12/01/2025
"Check your emails, lads!"
🗣📩 A bitter reminder printed on Crystal Palace fans’ shirts, aimed straight at the club’s hierarchy after their failure to check important emails ended up dropping the team into the Conference League instead of the Europa League.
📉 Specifically, after winning the 2024/25 FA Cup and qualifying for the Europa League, UEFA sent a warning email regarding multi-club ownership, as Palace share the same owner — American billionaire John Textor — with Lyon, who also qualified for the Europa League after finishing 6th in Ligue 1.
Ironically, Palace completely missed these warning emails, meaning they made no preparation or appeal whatsoever.
In the end, UEFA officially granted Lyon the Europa League spot. Because Textor is still registered as Palace’s owner, the English club were forced to drop down to the Conference League under UEFA rules. Meanwhile, Nottingham Forest — who finished 7th in the Premier League — accidentally benefitted and took Palace’s Europa League place 🧐
Club chairman Steve Parish later admitted that missing the emails was entirely Palace’s fault. The email address they provided to UEFA was “[email protected]
” — which is normally used for fan complaints, not for receiving critical information 🤦♂️