Crystal Palace Europa League demotion "nothing to do" with Nottingham Forest, legend claims

Crystal Palace's controversial demotion from the Europa League is, "in many ways", nothing to do with Nottingham Forest, Tricky Trees legend Stuart Pearce has exclusively told Sports Mole.

The 2024-25 season concluded with the Eagles bound for the Europa League courtesy of their unexpected FA Cup final win over Manchester City, while Forest's seventh-placed Premier League finish saw them qualify for the Conference League.

However, Palace were then relegated to the Conference League for breaching UEFA's rules on multi-club ownership, as former co-owner John Textor also owned a majority stake in French side Lyon, who also qualified for the Europa League.

Last month, it was reported in The Guardian that Forest had raised concerns to UEFA about Palace's participation in the Europa League, but Pearce is of the view that any anger towards the Garibaldi is misdirected.

“It seems to me as though there's been a set of laws put in place by UEFA, and from what I can gather as a layman, that Palace have infringed that on the dual ownership situation and the timings of it," the former left-back said.

Palace Europa League demotion "nothing to do with Forest in many ways"

"I don't see what that's got to do with Forest. They might have flagged it, but it's really nothing to do with Forest in many ways."

Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis also oversees operations at Greek giants Olympiacos, and at one stage in the 2024-25 season, both the Garibaldi and Olympiacos were on course to qualify for the Champions League.

To comply with UEFA's rules, Marinakis placed his Forest shares into a blind trust before the March 1 deadline to avoid a conflict of interest in the competition, but Palace missed the same cut-off point.

Textor has since sold his stake in the FA Cup winners to Woody Johnson, but the purchase was only completed last week, and UEFA had reason to believe that the former was a decisive influence at both Lyon and Palace.

The Eagles' cause was not helped by Lyon's relegation from Ligue 1 for financial mismanagement being overturned, although chairman Steven Parish has suggested that Forest played a big role in his side's Europa League expulsion.

Pearce: 'Nottingham Forest cannot influence UEFA'

Pearce does not see the situation from Parish's point of view, though, adding: “I don't really see where there is an anger from Crystal Palace.

"If there's a set of rules in place at the start of a competition and you know the timings of it, if you infringe that, then UEFA probably are in their rights to enforce what they put in place. If you don't do that, the club's going to just do whatever they want to do and ignore any rules that you put in place.

“I'll be a little bit disappointed if the Forest and Palace fans are a little bit at loggerheads on this, because this should be solely a decision for UEFA. Forest can't influence a UEFA decision. They can't do that. They can flag it, but they can't influence it.”

Palace have now submitted an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport over their Europa League demotion, and they are expected to learn the outcome either on or before August 11.

> Click here to listen to Pearce's answer on the Forest/Palace Europa League controversy

Stuart Pearce was speaking to Sports Mole on behalf of BresBet