Champions League qualifying and Carabao Cup first round: football – as it happened

Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce roared back to set up a playoff with Benfica, while Bromley stunned Ipswich in the Carabao Cup

15 min: Fenerbahce 0-0 Feyenoord (agg: 1-2) Jhon Duran – the very same – has just hit the side netting with Fener’s first half-chance. Feyenoord have probably played the more intricate football but Fenerbahce look a threat on the break.

Champions League qualifying latest (6pm KOs unless stated)

Qarabag 4-1 Shkendija (5pm, agg: 5-1)

FC Copenhagen 0-0 Malmo FF (agg: 0-0)

Fenerbahce 0-0 Feyenoord (agg: 1-2)

Pafos 1-0 Dynamo Kyiv (agg: 2-0)

Plzen 0-0 Rangers (agg: 0-3)

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Crystal Palace hit out at Europa League ban: ‘Merit is rendered meaningless’

  • Club refer to ‘poorly conceived regulations’

  • Claim some clubs have ‘unique privilege and power’

Crystal Palace have called on Uefa to scrap its rules on multi-club ­ownership (MCO) and questioned whether they received a fair hearing at the court of arbitration of sport after their appeal against demotion from the Europa League was rejected.

Cas confirmed on Monday it had upheld Uefa’s decision to demote the FA Cup winners to the Conference League after it decided John Textor held shares and had a decisive influence in Palace and Lyon, who also qualified for the Europa League. ­Textor has since sold his 44.9% stake in the club to another US businessman, Woody Johnson.

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Crystal Palace to stay in Conference League after losing appeal at Cas

  • Palace were demoted from Europa League by Uefa

  • Club hoped to overturn decision related to ownership

Crystal Palace have lost their appeal against demotion from the Europa League and will take their place in the Conference League. The court of arbitration for sport confirmed on Monday that the FA Cup winners were unsuccessful in overturning the decision made by European football’s governing body to punish them for contravening its rules over multi-club ownership.

Uefa demoted Palace to the Conference League after they were deemed to have breached regulations because John Textor held shares in Palace and Lyon, who also qualified for the Europa League. He has since sold his 43% stake to his fellow US businessman Woody Johnson.

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Martin’s changes pay off as Gassama double eases Rangers past Viktoria Plzen

  • Rangers win 3-0 in first leg of third qualifying round

  • Team respond to Martin’s anger after Motherwell draw

Russell Martin’s bold team selection paid off as Rangers defeated Viktoria Plzen 3-0 in the first leg of their Champions League third qualifying round tie at Ibrox.

Martin hit out at some of his squad following their deflating 1-1 draw at Motherwell on Saturday, questioning mentality, egos and application and the captain, James Tavernier, and the midfielder Nicolas Raskin were the biggest names among the expected changes.

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Glasner believes Crystal Palace will win appeal and play in Europa League

  • Case against Uefa demotion to be heard by Cas on Friday

  • Club’s first Conference League fixture set for 21 August

Oliver Glasner has said he is confident Crystal Palace will win their appeal at the court of arbitration for sport this week and be reinstated to play in the Europa League.

Palace are seeking to overturn Uefa’s decision to demote them to the Conference League for breaking multiclub ownership rules, with the appeal to take place in Lausanne on Friday. The decision is expected to be revealed by Cas on Monday, the day after Glasner’s FA Cup holders face the Premier League champions Liverpool in the Community Shield at Wembley.

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Rangers see off wasteful Panathinaikos in Champions League qualifier

  • Rangers draw 1-1 in Athens to win 3-1 on aggregate

  • Shelbourne into Europa League after Qarabag defeat

Djeidi Gassama turned super-sub once again with a crucial goal as Rangers beat profligate Panathinaikos 3-1 on aggregate in their Champions League second qualifier in Athens.

Leading 2-0 from the first leg at Ibrox, only another fine performance in the Olympic stadium from Rangers’ goalkeeper Jack Butland, who thwarted the Greek side in the first leg, kept the tie goalless at the break. Filip Djuricic opened the scoring with a header in the 53rd minute but moments after coming off the bench, Gassama, who scored from a substitute’s role on his debut last week, levelled at 1-1 with a stunning drive.

