NOTTINGHAM, England — The owner of Nottingham Forest has received a five-match ban from the stadium in a continuation of penalties imposed on the Premier League club recently.
Evangelos Marinakis faced charges from the English Football Association (FA) for his conduct following Forest’s 1-0 defeat against Fulham last month. This match concluded with a controversial penalty awarded by VAR, and the FA indicated that Marinakis’s behavior near the tunnel was deemed “improper,” although details regarding the incident were not disclosed.
An independent panel ruled on the five-match ban for Marinakis, prompting Nottingham Forest to announce their intent to appeal the decision.
Additionally, Forest’s head coach, Nuno Espirito Santo, was handed a separate punishment on the same day. He received a fine of £55,000 ($72,000) and has been banned from the touchline for two matches after being sent off during a 2-2 draw with Brighton. Santo admitted to using offensive language towards a match official. This ruling has invoked a previously suspended one-match touchline ban, bringing the total to three games.
In that same match against Brighton, midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White was sent off and subsequently confessed to using abusive language towards the fourth official. As a result, he was fined £20,000 ($26,000) and is suspended for one match.
Brighton’s manager, Fabian Hurzeler, also faced consequences for his actions during that match; he received a fine of £8,000 ($10,000) for behaving inappropriately.
The troubles for Nottingham Forest continued last week when they were fined £750,000 ($980,000) for publishing a provocative post that garnered over 46 million views. This post questioned the integrity of match officials and was described as “irresponsible”; it followed a 2-0 defeat to Everton in April.