🚨 BREAKING: Crystal Palace hit back at UEFA after CAS ruling

Crystal Palace have issued a strongly worded statement criticising UEFA and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after being denied the opportunity to compete in this season’s Europa League, despite winning the FA Cup in May against Manchester City.

The club expressed deep frustration that what they see as “sporting merit” has been undermined by regulations and decisions favouring certain clubs. They argued that their FA Cup triumph should have guaranteed Europa League football, but that privilege has been removed under what they describe as “unevenly applied” rules.

Palace singled out multi-club ownership structures as a key issue, accusing some teams of using “blind trust” arrangements to bypass restrictions. They contrasted this with their own independence from any other club, claiming the ruling highlights an unfair system where certain sides with “huge informal arrangements” are still allowed to compete, even against each other.

The statement also criticised the CAS process, citing a lack of transparency, denial of disclosure requests, refusal of key witness testimony, and what they called a process “designed to severely restrict” fair hearings. Palace said this leads to “pre-determined outcomes” that damage the integrity of European football.

As a result of Monday's hearing, Palace's demotion from the Europa League to the Conference League was confirmed and the South London outfit will have to face either FC Midtjylland or Fredrikstad in a two-legged play-off to qualify for Europe's third-tier competition. 

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