Sir Jim Ratcliffe of Manchester United has been through the multi-club ownership tangle with UEFA before and come out of the other side in one piece.
‘It’s all about influence and positions on the board and that sort of thing,’ Ratcliffe has said.
‘There are shades of grey, not black and white.’
So as Crystal Palace and their lawyers head to UEFA HQ in Nyon on Tuesday this is the hope to which they must cling. It’s the grey that they doubtless hope will save the day.
On the face of it, the FA Cup winners have it all to do — just as they did when staring down and beating Manchester City at Wembley to qualify for the Europa League a little over two weeks ago.
The American businessman John Textor owns 43 per cent of the south London club and is also the majority shareholder of the French club Lyon.
Crystal Palace qualified for the Europa League by winning the FA Cup at Wembley last month
Palace chairman Steve Parish could soon have his European dream snatched away from him
Sir Jim Ratcliffe was able to satisfy UEFA by making some tweaks to the way Nice was run
Were we dealing with black and white and not endless grey, therefore, the conflict of interest between two clubs qualified for next season’s second tier European competition would appear to be clear.
But as always the devil will be in the detail and indeed the way that Palace’s legal team choose to present it and ask for it to be interpreted.
For example, in ruling that changes Ratcliffe made to the way his other footballing entity at Nice were run were enough to satisfy them, UEFA are on record as saying last year: ‘No one is now simultaneously involved, directly or indirectly, in any capacity whatsoever in the management, administration and/or sporting performance’ of both clubs.
And this will surely be Palace’s chink of light as they seek a way to remain in a competition that would mean so much to the club and their supporters ahead of next season.
Palace will argue that Textor’s direct influence on the running of things at Selhurst Park is minimal. Indeed, this is something that is known to have frustrated him in the past.
Whether UEFA choose to accept that and other Palace arguments will become clear over time — there is unlikely to be a decision on Tuesday — but the truth is that there has always been too much uncertainty around this issue and that one lies squarely at the door of the governing body.
Ratcliffe, for example, found his way through the maze by transferring shares in Nice to a so-called blind trust whose trustees were empowered to make club decisions. Only a month ago Evangelos Marinakis did exactly the same at Nottingham Forest to satisfy UEFA that there would be no conflict with his Greek club Olympiacos should they join them in the Champions League.
Prior to all that, directors at Manchester City’s sister club Girona stepped down and were replaced by independent lawyers to allow both sides to play in UEFA’s Blue Riband competition.
US businessman John Textor is majority shareholder at Lyon while Brondby are owned by Palace co-owner David Blitzer
There were wild scenes on the streets of south London after Palace won their first ever trophy
Evangelos Marinakis worked hard to satisfy UEFA that there would be no conflict between his Greek club Olympiacos and Nottingham Forest if they joined them in the Champions League
Palace’s FA Cup success is an emotional story, but they now look a test case for UEFA
At the very least United, Forest and City can claim to have benefited from foresight. They anticipated a problem before it arrived while Chelsea also sought this spring to get ahead of the game in terms of their relationship with sister club Strasbourg.
Palace, it appears, have not managed to do that and now any such move would be so late as to look desperately transparent. This is the danger that stalks them. But if supporters of Palace and indeed other clubs are sceptical about what at times have appeared to be rather decorative and superficial changes made elsewhere, then it’s hard to blame them.
The rules are supposed to be about ownership and are often described as ‘strict’. But the reality is that the regulations have proved desperately malleable and moveable to such a degree that every time it appears somebody is about to be caught in UEFA’s net, they wriggle through a hole.
If Palace are to be the ones finally stuck fast then it’s hard not to feel a little sympathy. It seems they have been rather naive and if that’s the flaw that gets them, then so be it. They will learn.
But their winning of this season’s FA Cup — the club’s first major trophy — presented English football with a terrific story. If they are now to be denied entry into this particular European competition, then it’s perfectly OK to feel regretful about it, especially given the way other bigger and maybe slightly smarter English clubs have escaped such sanction.
Other clubs will watch on keenly now for sure. With multi-club ownership so attractive across Europe, something of a test case looms large.
On the one hand, it feels emotionally instinctive to root for Palace. On the other, it’s hard not to look at UEFA and their rules and wonder: If not now, then when?
