Crystal Palace’s appeal against UEFA’s decision to demote them from the Europa League to the Conference League has been rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The Eagles celebrated their first season of European football in May by defeating Manchester City in the FA Cup final. However, Lyon’s last-minute qualification for the Europa League complicated matters. Both clubs were linked to owner John Textor, who held a 43% stake in Palace before selling it to Woody Johnson, owner of the New York Jets.

UEFA determined that both teams competing in the same tournament would violate their multi-club ownership rules, prioritizing Lyon who qualified through their league performance. Palace contended that Textor’s role was not significant and that addressing the situation by the original March 1 deadline was premature, as they were engaged in the FA Cup fifth round at that time.

The ruling concluded that Palace was not unfairly treated relative to other clubs and upheld UEFA’s regulations as clear and inflexible regarding compliance on the assessment date.

Palace is now set to face the loser of the Europa League qualifier between Norway’s Fredrikstad and Denmark’s Midtjylland in a playoff for a spot in the Conference League’s league phase. If Nottingham Forest is confirmed by UEFA as taking Palace’s place in the Europa League, they will automatically qualify for the league phase.

After their match against Liverpool in the Community Shield, Palace chairman Steve Parish expressed optimism about a favorable outcome from the appeal, stating, “we’ll have to look at if there’s any steps after that.”