Reporter Notebook: Palace vs Forest – from the courtroom back to the pitch

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With Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest returning to the pitch to play each other after a protracted saga leading to the Eagles’ demotion from the Europa League and Forest taking their place, there is plenty of extra attention on Sunday’s match at Selhurst Park.

There has never been much of a public fallout between the clubs – but during Thursday night’s Europa Conference League qualifier with Fredrikstad, Palace fans sung derogatory chants aimed at UEFA and John Textor – whose ‘significant interest’ in Palace caused their issues – as well as Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis.

So what will this weekend have in store? Here’s how both camps will be feeling about one of the most keenly anticipated meetings between the two clubs in history.

‘A long three months for Palace – and their fans’

Sky Sports News chief reporter Kaveh Solhekol:

Three months is a long time in football – especially for Crystal Palace fans.

In May, they won their first major trophy. Everyone associated with the club should have spent the summer basking in the glory of winning the FA Cup, looking forward to a new season and a place in the Europa League.

That all changed when it emerged that UEFA was considering demoting Palace to the Conference League for breaking their multi-club ownership rules. That is exactly what ended up happening last month. Their decision was hugely controversial and Nottingham Forest benefited from it because they were promoted to the Europa League.

The whole UEFA saga has effectively ruined Palace’s summer and the uncertainty meant they were unable to act decisively in the transfer market. Under normal circumstances, they would have prepared for the likely departures of key players by buying replacements first, but that was not possible because they did not know which European competition they would definitely be playing in.

Now Forest are coming to Selhurst Park, Palace have already lost Eberechi Eze and captain Marc Guehi could be leaving as well. Oliver Glasner and his players deserve great credit for the way they have conducted themselves and played during the last few weeks. They beat Liverpool on penalties in the Community Shield and were unlucky not to win away at Chelsea last weekend.

Would Palace still be in the Europa League if Forest hadn’t fought so hard to defend their interests at UEFA and the Court of Arbitration for Sport this summer? That’s a difficult question to answer but Forest fans would argue that it’s not their – or Evangelos Marinakis’ – fault that John Textor owned shares in Palace and Lyon and missed the March 1 deadline to do something about it.

‘The boardroom dynamics could dwarf the match highlights’

Sky Sports News senior reporter Rob Dorsett:

While the game itself is likely to be hyper-competitive, with a little more niggle on the pitch than usual because of recent events, the dynamics in the Crystal Palace boardroom on Sunday lunchtime could be just as tasty as anything the Palace head chef puts on the menu.

Nottingham Forest owner Marinakis has yet to confirm if he will attend the game – such is the schedule of a multi-billionaire, multi-national shipping magnate. But it’s been made clear to me he wants to be, and it’s equally clear that the animosity from Palace fans following the verdict from the Court of Arbitration for Sport will have no bearing at all on his decision.

The chanting at Palace’s first-ever European game on Thursday night was aimed at Marinakis and UEFA in equal measure, but the Greek tycoon will be undaunted by that. He has a sophisticated security detail, and the impression I get is that he would relish the role of being the baddie in a hostile crowd. Especially if his side went to Selhurst Park and won.

Not that Marinakis or Forest feel they have done anything wrong. On the contrary, I’ve been told there is bemusement in the Forest boardroom that a UEFA decision, followed by a CAS decision, has resulted in accusations of back-stabbing from the Palace support.

Of course, Marinakis’ club have benefitted hugely from Palace’s predicament, being promoted to the Europa League in their stead.

But bosses in the East Midlands are adamant that it was Palace’s dispute with UEFA, not with Forest, that is at the heart of this matter, and if Palace had followed UEFA’s rules on multi-club ownership (as Forest had to do themselves, when Marinakis stepped down from the board and put all his shares into a blind trust to avoid any conflict with Olympiakos) then it would be they, not Forest, in the more lucrative Europa League.

That’s not how Palace see it, obviously, and everyone connected with Forest can expect a hostile reception on Sunday.

But Nuno Espirito Santo’s team will travel with confidence. It was a resounding opening-day victory over Brentford at the City Ground last weekend, and the squad has been further buoyed by the midweek PFA Awards, which saw Chris Wood included as the sole striker in the Premier League Team of the Season and goalkeeper Matz Sels voted as top ‘stopper.

Following the CAS decision, Marinakis loosened the purse strings and the transfer floodgates. Nuno had an uncharacteristically public moan at his lack of options and the lack of new additions and within days, Douglas Luiz, Arnaud Kalimuendo, Omari Hutchinson and James McAtee arrived for a total spend of £118.5m.

Wow. That was some statement from Marinakis – as much to his manager as to anyone else, maybe.

And so it will be a buoyant and bullish Nottingham Forest who arrive in south London on Sunday – a club with the swagger of belief that they are flying high right now, and capable of clipping the Eagles’ wings.

This news was originally published on this post .

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