Nottingham Forest send in legal team to fight Crystal Palace's Europa League appeal as battle over UEFA multi-club ownership ruling heads to court

Nottingham Forest have enlisted a legal team to represent them at Crystal Palace’s appeal against the decision to demote them from the Europa League.

Mail Sport understands that officials at the City Ground have decided to send legal counsel to Switzerland, where the high-stakes hearing is due to take place next week at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

While not unprecedented, the move may well hint at how seriously those at Forest are taking the matter. They say they are responding ‘accordingly’.

FA Cup winners Palace were due to play in the Europa League following their victory at Wembley over Manchester City.

 However, UEFA ruled that they had breached the organisation’s rules on multi-club ownership and their spot was instead handed to Forest, who had been in the Europa Conference League after finishing seventh in the Premier League.

Palace were removed from the Europa League because of the presence in the same competition of French side Lyon, who were owned by US businessman John Textor. 

Textor’s Eagle Football Holdings held a 43 per cent stake in Palace and a UEFA panel ruled that the situation had broken their rules. As a result, Palace effectively swapped places with Forest and were ‘demoted’ to the Conference League.

Palace are appealing against UEFA, Forest and Lyon. They want to be reinstated into the competition and for either Forest or Lyon to be kicked out.

It is understood that a key part of Palace’s argument is their belief that Forest were given extra time beyond UEFA’s March 1 deadline to address their own multi-club ownership issues. 

At one stage, when it appeared that both Forest and Greek side Olympiakos - who also owned by Evangelos Marinakis - could qualify for the Champions League. 

Marinakis effectively placed Forest into a blind trust in an attempt to navigate the rules, but documents lodged at Companies House show that the move was made on April 29.

As Mail Sport reported earlier Palace, who were held to the March 1 deadline, will demand full disclosure of what they believe are bombshell documents and texts between UEFA and Forest which they believe could ‘prove’ double standards have been at play. 

Given Forest’s view that they met deadlines in good time, Eagles officials believe there should be no issue in handing the documents over.

As things transpired, Forest failed to qualify for the Champions League and Marinakis was promptly reinstated as a ‘person with significant control’ of NF Football Investments Ltd, the vehicle that owns Forest, on June 6.

‘Nottingham Forest has been formally named as a respondent in Crystal Palace’s appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) concerning a UEFA decision,’ a Forest spokesperson said. ‘As such, the club is required to participate in the proceedings and has instructed legal counsel accordingly.’

Aside from what they view as the differential treatment of Forest, Palace are also likely to again argue that Textor was not in a position of influence during his time at Selhurst Park.

The American has since sold the company’s stake to compatriot Woody Johnson, but his share only granted him 25 per cent of voting rights, with chairman Steve Parish and co-owners David Blitzer and Josh Harris holding the other 75 per cent. 

Given the latter two are believed to act as silent partners and entrust Parish with running the show, Palace will argue that Textor did not have the power to wield any influence.

CAS will expedite the case. The draw for the Conference League play-off, which Palace are currently due to be in, takes place next Monday.