What Crystal Palace think CAS will do about UEFA verdict as Woody Johnson takeover now made official

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Crystal Palace have now announced the arrival of Woody Johnson into the Selhurst Park boardroom.

The American has now successfully completed the purchase of John Textor’s 45% stake in Crystal Palace following ratification from the Premier League, with the deal believed to be worth £190m.

It means Textor no longer has any involvement in Crystal Palace whatsoever, a man who is not exactly the most popular in SE25 right now – his ownership of Lyon, who also qualified for the Europa League last season, has led UEFA to boot the Eagles down to the Conference League.

This decision – however – remains subject to an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Now, Kaveh Solhekol of Sky Sports has shared what Crystal Palace believe will happen after the arrival of Johnson was made official.

Crystal Palace feel Woody Johnson ratification will “help” them get back into the Europa League

Writing on X (previously known as Twitter), Solhekol stated: “Crystal Palace believe today’s confirmation that John Textor has sold his shares to Woody Johnson will help them in their upcoming CAS appeal.

“Textor has nothing to do with the club any more so Palace feel there’s no reason why they shouldn’t play in the Europa League – there can be no conflict of interest in the competition with Textor gone.

“Yes, he missed 1st March deadline to put his shares into a blind trust, but he’s said he wanted to sell, so he couldn’t put them in a trust as he would no longer have been in control of the sale.”

Nottingham Forest will obviously disagree – as the Reds are currently set to take Crystal Palace’s spot in the Europa League – but nobody can justifiably argue that Crystal Palace and Lyon remain connected, not that the two clubs ever were that strongly linked anyway as Textor never had a decisive vote.

Steve Parish has the final say on decision making at Selhurst Park.

Crystal Palace set to lose £30m if CAS uphold UEFA’s decision

Should CAS agree with UEFA kicking Crystal Palace – who are confident of signing Hayden Hackney – out of the Europa League, it will represent a financial setback as well as a competitive one.

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire recently told TBR Football that Crystal Palace stand to lose around £30m in revenue if they are made to play Conference League football rather than Europa League football.

That is a sizeable amount, so Parish has several reasons to hope CAS see sense and reinstate Crystal Palace into the Europa League.