As someone pointed out, this means that Palace will have played (probably) Fredrikstad on the Thursday before we play them (and probably won comfortably but let's hope not) and will be preparing to travel to Norway the following week.
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Palace in zero-accountability statement release...
www.cpfc.co.uk/news/statement/crystal-palace-club-statement/
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Wonder who they have in mind here: "To compound the injustice, clubs that appear to have huge informal arrangements with each other are also allowed to participate and even possibly play against each other."
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They might have a point if they themselves weren't blatantly guilty of flouting the rules.
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I feel sorry for those Europa Conference clubs who were dreaming of a possible trip to the WFCG and now have to visit Thornton fucking Heath instead.
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"Multi-club structures hide behind the charade of a “blind trust” while clubs such as ours, who have no connection to another club whatsoever, are prevented from playing in the same competition."
Well yes, you don't now. But the point is that the test was on the 1st March and, back then, Textor sat on your board and owned 43% of the club. And you didn't even acknowledge there might be an issue until UEFA charged you. Maybe our blind trust was done too late and maybe Marinakis going on the pitch after the Leicester game shows it was a sham but we aren't in the same competition with Olympiacos, so it'll doesn't matter.
If they'd stuck to this: "UEFA must fulfil its mandate to pass coherent rules which are properly communicated and applied, with reasonable cure periods to resolve uncertainty and consistent sanctions, treating all clubs equally with a proper appeal process." I'd have more sympathy.
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While I wouldn't want Forest to resort to any statement wars, it is a little suprising we've not made even a token bit of noise about being in the Europa League (unless I missed it)
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I wrote this in our WhatsApp group yesterday pretending it was from Forest. Something not totally dissimilar from the club would be good IMHO. Rise above it all and try to come away looking classy.
"Nottingham Forest can now confirm that we will be playing in the Europa League during the 2025/2026 season following UEFA's decision to eject Crystal Palace from the competition, which was upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) today. As a team which has found itself on the wrong side of football's opaque rules and regulations in recent seasons this is not how we would have chosen to qualify for the competition. We believe that at the national and international level football governance needs urgent reform. That a club of the size and history of Crystal Palace have had this deserved opportunity taken away from them for reasons totally outside of on-field matters leaves a bad taste. Nonetheless, the club are pleased that this matter has finally been resolved and all parties can now make plans for the new season without this uncertainty continuing. We wish Crystal Palace the best in the Conference League and look forward to playing them on September 9th."
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Although we are playing them on August 24th.
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The actual Forest statement reads:
"At the end of the day, we always win. Dream. love, create. Losers!"
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Bet that group’s a riot.
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Peak mince.
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The club have announced you can now buy a replica shirt and get a europa league badge attached to it. I guess that's a token bit of noise.
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Elite-level shithousery.
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Speaking of shithousery, I'm super glad that this is rumbling on.
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Brings back memories of the Billy Davies return era.
