Palace potentially denied entry to Europa League?

[Palace in the Blood]

Spoke to a lawyer the other day who used to work in house for EUFA.

Couldn't tell me anything I did not already know, save that all the relevant contracts are subject to Swiss law.

I asked him if EUFA were "letter" or "spirit". He said more the latter, which is good news if they want to improve the brand given the romance of our Cup win.

He mentioned the concern while he was there of major sponsors supporting more than one big club. Then the Americans came and we got the issue with multi-club ownership. The rules inevitably followed.

I think there are 4 layers of rules. The first hits the issue head on. Breach and you are put (as our Irish friends have experienced). The second covers issues of less concern but seeks to plug loop holes. The third slightly less and another plug. But the last one is, I believe, the one that impacts us and it is the one that sits at the foot of most legislation. It is the catch-all scooper-upper of miscellaneous scenarios that do not fall within the obvious risks envisaged.

The key point about these provisions is they then allow tribunals to exercise their discretion as to whether the conduct complained of falls within the perils the rules were designed to prevent.

In my view (worthless, I know) is that our conduct would not fall within that range. Textor exercises no direct control over the business and no direct or indirect control over the play. If they met, you will not and (critically) can not have Palace playing Lyon in anything but a fully competitive match. This is not Germany v Austria.

I agree mostly with your summary. The decision UEAFA have to make is about control he has over day to day footballing matters. We all know from his comments that this has always been a bone of contention from his point of view. My view is that we will not be banned but have a number of restrictions placed. I think if we were banned we would go to court of arbitration and would almost certainly win and this may be a massive financial settlement against UEAFA. However they will not want by setting this precedent to lose control of participation and multiclub potential problems. I think they will allow us to compete but look at rules and wording of rules. For instance the shares in blind trust was impossible for us to complete by deadline so they may move deadline or give a period of grace after a club is likely to qualify for Europe. I also think they will prevent us playing Lyon in league phase as you can imagine scenario where a particular result allowed both to go through to knock out phase

 

[Eagleman13]

Seems everything was ok for our friends on the south coast last season . . .

https://www.theargus.co.uk/sport/23641984.uefa-decided-brighton-union-st-gilloise/

 

[Bloodred]

I agree mostly with your summary. The decision UEAFA have to make is about control he has over day to day footballing matters. We all know from his comments that this has always been a bone of contention from his point of view. My view is that we will not be banned but have a number of restrictions placed. I think if we were banned we would go to court of arbitration and would almost certainly win and this may be a massive financial settlement against UEAFA. However they will not want by setting this precedent to lose control of participation and multiclub potential problems. I think they will allow us to compete but look at rules and wording of rules. For instance the shares in blind trust was impossible for us to complete by deadline so they may move deadline or give a period of grace after a club is likely to qualify for Europe. I also think they will prevent us playing Lyon in league phase as you can imagine scenario where a particular result allowed both to go through to knock out phase

 

[Bloodred]

I agree mostly with your summary. The decision UEAFA have to make is about control he has over day to day footballing matters. We all know from his comments that this has always been a bone of contention from his point of view. My view is that we will not be banned but have a number of restrictions placed. I think if we were banned we would go to court of arbitration and would almost certainly win and this may be a massive financial settlement against UEAFA. However they will not want by setting this precedent to lose control of participation and multiclub potential problems. I think they will allow us to compete but look at rules and wording of rules. For instance the shares in blind trust was impossible for us to complete by deadline so they may move deadline or give a period of grace after a club is likely to qualify for Europe. I also think they will prevent us playing Lyon in league phase as you can imagine scenario where a particular result allowed both to go through to knock out phase

Forest fan here coming in peace. I and many other Forest fans are in favour of Palace retaining your place. You won it on merit and you shouldn’t lose it due to Mr Texter’s faux pas. If we were awarded your place it would feel tainted so good luck in your battle . I believe Texter and Marinakis are good friends and as such I can’t see him writing disparaging things about Palace ? No
one knows exactly what has been written and I would be hopeful that he was just seeking clarification on the actual meaning of the rules regarding multi club ownership for future reference…putting his Forest shares in bond may well have cost him a lot of money.

 

[Part Time James]

Forest fan here coming in peace. I and many other Forest fans are in favour of Palace retaining your place. You won it on merit and you shouldn’t lose it due to Mr Texter’s faux pas. If we were awarded your place it would feel tainted so good luck in your battle . I believe Texter and Marinakis are good friends and as such I can’t see him writing disparaging things about Palace ? No
one knows exactly what has been written and I would be hopeful that he was just seeking clarification on the actual meaning of the rules regarding multi club ownership for future reference…putting his Forest shares in bond may well have cost him a lot of money.

Thanks for posting. I think most people on this forum take what the media says with a pinch of salt. I suspect Marinakis has spoken to UEFA in some sense, because the media probably haven't manufactured this from nothing, but to believe without evidence that he's written to dob us in would be nothing more than buying into media conjecture.

I speak for myself here, but I don't believe there's any animosity towards Forest fans in relation to this issue anyway.

I hope we beat you twice next season (which is my wish for any opponent) but other than that I hope you have another good season. In particular, if you keep Brighton out of Europe that'd be superb!

 

[Bloodred]

Thanks for posting. I think most people on this forum take what the media says with a pinch of salt. I suspect Marinakis has spoken to UEFA in some sense, because the media probably haven't manufactured this from nothing, but to believe without evidence that he's written to dob us in would be nothing more than buying into media conjecture.

I speak for myself here, but I don't believe there's any animosity towards Forest fans in relation to this issue anyway.

