Why is Crystal Palace in Europa League a problem now?

There have been many instances of Premier League clubs - Brighton, Manchester City and Manchester United over the past two summers - being affected by this multi-club issue but not being booted out of Uefa competition, so why is it a particular problem for Crystal Palace?

The major issue is it has not been dealt with before a deadline. Significantly, that was brought forward to 1 March this year from the end of the season because Uefa simply did not have the time and space to deal with all the potential cases before the respective early qualifying draws next week (clubs all over Europe are affected - not just in England).

So, instead of knowing what the situation was, clubs had to second guess early in the season. It was fairly obvious Nottingham Forest had a good chance of making European football by that point, so they took preventative action.

We will never know what they would have done if they had been in Palace's position towards the end of February - about to play Millwall in the fifth round of a competition they had never previously won, knowing both Manchester clubs, Newcastle, Forest and Aston Villa were still in it.

So now Palace are pointing out John Textor has a significant stake in the club but has no input into how it operates.

The problem for them is the rule is there. Uefa has to make a judgement on a particularly tricky issue knowing if the outcome does not suit any party, they can go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) with an appeal.

Cas has already upheld a Fifa decision to kick Mexican club Leon out of the Club World Cup for transgressing stated multi-club ownership regulations.