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Parish blames Nottingham Forest for Crystal Palace’s Europa League demotion

  • Palace chair ‘very hopeful’ of winning appeal to Cas

  • Club’s fans vow to take protest to Uefa HQ in Nyon

Steve Parish has suggested that Nottingham Forest are to blame for Crystal Palace’s demotion from the Europa League to the Conference League, and confirmed the FA Cup winners will appeal to the court of arbitration for sport over Uefa’s decision.

European football’s governing body ruled last week that Palace had breached its multiclub ownership rules, with Forest expected to be promoted to the Europa League in their place. It was revealed last month that Forest had written to Uefa to raise concerns that Palace could be in breach of regulations that bar clubs with the same owner from competing in the same competition if an individual or ownership group is considered to have a decisive influence over more than one of those teams.

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‘It’s not fair’: Crystal Palace fans march in protest at demotion from Europa League

  • ‘We earned the right to be there and will show support’

  • Palace in Conference League after ownership breach

Furious Crystal Palace supporters have demanded that Uefa reverse its decision to demote the FA Cup winners from the Europa League to the Conference League next season as they staged a protest march outside Selhurst Park on Tuesday evening.

It was confirmed last week that Uefa’s club financial control body had concluded Palace breached its multi-club ownership criteria, with the south London club expected to appeal to the court of arbitration for sport (Cas) against a decision that their chair, Steve Parish, described as “probably one of the greatest injustices that has ever happened in European football”.

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Parish plots Crystal Palace response after demotion with Uefa braced for fight

FA Cup winners feel hard done by after being banned from Europa League due to a breach of multi-club ownership rules

As an emotional Steve Parish said, it felt like “winning the lottery and going to the counter and you don’t get the prize”. Confirmation from Uefa on Friday of Crystal Palace’s demotion from the Europa League to Conference League had been expected since European football’s governing body delayed its decision to await the outcome of Lyon’s appeal against being relegated to Ligue 2.

That did not make it any easier for Parish, who has proudly overseen Palace’s rise from the brink of extinction in 2010 to a first major trophy. When the final whistle blew at Wembley to seal Palace’s FA Cup final victory against Manchester City eight weeks ago, Parish was greeted by a massive bear hug from John Textor, who at that stage was Palace’s largest shareholder, but had spectacularly fallen out with the chair over not being allowed more of an influence.

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Textor insists Palace influence ‘not decisive’ as club fear Europa League ban

  • Club face threat of demotion to Conference League

  • Textor also has majority stake in Ligue 1 side Lyon

John Textor has insisted that he didn’t have a decisive influence at Crystal Palace as the FA Cup winners await Uefa’s decision on whether they can compete in next season’s Europa League.

Palace are facing the threat of being demoted to the Conference League by European football’s governing body because the American businessman also owns a majority stake in Ligue 1 side Lyon, who have also qualified for the Europa League. The French club have successfully appealed against relegation to Ligue 2, with Uefa having delayed its ruling on Palace last week pending the outcome of Lyon’s appeal.

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Crystal Palace’s Europa League hopes dealt blow after Lyon win relegation appeal

  • Uefa due to deliver Palace ruling this week

  • Palace expected to go to court if barred

Crystal Palace’s hopes of playing in next season’s Europa League appear to have been dealt a major blow after Lyon overturned their relegation to Ligue 2.

The seven-time French champions’ demotion over financial issues was imposed last month by the country’s football’s watchdog, the DNCG. But Lyon, who are owned by John Textor’s Eagle Football Holdings, have earned a reprieve after an appeal hearing in Paris on Wednesday and are expected to take up their place in next season’s Europa League after finishing sixth last season.

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Carlisle to Bosnia: Tyler Burey on an unlikely path to the Champions League

London-born winger is rekindling his joy for the game in an unlikely location and is about to live out a lifelong dream with Zrinjski Mostar

At the end of last year Tyler Burey was playing out of position in defence for a team doomed to relegation from the Football League. Seven months later he is preparing to make his Champions League debut after leaving England behind, seeking to rediscover his love for the game in an unlikely location.

