Evangelos Marinakis pauses Nottingham Forest role amid looming UEFA complication
Evangelos Marinakis has temporarily stepped back from his involvement at Nottingham Forest as the club closes in on a long-awaited return to European football.
The Forest owner has moved his shares into a blind trust to meet UEFA regulations around multi-club ownership, due to his dual stake in Greek champions Olympiacos.
The governing body prohibits two teams under the same ownership from competing in the same European tournament, and with Olympiacos already confirmed for next season’s Champions League, Forest would’ve had to forfeit their place unless action was taken.
Marinakis’ decision comes as Forest sit sixth in the Premier League, just outside the top five – a finish that would guarantee a Champions League spot in UEFA’s expanded 2025/26 format.
The move is designed to eliminate any risk of conflict if Nuno Espirito Santo’s side do manage to secure European football, whether that’s via the Champions League or the Europa League.
The club have five huge league fixtures to come – starting at home to Brentford on Thursday night – and remain firmly in the hunt to end a near 30-year absence from the European stage.
Forest haven’t featured in a continental competition since their UEFA Cup campaign back in 1995/96.
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“All the games are going to be very, very important for a lot of teams in this fight, we have one more game, let’s try to perform well,” said Nuno ahead of the Brentford clash.
“We are back in the City Ground in front of our fans, it’s a big help. All the games are the biggest games of our career, this is how we approach it.
“We have never stopped believing, no matter what happens. Throughout the competition, we have had good moments and bad moments and we have been able to react and again it is up to us to react again.”
Marinakis, who took control at the City Ground in 2017, is still fully committed to the club, with co-owner Sokratis Kominakis returning to the board to help steer the club through the final stretch of the season.
Forest follow in the footsteps of other Premier League sides forced to untangle multi-club ownership webs. Man Utd’s co-owners INEOS temporarily paused their stake in French club OGC Nice, while Man City also stepped back from involvement in La Liga side Girona.
Forest currently sit one point behind fifth-placed Chelsea in the Premier League table with a game in hand, three points ahead of Villa, and crucially, they’ve opened a nine-point gap and a superior goal difference to ninth-placed Brighton, with eighth place potentially securing a Europa Conference League berth.