I hope we beat you twice next season (which is my wish for any opponent) but other than that I hope you have another good season. In particular, if you keep Brighton out of Europe that'd be superb!

I am not so sure all Palace fans are so kindly disposed to us of a Forest persuasion lol. I see our two clubs as quite similar, loud and dedicated fans and both on an upward trajectory.

 

[ASCPFC]

I am not so sure all Palace fans are so kindly disposed to us of a Forest persuasion lol. I see our two clubs as quite similar, loud and dedicated fans and both on an upward trajectory.

You buy a lot more players.

 

[Bloodred]

You buy a lot more players.

Good spot ! We had to we only had six when we were promoted, the rest had been loanees.

 

[Part Time James]

You buy a lot more players.

Ian Holloway's ears currently burning...

 

[Part Time James]

I am not so sure all Palace fans are so kindly disposed to us of a Forest persuasion lol. I see our two clubs as quite similar, loud and dedicated fans and both on an upward trajectory.

I think occupying similar territory isn't the same as hatred. You probably know the club/clubs we generally hope massively fail 😂

 

[Teddy Eagle]

Ian Holloway's ears currently burning...

So is the top of his bonce in this weather.

 

[ouzo]

Spoke to a lawyer the other day who used to work in house for EUFA.

Couldn't tell me anything I did not already know, save that all the relevant contracts are subject to Swiss law.

I asked him if EUFA were "letter" or "spirit". He said more the latter, which is good news if they want to improve the brand given the romance of our Cup win.

He mentioned the concern while he was there of major sponsors supporting more than one big club. Then the Americans came and we got the issue with multi-club ownership. The rules inevitably followed.

I think there are 4 layers of rules. The first hits the issue head on. Breach and you are put (as our Irish friends have experienced). The second covers issues of less concern but seeks to plug loop holes. The third slightly less and another plug. But the last one is, I believe, the one that impacts us and it is the one that sits at the foot of most legislation. It is the catch-all scooper-upper of miscellaneous scenarios that do not fall within the obvious risks envisaged.

The key point about these provisions is they then allow tribunals to exercise their discretion as to whether the conduct complained of falls within the perils the rules were designed to prevent.

In my view (worthless, I know) is that our conduct would not fall within that range. Textor exercises no direct control over the business and no direct or indirect control over the play. If they met, you will not and (critically) can not have Palace playing Lyon in anything but a fully competitive match. This is not Germany v Austria.

My only concern for this is regarding the sale of Jake O'Brien and whether the fee could be perceived as being below market value, considering how much he was then sold for to Everton.

 

[Part Time James]

So is the top of his bonce in this weather.

Well I just laughed out loud in a meeting...

 

[Teddy Eagle]

My only concern for this is regarding the sale of Jake O'Brien and whether the fee could be perceived as being below market value, considering how much he was then sold for to Everton.

Just point out Everton paid £25 m for Bolasie when he was knackered. And nearly twice that for Sigurdsson.

 

[inflikted]

Just point out Everton paid £25 m for Bolasie when he was knackered. And nearly twice that for Sigurdsson.

Everton's previous owners really were terrible at this, that's why they nearly destroyed the club.

 

[Teddy Eagle]

Everton's previous owners really were terrible at this, that's why they nearly destroyed the club.

Shame they didn't get the chance to complete the job.

 

[NEILLO]

Forest fan here coming in peace. I and many other Forest fans are in favour of Palace retaining your place. You won it on merit and you shouldn’t lose it due to Mr Texter’s faux pas. If we were awarded your place it would feel tainted so good luck in your battle . I believe Texter and Marinakis are good friends and as such I can’t see him writing disparaging things about Palace ? No
one knows exactly what has been written and I would be hopeful that he was just seeking clarification on the actual meaning of the rules regarding multi club ownership for future reference…putting his Forest shares in bond may well have cost him a lot of money.

Thank you for taking the trouble to write and your very sporting take on things.
I’ve always believed that Maranakis wrote to get clarification on what the outcome would be were Palace to be excluded, for what it’s worth.
I think Palace will ultimately be ok and so they should be. We are not part of a multi club ownership portfolio and my expectation - and hope ! - is that UEFA’s investigation agrees.
As for Mr. Textor, he hasn’t actually done anything wrong in my eyes. He’s publicly stated that he wants to sell his shares over the course of the last two years . Why ? Because he doesn’t have enough influence at Palace despite holding a majority of the shares. ! He couldn’t be realistically expected to put his shares into a Blind Trust to meet the UEFA deadline given that we were only in the 5th round of the Cup at that point.
Our FA Cup win now make the purchase of his shares look more attractive to potential buyers so hopefully we will not be in this position again.
Good luck for next season - here’s hoping our clubs continue to upset the ‘ Big Boys ‘

 

[Lawrie]

I was talking to a Forest fan this morning and he said “good luck to Palace”. He didn’t want his team in the europa league. He said their squad is too small and he feared it would land them in a relegation battle.
Don’t know if this view is shared by other Forest fans.

 

[Bloodred]

I was talking to a Forest fan this morning and he said “good luck to Palace”. He didn’t want his team in the europa league. He said their squad is too small and he feared it would land them in a relegation battle.
Don’t know if this view is shared by other Forest fans.

I can confirm it is shared by many, not all but many. We fluffed it at the end of last season basically because the depth of the squad was just too thin. Some players were running on fumes and breathing from their derrières. We would love to be in a higher profile competition but the reality is we didn’t earn it. The rules that could bar you from it are frankly stupid and if it was a more ‘favoured’ club the question would have been resolved ages ago. I do so hope common sense is eventually applied.

 

[PalazioVecchio]

Greek mafia eh?

they make a Drama out of everything.