Lyon announced on its official website on Wednesday that the club has successfully appealed against the previous administrative relegation order and confirmed that it will continue to stay in Ligue 1 in the new season.

According to Lyon's official statement, the administrative relegation order against the club has been cancelled. Lyon will continue to play in Ligue 1 in the 2025/26 season, but its total salary and transfer expenses will be restricted.

The Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP)'s Direction Nationale du Contrôle de Gestion (DNCG) said that the total salary and transfer expense compensation limits in Lyon's Ligue 1 budget for the 2025/26 season will maintain the existing agreement and will be subject to certain restrictions.

At the same time, after reaching an agreement with the authorities, UEFA also maintained Lyon's qualification to the new season's Europa League due to its sixth place finish in the final league ranking, but the authorities will continue to monitor the club and implement strict financial tightening measures to avoid the club from facing the risk of being banned again in the future for violating the Financial Fair Play (FFP) Rules.

According to the four-year agreement, Lyon must provide UEFA with an unedited qualified audit report to prove that the club's shareholders have the ability to continue operating, the club must provide true and complete financial information, and inject €60 million in cash before July 15, 2025, and convert it into shares before October 15 of the same year.

After the successful appeal, Lyon also shared the joy with fans through its official website. The statement read: "Lyon warmly welcomes the decision made by DNCG today (Wednesday, French local time)."

"The decision confirms that we will continue to stay in the Ligue 1. Lyon sincerely thanks the Appeal Committee for recognizing the determination and strength of the club's new management to promote the club's future sound management."

"The new management has the support of shareholders and fans, and we are deeply grateful for their commitment and dedication. We sincerely thank the support from inside and outside the club, especially the fans, employees, players, partners and government officials. Today's decision is the first step to restore confidence in Lyon. Now we can focus on the game and go all out to prepare for the upcoming new season."

This ruling will keep Lyon's record of not being relegated from Ligue 1 since the 1988/89 season.

Where will Crystal Palace go from here?

However, this ruling also extends the confusion of whether its sister club Crystal Palace will eventually be deprived of their Europa League qualification.

Although John Textor, the club's former largest American shareholder, has transferred all his shares to Michelle Kang, a Korean-American businesswoman, after being removed by management, the process of selling his shares in the Eagles has not yet been approved.

According to earlier reports, Textor has agreed to sell his 43% shares in Crystal Palace to Woody Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets, but the acquisition has not yet been approved by the English Football Association.

UEFA announced earlier that it would postpone the final decision on how Crystal Palace's qualification for the Europa League will be handled when Lyon announced that it would be appealing against the administrative relegation order by the DNCG, and until the result of Les Gones' appeal is released.

Once Crystal Palace is disqualified, Nottingham Forest, which was originally 7th and only qualified for the UEFA Conference League next season, is expected to become their replacememt.

Brighton, which missed any European qualification due to finishing 8th, is also expected to become the club that replaces Forests in the UEFA Conference League.

What happened

On June 24, 2025, DNCG) announced on its official website on Tuesday that Lyon was officially administratively relegated to Ligue 2 due to poor financial problems.

At the time, the DNCG's official statement said that the authorities had warned the clib in November last year that if the club's financial situation was not improved before the end of last season, the provisional suspension of Lyon's administrative relegation to Ligue 2 would be implemented. After repeated supervision, DNCG now confirmed that the club's administrative relegation will be enforced, and Lyon has the right to appeal within 7 days.

However, Lyon firmly expressed its dissatisfaction with the verdict and slammed the action taken by DNCG as "incomprehensible."

Lyon responded in an official statement: "Olympique Lyonnais Football Club has noted the incomprehensible decision made by DNCG tonight and confirmed that it will appeal immediately."

"We have strong financial resources and brilliant sporting achievements, and have won the qualification for European competitions for two consecutive years. We really can't understand how such a great French club can be relegated by an administrative decision."

It is worth mentioning that Lyon has become the fourth club to be administratively relegated by DNCG in recent years.

Last year, Bordeaux was administratively relegated to the non-league due to its alarming debt problems. Earlier, Sochaux and Nancy were also administratively relegated to the French Third division due to financial problems.

At the same time, because Textor violated the Multi-Club Ownership Rules, the American businessman also caused the Premier League club to be thoroughly investigated by UEFA.