Crystal Palace’s UEFA Conference League squad is not a simple “25 players and done” situation. It is built around List A (the main squad) and List B (youth-eligible additions), and that matters if Palace complete the Brennan Johnson deal that has been reported as agreed in the region of £35m by multiple major outlets.
Quick explainer: List A vs List B
UEFA rules state that clubs submit:
- List A: maximum 25 players, with at least eight “locally trained” places reserved (with limits on how many of those can be “association-trained”).
- List B: unlimited players, provided they meet age and eligibility rules.
Palace’s own announcement confirms the practical version supporters need to know: List B is unlimited, and players must be born on or after 1 January 2004 (plus eligibility conditions).
On UEFA’s squad page, List B players are shown with an asterisk, which makes it easy to see how much of Palace’s European depth is academy driven.
Palace’s current “locally trained” picture
Palace also confirmed seven players who qualify as association-trained for European purposes: Romain Esse, Marc Guéhi, Dean Henderson, Will Hughes, Remi Matthews, Eddie Nketiah and Adam Wharton.
This matters because UEFA squad building is partly a numbers game. If a club is short of locally trained players, the total size of List A is reduced accordingly.
Why Brennan Johnson is a List A issue, not a List B one
Johnson would arrive as a first-team forward, so he would be a List A registration in practice.
The important bit is whether he can help the locally trained quota. Johnson spent his youth years in England with Nottingham Forest, joining the academy at age eight, which strongly points to him qualifying as association-trained under UEFA’s definitions.
That does not automatically solve every quota scenario, but it can make the List A maths easier than signing a non-locally trained overseas attacker.
The real change: someone likely has to come out
UEFA’s rules on subsequent registration are clear: if a new player is added and the List A total goes above 25, the club must remove players to get back to 25, while respecting the locally trained quota.
So if Palace are already at the limit, signing Johnson is not just “add a winger”. It becomes a decision about:
- which fringe senior player is least likely to be used in Europe
- whether a departing player opens a slot
- whether Palace prefer to protect flexibility by leaving a place open until February
UEFA sets a 5 February 2026 deadline for certain exceptional registrations ahead of the knockout phase.
What changes if Johnson signs
| Squad question | What changes with Johnson |
|---|---|
| Does Palace’s List B get affected? | Not much. List B remains unlimited and is mainly for eligible academy depth |
| Is Johnson likely List A? | Yes, he is a senior addition |
| Do Palace need to remove someone? | Possibly, if List A is already at 25 |
| Does he help locally trained quotas? | Likely association-trained based on Forest academy history |
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