Nottingham Forest has formally approached UEFA for clarification on Crystal Palace’s eligibility to participate in the 2025–26 Europa League, citing potential breaches of UEFA’s multi-club ownership rules.

Crystal Palace earned a historic spot in European competition after winning the FA Cup, but their qualification may be in jeopardy due to their ties with Eagle Football, an ownership group led by American businessman John Textor.

Eagle Football holds a 43% stake in Palace and a 77% share in French club Lyon, who have also qualified for next season’s Europa League.

UEFA regulations prohibit any individual or entity from holding majority voting rights in two clubs competing in the same European competition to prevent potential conflicts of interest or collusion.

Forest, who finished seventh in the Premier League and secured a Europa Conference League play-off place, could be promoted to the Europa League if Palace are deemed ineligible.

According to BBC Sport sources, Forest submitted their concerns to UEFA ahead of the March 1 deadline introduced to improve oversight of club ownership structures. The previous deadline of June 1 had reportedly been too late to ensure proper vetting.

Crystal Palace have maintained that they operate entirely independently of Lyon, despite the shared ownership structure. The club assert that there has been no overlap in employees, staff, strategy or commercial dealings between the two clubs.

Palace’s defence rests on the merit of their FA Cup win—beating Manchester City 1–0 last month—and their claim that no functional or operational ties exist with Lyon.

Forest themselves previously faced a similar issue due to their owner, Evangelos Marinakis, also controlling Olympiakos and Rio Ave. However, he diluted his stake in Forest to comply with UEFA’s rules ahead of the deadline.

UEFA and Crystal Palace have both declined to comment on the matter. A decision will need to be made before European qualifiers begin in July.