‘Nottingham Forest have broken UEFA rules’ – Crystal Palace handed new boost
Crystal Palace have been given a boost in their Europa League case against UEFA as it goes to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
The south London club were demoted to the Conference League, following an issue around former stakeholder John Textor, who also has control of French club Lyon.
Textor has now sold his shares in the Eagles, but UEFA still charged the club for breaching their multi-club ownership regulations.
Nottingham Forest were the beneficiaries of the decision, being promoted to the Europa League for the upcoming campaign.
However, Everton’s former chief Keith Wyness – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – believes that Forest may have broken the rules as well, which would improve Palace’s case.
‘Nottingham Forest broke the same rules as Crystal Palace’
Speaking on the new edition of Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast, Wyness revealed that there is alleged evidence that Nottingham Forest didn’t comply with UEFA’s multi-club ownership rules until late April.
The reason Palace are being punished is because they rectified the issue too late, missing the March 1st deadline.
Wyness added that from what he has heard, Forest missed the deadline as well.
He told Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast: “It’s a fascinating case this one. I’ve been following this one extremely closely because I’m particularly interested in this now.
“The appeal is going to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which is going to be this week, because the draw is next Monday. So there’s going to be an expedited hearing on this appeal, which is really a big decision.
“The Woody Johnson situation does help. It obviously removed Textor completely from the whole Palace situation. If they’re to argue that, look, forget your regulations to a degree, but sporting justice has been done, and the multi-club situation has now disappeared. Even though it was not by March 1st, that’s probably the strongest chance that Palace have got.
“Now added to that, I see Forest have instructed their lawyers to appear as well, because Forest have been named in this hearing.
“Palace could be saying, hang on, you’re using March 1st as your deadline, but we seem to have evidence, from what I’m hearing, that Forest were treated differently and didn’t comply with the rulings until April 29th. That’s when the filings were done, so way past March 1st.
“So if we have precedence of other clubs being treated differently after the March 1st deadline, then yes, we’ve done ours later, but still we’ve done it as well. So why can’t you go back to sporting fairness and sporting justice? So that’s the way I think the argument will run for Palace.”
Crystal Palace make move to sign defender
Meanwhile, Football Insider has exclusively revealed that Crystal Palace have joined the chase to sign Hull City defender Cody Drameh following his impressive performances in pre-season.
A number of EFL sides have already registered their interest in landing the former Leeds United defender.
Hull now face a battle to keep hold of Drameh, with Palace making contact over a potential deal.
Last season, the full-back started 17 Championship games for the Tigers, as they avoided relegation to League One on the final day of the campaign.
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