Hundreds of Crystal Palace supporters staged a protest march to Selhurst Park on Tuesday, voicing their anger over the club’s demotion from the Europa League to the UEFA Conference League. The fans, waving banners and chanting slogans, expressed frustration at what they described as an injustice by European football’s governing body.
Palace had secured a spot in the 2025/26 Europa League after winning the FA Cup in May, marking their first major trophy in history. However, UEFA later ruled that the club would be dropped to the lower-tier Conference League due to a breach of multi-club ownership regulations.
The controversy centres around American businessman John Textor, who holds a stake in Crystal Palace and is also the majority owner of French side Lyon. Both clubs qualified for the Europa League, which triggered UEFA’s ownership rules prohibiting two clubs with significant ownership overlap from participating in the same European competition.
UEFA had set a deadline of 1 March 2025 for affected clubs to restructure ownership arrangements to comply with the rules. Palace failed to meet that deadline, resulting in their demotion. Textor is reportedly in the process of selling his Palace shares to Woody Johnson, owner of the NFL’s New York Jets.
As a result of Palace’s demotion, Nottingham Forest, who finished seventh in the Premier League, are expected to take their place in the Europa League.
Palace are preparing to challenge UEFA’s ruling at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), hoping to overturn what they believe is an unfair and overly bureaucratic decision.
Speaking at the protest, Nick Philpot of the Red and Blue Review podcast voiced the frustration of many supporters:
“At the end of the day, it’s an injustice, just a couple of admin errors. We qualified for it. We won the cup. There should be no question about our place in the Europa League. You’re penalising the entire club and fanbase. Why would you do that?”
Club chairman Steve Parish has also condemned UEFA’s decision, describing it last week as “a bad day for football” and “a terrible injustice.”
“We’ve been locked out of a European competition on the most ridiculous technicality,” he said. “Supporters of all clubs should be devastated for us.”
UEFA has been approached for comment but has yet to respond.
