Ranking Evangelos Marinakis’ 7 craziest decisions as Nottingham Forest owner
Evangelos Marinakis’ eight years as Nottingham Forest‘s owner has been quite the ride, with the club rising from the Championship to the Europa League during his time in the boardroom.
But while their rise has been impressive, there have been some bumps along the way – from perplexing managerial sackings and appointments to a whole host of off-field controversies.
We’ve ranked seven of Marinakis’ craziest decisions during his time as Nottingham Forest’s owner.
7. Storming onto the pitch to confront Nuno
Marinakis was widely condemned for stepping onto the pitch and having an animated discussion with Nuno after they dropped vital points in their quest for Champions League qualification.
Regardless of the circumstances, it wasn’t a good look. But this is a man who evidently cares little for optics.
“It is because of the owner and his passion that we are growing as a club. He pushes us. He wants us to be better,” the affable Portuguese coach explained in his post-match interview. A world-class diplomat, as ever.
“It is his passion and desire to be a big club – 30,000 people felt the same today. For sure, many of them would go on the pitch and shake us down.
“Us as a club, we owe a lot to the Marinakis family.”
Looking back, the writing was on the wall from that point onwards, wasn’t it?
6. Going to war with referees
“Three extremely poor decisions – three penalties not given – which we simply cannot accept,” Nottingham Forest’s official X account posted minutes after a 2-0 defeat to Everton in April 2024.
We warned the PGMOL that the VAR is a Luton fan before the game but they didn’t change him. Our patience has been tested multiple times. NFFC will now consider its options.”
It’s fun to imagine some social media manager got high on their own supply and went rogue, but the supervillain-esque wording of that tweet has a chilling authority that surely goes to the very top.
Indeed, The Times later reported Marinakis was directly responsible for the post, and that an “original version that Forest owner Marinakis had wanted sent out was much more strongly-worded.”
Much more strongly-worded? God, to’ve been a fly on the wall when that conversation was happening.
Forest were widely condemned for questioning the integrity of the match officials and fined ÂŁ750,000 for the “ill-chosen and irresponsible” post.
5. Going to war with Gary Neville
“It’s a horrendous statement by that football club,” Neville said on Sky Sports, one of the chief critics of Forest following their infamous post on X.
“It lets the proud history of that club down, and the inferred cheating, as suggested by the fact there’s a Luton Town (supporting) official (working the Everton-Forest game), is absolutely ridiculous.”
Marinakis took particular exception to Neville likening his running of the club to “a mafia gang”, for which Sky Sports later apologised.
The former Manchester United right-back was banned by Forest from the final game of the 2024-25 campaign after Marinakis reportedly intervened personally to deny his accreditation.
This one threatens to run and run. Pass the popcorn.
4. Signing 22(!) players in one summer
“The only difference between genius and insanity is that genius has its limits”, said Albert Einstein.
Spending somewhere in the region of ÂŁ160million on a record 22 players, Marinakis seemingly had little regard for said limits following Forest’s promotion in 2022.
That proved to Forest’s detriment in the end, docked four points after an independent commission found Forest’s losses in 2022-23 breached the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability threshold by ÂŁ34.5million.
Marinakis’ defenders would, not unfairly, point out that Forest’s promotion-winning side was comprised largely of loanees.
The club found itself in a position of needing to build a whole new squad and most people were looking at websites like FIRST.com to back Forest to go straight back down.
But breaking the rules also turned out to be worth it, given Forest comfortably stomached the points penalty and have since established themselves in the top flight.
The likes of Morgan Gibbs-White and Neco Williams have proven excellent signings, but you look at their extensive list of additions that year and can’t help but wonder if all those signings were strictly necessary.
Jesse Lingard, Emmanuel Dennis, Lewis O’Brien… Not to mention adding Jonjo Shelvey to the mix in January. It’s bonkers, looking back now, that it somehow all worked out.
QUIZ: Can you name every player signed by Nottingham Forest in summer 2022?
3. ‘Cigar habit’ excuse
It’s a testament to the wild ride of Marinakis’ ownership of Forest that this incident goes under the radar as pretty much forgotten about now.
In October 2022, he was banned from five matches after the Football Association successfully argued that he spat towards the match officials in a “flagrant display of disrespectful behaviour”.
It was alleged that he’d spat at the feet of referee John Smith after he awarded Fulham a penalty, the decisive moment in the Cottagers’ 1-0 win at the City Ground.
Marinakis’ excuse? A doozy.
“As the officials approached he felt a cough coming and he coughed on the floor, down and to his right which was away from the path the officials were taking. He did not speak to the officials,” read his witness statement.
“He cannot now remember if any spittle left his mouth but if it did (and he does not challenge that some might well have done) it certainly was not aimed at the referee’s feet and did not hit anybody.
“He fails to see how coughing (where spit or phlegm can come out from any person) towards the floor in a relatively crowded tunnel is misconduct.”
2. Sacking Nuno Espirito Santo
Nuno and Marinakis successfully put up a united front after their on-pitch tet-a-tet, but the cosy act didn’t last all that long.
In a series of explosive press conferences early in the 2025-26 campaign, Nuno began to speak remarkably honestly about the breakdown of his relationship with the owner.
From that point onwards, it was surely only a matter of time – and sure enough, three games into the season, Nuno was relieved of his duties.
A reminder that last season Forest were just one result away from qualifying for the Champions League. A club with only the fourteenth-highest wage bill in the Premier League.
1. Hiring Ange Postecoglou
If sacking Nuno was the shot, hiring Postecoglou was the chaser.
The recruitment under new sporting director Edu pointed towards Forest targeting a more possession-heavy, proactive approach.
A bold gambit, given how successfully Nuno’s pragmatic, counterattacking gameplan worked last season.
They’ve now gone the whole hog with that plan by appointing the famously dogmatic (“that’s just who we are, mate”) Postecoglou. We’re not sure we can remember a more severe tactical U-turn.
But while Nuno’s approach saw Forest dramatically overachieve last season, Postecoglou’s resulted in Tottenham finishing 17th.
Postecoglou is the first permanent Forest manager in 100 years not to win any of his first six matches.
He’s been in the post for just a month and has already been serenaded with chants of “sacked in the morning” by both his own and opposition fans.
Who could’ve seen this coming?
READ NEXT: The 10 wildest managerial downgrades in Premier League history: Nuno to Postecoglou 2nd…
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every Nottingham Forest manager since 2000?