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Crystal Palace recently achieved a feat by winning the FA Cup final, narrowly defeating Manchester City, but it is still unclear whether this will lead to a Europa League spot for the team. The London club is eligible to participate in the competition, but UEFA rules pose difficulties, according to Voetbal International (which previously reported on a similar case involving Manchester City and Girona in the Champions League).
Winning the FA Cup would qualify them for the Europa League, but the problem is that Crystal Palace co-owner John Textor is also a shareholder in French club Lyon, who are also eligible to play in the Europa League. Lyon secured their place in the Conference League by finishing sixth, but if PSG beat Reims in the Coupe de France final, Lyon would qualify for the Europa League. However, UEFA rules do not allow clubs with common shareholders to play in the same European club competition in the same season. This means that Crystal Palace will lose their Europa League qualifying place, as UEFA will give preference to the team that finished higher in their home country.
Usually, creative solutions can be found in such situations, for example, Sir Jim Ratcliffe is a co-owner of Manchester United and French club Nice, and both teams were allowed to participate in the Europa League this season, in which Manchester United reached the final. This happened because a structure was developed under which Ratcliffe placed his shares in a trust.
A similar option was previously promised to be developed by Nottingham Forest coach Evangelos Marinakis, who also owns Greek club Olympiacos. However, in the case of John Textor, things are more complicated: the deadline for the distribution of ownership rights was set for March 1, and, according to the American agency Bloomberg, Textor never dared to take such a step, since at that time there were no guarantees that his teams would enter the European competition zone (especially Palace). Crystal Palace is currently studying other ways to circumvent the rules in order to qualify for the European Championship for the first time in the club's history, but first the English club still has to wait for the final whistle of the French Cup match.