Burey moved to Igman Konjic, a club in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in January on a short-term deal and impressed to such an extent that the country’s title winners, Zrinjski Mostar, signed him on a two-year contract. On Tuesday they visit Virtus of San Marino in the opening leg of their Champions League first qualifying round tie, allowing Burey to live out a lifelong dream.

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Football Daily | Two seasons in a day: the Champions League and Club World Cup overlap

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Football Daily would prefer not to have to think about Copa Gianni at all but we have a certain professional obligation to do so and have never knowingly been found shirking in the face of our responsibilities. To keep things simple, we prefer to view the tournament as a stand-alone competition that’s taking place between the end of the last season and the beginning of the next one, but the fact that it’s being contested by clubs instead of countries leaves plenty of room for debate. Watching Kingsley Coman “sprint” on to a through-ball from Harry Kane during Bayern Munich’s defeat by PSG as if he was running in knee-deep wet cement, we were presented with the sight of a player in next season’s kit who was quite clearly exhausted by the exertions of the one that may or may not have ended before the tournament in which he was playing started. Does the goal he didn’t score go down in the official xG column of last season, next season, or neither?

There’s me being able to walk down the stairs after I’ve played 90 minutes of football, there’s me in the future when I have children being able to walk around properly, being able to bend down and pick up toys, there’s me being able to do normal life things like put on socks without being in pain and, for the first time in a long time, I genuinely didn’t think about the response of the public because that just wasn’t a priority” – Millie Bright reveals how she is feeling better in her mind after taking the decision to miss Euro 2025 and prioritise her recovery from a knee injury.

Sometimes Mauricio Pochettino wants it to be a penalty, sometimes he doesn’t. There’s just no pleasing some people. Extra moaning points for Poch insinuating that the officials were swayed by the pro-Mexico crowd for a game that USA USA USA were playing at home. P.S. A doff of the cap to Mexico for that uber cool black and gold kit …” – Noble Francis.

With a tip of the cap to The Usual Suspects … the greatest trick Infantino ever pulled was turning me into a Chelsea fan for two hours rooting against Infantino’s home team making the finals” – Harry Webb.

I can’t have been your only reader who paused between Friday’s tea time email and big website’s MBM coverage of the Jurassic reunion opening gig, to turn the dial of my retro digital transistors to the political satirical radio broadcast, Deadringers. I – and what I suspect to be 1,056 others – nearly choked on my fermented tofu when I heard a repeat of your dinosaur banter about the aforementioned group of monobrows. I assume the requisite phone calls were made – i.e. your people calling their people, etc – and payment made (four pack of budget Tin) before Tom Baker’s closing remarks” – Nicholas Tipple.

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

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As Club World Cup hands out riches, a plan is needed for those left behind | Nick Ames

With the top-level juggernaut careering away the majority of Europe’s clubs need help and should be better rewarded for players they develop

While a dozen of Europe’s elite clubs were chasing the American dream, 170 of their less garlanded peers gathered for a barbecue next to Lake Geneva. They had converged on Uefa’s headquarters to attend the qualifying round draws for next season’s continental competitions; Tuesday night was time to get together, perhaps to speed-date representatives of the team you had been paired with or simply to cut loose before a labyrinthine summer spent journeying in search of league-phase football.

Borussia Dortmund were slugging out a goalless draw with Fluminense while the meat hit the grills, but “Club World Cup” is a dirty formulation in Nyon’s corridors of power. Any available screens showed action from Uefa’s own Under-21 Championship and alternative sources of entertainment roamed the pastel green lawns. A caricature artist did the rounds, stopping at the table occupied by Aleksander Ceferin and putting his pencil to work.

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PSG’s Champions League win was thrilling. It was still sportswashing | Jonathan Wilson

After years as a directionless collection of celebrity footballers, PSG are a true team now. But they still represent one of the sport’s darkest trends

Paris Saint-Germain’s success in the Champions League final on Saturday was a victory for youth and adventure. It was a victory for a team built with a coherent vision, and a rebuke to those who believe the game is just about collecting the biggest names. It was a victory for Luis Enrique, a very fine coach who has suffered dreadful personal tragedy. It was a victory for forward-thinking, progressive, fluent football.

But it was also a victory for sportswashing.

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