Crystal Palace fans take their feud with UEFA all the way to Conference League final

GENEVA (AP) — Two little words Crystal Palace fans have vented on their season-long journey in the Conference League ahead of finally sharing a stadium with an unamused UEFA leadership.

The chant is often heard at Palace games, provoking multiple UEFA disciplinary cases where Palace lawyers cited the European Convention on Human Rights and fans’ freedom to express satirical comment.

The second word is “UEFA,” the first is an expletive. UEFA has argued it is “neither humorous nor satirical but a grave insult.”

The fans’ f-bomb feud has cost Palace tens of thousands of euros (dollars) in fines imposed by UEFA-appointed judges at in-house judicial bodies.

The chant could be aired again Wednesday in Leipzig where Palace plays Rayo Vallecano in the final of a competition it never qualified for, and never wanted to play in.

Why do Crystal Palace fans dislike UEFA?

It was a complex story through the entire offseason one year ago with cameo roles for a pair of billionaires in the United States, including New York Jets owner Woody Johnson.

When Palace stunningly beat Manchester City in the FA Cup final last May it won a first major trophy in the club’s 120-year history. It also earned a place directly into the Europa League, UEFA’s second-tier club competition below the Champions League.

At least, it did until Palace lost a legal dispute at the Court of Arbitration for Sport over UEFA rules designed to protect integrity by stopping two teams in shared ownership entering the same competition.

Palace’s then-minority owner John Textor — an American businessman with a lively history of owning clubs in Brazil, Belgium and France — also owned Lyon, which qualified for the Europa League as the sixth-place team in the French league.

Palace almost was saved by Lyon being at first demoted to Ligue 2 due to financial turmoil. Textor resigned from Lyon which was taken over by women’s soccer investor Michele Kang and restored to Ligue 1.

UEFA then ruled Textor had “decisive influence” — a key test within its multi-club ownership rules — at Palace, which would then be separated from Lyon by demotion to the third-tier Conference League.

The fact Textor sold his Palace stake to Johnson before the team kicked a ball in its European debut was too late to affect the case resolved at sports’ highest court in Lausanne, Switzerland.

‘UEFA mafia’

Palace fans started the season in August with flags and T-shirts displaying a “UEFA mafia” logo including at Wembley Stadium against Premier League winner Liverpool and then its Conference League qualifying playoff against Fredrikstad.

UEFA fined Palace 10,000 euros ($11,600) on charges of “transmitting message that is not fit for a sports event” and “bringing UEFA into disrepute.”

When Palace started the Conference League main phase in October, away to Dynamo Kyiv in neutral Poland, the expletive chant was heard five times during the game by UEFA officials. Another 10,000 euros fine.

In the disciplinary verdict published by UEFA, Palace lawyers argued the chants should be interpreted as “innocent, satirical outbursts.” They pointed to a similar case won at CAS last year by Norwegian club Brann.

UEFA’s judge said the f-word “has no place” in soccer and “such language is neither humorous nor satirical but a grave insult.”

Profanity and freedom of speech

More chants and a 15,000 euros ($17,500) fine followed Palace’s game in December at Irish club Shelbourne.

The “reasonable onlooker,” Palace lawyers argued then, would see profanity as part of European soccer culture and understand “a caustic criticism of UEFA” given the preseason dispute decided at CAS.

UEFA’s appeal judge agreed with the soccer body that the European Convention on Human Rights “primarily governs the conduct of public authorities and does not directly apply to private entities such as UEFA.”

In any case, the UEFA judge ruled, the convention’s Article 10 on freedom of expression “is not absolute” to allow “any form of crude, insulting or abusive message within stadiums.”

The chant continues

More chants followed in knockout rounds games against Zrinjski Mostar and AEK Larnaca resulting in fines each time of 20,000 euros ($23,300), then a 25,000 euros ($29,000) fine after a semifinal game against Shakhtar Donetsk.

UEFA has never escalated the punishment to close down a section of Palace’s home stadium Selhurst Park for any European game.

If Palace wins the title Wednesday, it goes directly into the next Europa League — playing at least eight more games for UEFA disciplinary officials to monitor. If Palace loses, its European adventures are over.

___

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer