“Multi-club ownership does bring complications first of all for UEFA and potentially longer term for Fifa as well, considering the expansion of the Club World Cup that we will see this season.”
Kieran Maguire, Football Finance expert
UEFA has a multi club ownership rule that is enforced to safeguard the integrity of its competitions and avoid potential conflicts of interest between clubs that have the same ownership. Article 5 of the Regulations of the UEFA Champions League states that no entity or individual should have control over more than one football club playing in the same UEFA competition.[1]
This means:
- Owning a majority of shareholder voting rights in more than one club;
- Having powers to appoint or remove a majority of the key executive members or administrative body of the club;
- Having the ability to exercise any decisive influence in the decision-making of the club
In a situation where two clubs with the same ownership qualify for the same UEFA competition (Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League), only one of those clubs is allowed to play in that competition. This is assessed based on:
- Sporting merit (e.g. Champions League > Europa League > Conference League);
- Domestic league ranking;
- National association’s UEFA coefficient ranking;
It is the application of the above rules that resulted in Crystal Palace’s demotion from the 2025/26 Europa League to the Conference League. UEFA deemed John Textor’s 43% stake in Crystal Palace as him having ‘decisive influence’ within the club. Textor also had a controlling interest in the Ligue 1 team, Lyon. Both teams qualified for the Europa league with Crystal Palace qualifying through their FA cup win and Lyon through their 6th place league finish. Interestingly, Lyon were initially relegated from Ligue 1 due to financial issues but won their appeal against this decision which confirmed their Europa League spot for the 2025/26 season. UEFA deemed Textor’s involvement in both clubs as contravening Article 5 above and as such, Lyon retained their Europa league spot and Crystal Palace were demoted, due to having a lower domestic league ranking.
Palace have refuted this demotion on the basis that Textor 43% stake does not constitute decisive influence but the UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body disagreed. Palace also failed to amend the Ownership structure of the club after missing the March 1st deadline set by UEFA. Crystal Palace were replaced by Nottingham Forest. According to Sami Mokbel, the Nottingham Forest owner interestingly restructured the ownership of the club using the blind trust model in a bid to avoid sanctions under this provision.[2]
Crystal Palace have appealed this to CAS and the case is to be heard on the 8th August 2025 with the club likely to put forward the below aguments:
- There has been no operational overlap between the clubs;
- The March 1st deadline to place shares in a blind trust was missed becaused Textor was actively selling his shares at the time and needed to maintain control of that process.
- There has been inconsistent enforcement of the rules;
- A deadline miscommunication;
- ECA (European Club Association)provide guidance on the setting up a blind trust to its members alone. As Crystal Palace are not members of the ECA, they were not privy to this information;
- The key email that was set to Crystal Palace was sent to an email designated for fan engagement (info@cpfc.co.uk), rather than to club executives.
Potential Governance implications
The ruling from CAS could mark a watershed moment that leads UEFA review their MCO rules as it could highlight inconsistencies and procedural flaws that affect the integrity of its governance structures. For example, the point on ECA guidance raises ethical concerns as only a select group of football clubs have access to this information.
Policy changes that could be expected are:
• A precise definition of “influence” that also applies measurable criteria.
• Clearer timelines for MCO compliance..
• Implementation of UEFA’s own blind trust protocols to improve transparency and ensure all clubs have equal access to regulatory guidance.
No more missed emails – an IT perspective.
Crystal Palace’s CAS appeal on this matter stems from a seemingly avoidable error; missing a vital email from UEFA which was sent to a mailbox typically reserved for fan engagement (info@cpfc.co.uk). What seemed to be a minor oversight now has major implications and sheds light on an ever present issue in football club operations, namely ineffective email and information management.
As Governing Bodies such as UEFA communicate vital information to clubs digitally, the email infrastructure of football clubs has to be considered as a strategic asset and not merely a communication medium. Below are some recommendations which football clubs can implement using cloud-based tools provided in Microsoft 365 and Azure.
- Email Alias and Management of shared mailboxes (Microsoft 365)
• Utilising aliasing in Microsoft 365 to ensure emails sent to generic email addresses like info@, contact@, or support@ are properly routed to relevant teams or individuals.
• Delegated access to facilitate accountability through enabling Send As or Send on Behalf permissions.
• Using distribution groups or Microsoft 365 Groups to route emails to the required teams.
• Forwarding rules can also be set up to route important emails to specific departments or individuals.
• Utilising Email Features such as advanced filtering and rules to prioritize emails and place them into categories. - Retention and Sensitivity Labels (Microsoft Purview Suite): This allows clubs to apply metadata labels to emails and documents. Using these compliance tagging and Microsoft Purview Compliance manager, clubs can track their compliance posture and ensure sensitive communications with governing bodies, legal teams, and fand are retained and protect, and legal correspondence is not deleted or overlooked by accident.
- Power Automate for email monitoring & alerting (Microsoft 365 + Power Automate)
Flows can be set up to monitor shared mailboxes for specific domains such as @uefa.com or @fifa.com. Alerting measures can also be configured send teams notifications or emails to designated resources when such emails arrive. Flows can also be configured to escalate unread emails after a certain time threshold. - Microsoft Defender for Office 365
Using Defender’s Threat Explorer, you can monitor email traffic from high-value domains and set up alerts for spoofing, phishing, or delivery failures. - Implement Email Governance PoliciesUtilising Role-Based Access Controls: Assigning clear ownership for sensitive mailboxes and creating matrix that assigns clear responsibilities based on designated roles.
Regular Audits: Periodically audit mailbox usage, access, and responsiveness. - Contact Registry:
Maintain a registry of critical external contacts and ensure they have the correct email addresses and key points of contact details. Protocols can also be implemented for high-stakes communications such as follow-up calls or secondary email checks. - Training & Awareness on Email protocols and Information Management
Deliver staff training on the importance of monitoring shared mailboxes.
Run drills and simulations to test staff responsiveness to critical emails.
References
CAS confirms appeal by Crystal Palace against UEFA, Nottingham Forest and Olympique Lyonnais. (2025, July 22). https://www.tas-cas.org/en/general-information/news-detail/article/cas-confirms-appeal-by-crystal-palace-against-uefa-nottingham-forest-and-olympique-lyonnais/
Crystal Palace Europa League appeal: Eagles confident of reinstatement ahead of CAS appeal. Sky Sports. Retrieved 8 August 2025, from https://www.skysports.com/football/news/32461/13408261/crystal-palace-europa-league-appeal-eagles-confident-of-reinstatement-ahead-of-cas-appeal
Sami, M. (2025, June 23). Crystal Palace: John Textor to sell stake to New York Jets owner Woody Johnson. BBC Sport. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/clyl2dzyvr4o
[1] Regulations of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA (2025). Retrieved 6 August 2025, from https://documents.uefa.com/r/Regulations-of-the-UEFA-Champions-League-2025/26/Article-5-Integrity-of-the-competition/multi-club-ownership-Online
[2] Sami, M. (2025, April 30). Nottingham Forest: Evangelos Marinakis dilutes control of club to meet Uefa rules. BBC Sport. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cqx4731y4zpo
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