The Eagles were demoted from the Europa League to the Conference League after breaching UEFA's multi-club ownership rules. This is due to how American businessman John Textor who owns a stake in the club and is the majority owner of Lyon, who also qualified for the Europa League.
Nottingham Forest, who finished seventh in the Premier League last season, are expected to replace FA Cup winners in what is a very controversial decision by UEFA. Now, as reported by The Standard, Palace’s plan to combat the ruling has been revealed.
The report states that Palace will claim that the rules are not being applied consistently as will state examples such as how Manchester City and Girona both competed in the Champions League whilst Manchester United and Nice did likewise in the Europa League.
Palace will also use how UEFA rules allow those clubs to take advantage of a loophole where clubs set up a blind trust to navigate the regulations and will argue that members of the ECA (European Club Association) were told the March 1st deadline for multi-club ownership issues was not certain and that May 31st would be allowed.
As Palace await a decision on their European fate, the club remain in the Conference League and on Monday they discovered their play-off opponents who will be either Norwegian club Fredrikstad or Danish side FC Midtjylland. Palace’s argument looks strong and as their appeal on Friday in Lausanne draws closer they may well return to the Europa League to replace a disgruntled Forest side.
"We don't have any influence on the decision from Uefa and we don't have any influence on the decision from Cas, so it just makes no sense that we're thinking about it," manager Oliver Glasner told Sky Sports.
"We're waiting for the final decision. We're still confident the appeal will be successful and that we will play in the Europa League."