Why is Nottingham Forest owner Marinakis relinquishing controlling interest in club next season?
Why is Nottingham Forest owner Marinakis relinquishing controlling interest in club next season?
Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis will not have a controlling interest in the Premier League club next season, making the move ahead of its potential return to European football.
Marinakis, who also owns Greek club Olympiakos, has placed his shares in a blind trust in order to comply with UEFA regulations on multi-club ownership, which state no individual is allowed to control two clubs that are competing in the same competition.
The Greek side has already qualified for next season’s Champions League, meaning there would be a conflict of interest if Forest was to follow it into Europe’s top club competition.
Forest will climb to third in the Premier League with four games remaining if it beats Brentford in Thursday’s game in hand at the City Ground.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s team is chasing one of the top five places in the Premier League, which would guarantee Champions League qualification.
It is a dramatic improvement in fortunes for a club that faced back-to-back relegation fights after ending its 23-year exile from the Premier League in 2022.
Forest has not played in Europe’s elite competition since the 1980/81 season when it was two-time defending champions under former manager Brian Clough.
Marinakis’ move is only a temporary measure and is a commonly used practice, with Manchester United’s co-owners INEOS suspending its interest in Nice for this season.
Sokratis Kominakis, Forest’s co-owner, is returning to the club’s board.
Published on Apr 30, 2025
