” said the 25-year-old.

“I made the putt on 14 and I was like, all right, I’ve got 16 and obviously 17 and 18 are pretty tough. So I really wanted to get 16.

Newcastle have completed the £55m signing of Nottingham Forest winger Anthony Elanga.

The 23-year-old Sweden international will add to Eddie Howe’s attacking options as they prepare to return to the Champions League following a fifth-placed Premier League finish last season.

Elanga scored six goals and provided 11 assists for Nuno Espirito Santo’s Forest during their successful 2024-25 Premier League season.

“I’m delighted to welcome Anthony to Newcastle United,” Howe told Newcastle’s official website.

Elanga added: “I’m ready to put on this black and white top to really fight for this team and give everything for the passionate fanbase that lives and breathes football.

“I had an amazing two years at Nottingham Forest, they really helped me to become the player I am today, but I’m really happy to be here now.

“The club won a trophy last season and are building something unique, something special that I really want to be part of.

“I really want to buy into the culture, into the DNA of this club. I’m really happy to be here and I can’t wait to get started.”

Elanga joined Forest in 2023 for a fee believed to be £15m from Manchester United and signed a five-year contract.

He had arrived at Old Trafford aged 12 and made 55 appearances before moving to the City Ground.