Nottingham Forest plays an outstanding season in the Premier League. Nevertheless, Klubboss Evangelos Marinakis bursts on Sunday of the collar – not the first escapade of the impulsive eccentric.
He is a football -crazy creator who can call three European clubs his own, as well as a hot -blooded eccentric who has already accumulated a plump scandal file and has been shot out again on Sunday.
We are talking about Evangelos Marinakis, Greek shipowner, businessman, politician, oligarch and also a football official since 2010. He took over the majority of Olympiacos Piraeus before the MultiMillionär 2017 became the owner of Nottingham Forest and started in Portugal in 2023.
While the 57-year-old rushed to success with Olympiac and led the 2024 club to the first international title with the triumph in Conference League, the upswing of the traditional English club, which returned to the Premier League in 2022 after 23 years of absence, is worth it.
Since Sunday it has been clear that the Tricky Trees will be represented internationally in the coming season, even participation in the Champions League is still possible – actually an occasion for joy, but Marinakis was anything but happy, but once again caused a scandal.
Marinakis folds Espirito Santo together
Certainly also frustrated at the poor 2-2 home difference against relegated Leicester City, with which an even better starting position was played in the fight for the premier class before the last two match days, the eccentric stormed onto the square and took success coach Nuno Espirito Santo to the chest.
The Nottingham boss scolded the Portuguese for almost 20 seconds before it was ferring into the cabin. “What the owner of Forest did on the field is an absolute scandal”, Sky expert and England legend Gary Neville rumbled: “And if I were now, I would go there and talk to him a serious word.”
However, Espirito Santo played down the incident. “Of course we are disappointed and frustrated. But it is thanks to the owner and his passion that we grow as a club. He drives us. 30,000 people felt the same way today. Certainly many of them would have been happy to go to the field to clap.”
Nuno Espirito Santo after the draw against Leicester City
The trigger of the freaking out was apparently not even the disappointing result against Leicester, but rather a misunderstanding-more precisely a violation of ex-union striker Taiwo Awoniyi, which was substituted in the 83rd minute after Leicester and collided with the post shortly afterwards.
After the attacker had reported to be able to continue playing, Espirito Santo took his last change and Elliot Anderson from the field. But then it turned out that Awoniyi could hardly walk. Later he even had to be operated on because of a severe abdominal muscle injury.
“We all – coaching staff, players, fans and myself – were frustrated with the violation of Taiwo and the misjudgment of the medical staff as to whether Taiwo could continue the game,” said Marinakis in a statement.
Filled scandal files from Nottingham boss
However, the youngest freak is only the tip of the iceberg, because Marinakis has been at the center of sensational scandals for years.
Last October he was closed for five games because he had demonstratively spit on the floor in the player tunnel after Nottingham’s bankruptcy against Fulham when the referee ran past him. Marinakis himself spoke of a coughing fit, which the English Association FA did not take away from him.
At Olympiacos Piraeus, after a 0: 3 bankruptcy at the end of a disappointing season, he insulted the entire team: “You are not even worth the toilet paper in our training center. Instead of wishing you a great vacation, I say: goes and suffocates.”
Marinakis was always in the sights of the judiciary, the allegations were always outrageous, but he was never convicted – because the evidence should never have been sufficient. As a result, the independence of the Greek judiciary was always questioned.
Outrageous allegations – but no convictions
It started in 2011 in the largest Greek football scandal to date with a procedure for corruption, game manipulation and foundation of a criminal organization when Marinakis was listened to next to 68 other suspects.
In 2015 there were also these suspicions in the course of a manipulation scandal. He was also accused of commissioning a bakery on the bakery of a referee because he had refused to deliver the result desired by Marinaki. There were also processes for heroin smuggling.
“The things that are claimed are not only outrageous, they are also unthinkable and could not be further away from my mentality and how I behave as a person,” he once asserted his innocence.
Evangelos Marinakis celebrates the triumph of Olympiacos Piraeus in the Conference League in 2024
Marinakis is conciliatory
A month ago he was charged in Greece for the incitement to violence in sport after a police officer died. The investigation is “a shame for the democratic values of a so-called European country,” said the 57-year-old about his justification and spoke of a political hunt.
While the dispute in Greece continues to escalate, Marinakis in England strikes conciliatory tones despite the Sunday escapade. He posted on Instagram: “Today is a day to celebrate, because after thirty years of age, Nottingham Forest now has the guarantee of playing on the European stage again, a promise that I gave our fans on our climb!”
However, it is not to be expected that his scandal file also closes with this post.