When the Holmesdale Fanatics say they are planning something, it is usually worth paying attention. The receptionist at Uefa’s headquarters in Nyon looked bemused when presented with a suitcase full of fake bank notes last month by members of the Crystal Palace supporters’ group. They claimed it represented the “contradictions of their supposed ‘fundamental values’ of integrity and fairness and the reality of their business methods and general conduct”.
Uefa has said it followed the correct procedures after its club financial control body demoted Palace from the Europa League to the Conference League because they were deemed to have broken multi-club ownership rules. But for the HF, it was a call to arms.
“For a situation like this, where we and our family members feel there is something unjust happening to the club, we have to act quickly,” says Mickey Grafton, a founder member who also helped organise a protest outside Selhurst Park a week earlier attended by hundreds of fans.
An HF delegation, having also delivered a letter to Uefa’s president, Aleksander Ceferin, demanding the club’s reinstatement into the Europa League, headed to the headquarters of the court of arbitration for sport in Lausanne, where Palace’s appeal against their demotion will be heard on Friday. The result is due the following Monday. “The protests against those responsible will continue,” the HF said.
Palace have been drawn to play in the Conference League playoff round against the losers of the Europa League tie between Fredrikstad of Norway and Denmark’s Midtjylland, with the first leg scheduled for Selhurst Park on 21 August.
Officially formed in 2005, the HF has grown into one of most influential supporters’ groups in the country after playing a leading role in protests outside the headquarters of Lloyds Bank in 2010 when Palace were facing liquidation after being placed in administration.
The hand-painted tifos they produced for last season’s FA Cup semi-final against Aston Villa and the final against Manchester City – which it proudly emphasised involved at least 120 group members and were funded by fans – caught the eye of the wider football world. One depicted two young supporters celebrating a Darren Ambrose winner at Old Trafford in 2011 with their late father and the message: “Wembley will shake and it will be beautiful”.
Anyone who has attended a Palace game at Selhurst Park or on the road in recent years will attest to the frenzied atmosphere created by the black-shirted group, who are not afraid to do things differently and take their inspiration from Europe’s ‘Ultra’ culture.
“It’s a huge collective – that’s what English football has lacked if you compare it to the rest of the continent and beyond,” Grafton says. “It doesn’t have organised…
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