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Forest owner sues Palace

Lawyers are increasingly the key actors in football clubs, but defamation actions are rare.

Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis is suing Crystal Palace for defamation over a banner the London club’s fans held up in August 2025 which depicted him holding a gun to midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White which read: “Mr Marinakis is not involved in blackmail, match-fixing, drug trafficking or corruption.”

The FA deemed Palace had not done enough to stop their supporters behaving in an improper, offensive, abusive or provocative way during the 1-1 draw at Selhurst Park. The governing body said in a statement: “The fact that Crystal Palace had a policy to prevent banners being smuggled into the stadium demonstrates that it was aware of the risk.”   The club was fined £50,000.

Gibbs-White had come close to leaving Forest to join Tottenham last summer, but instead signed a new contract to stay at Forest.

Now Marinakis is seeking damages after filing a defamation claim against the club at the High Court on Monday. Marinakis will need to prove that the publication of the defamatory banner caused him serious harm and also that Palace were liable for the publication. Crystal Palace declined to comment. 

The banner was produced at a time of heightened tensions between the two Premier League sides with Steve Parish, Palace’s chairman, suggesting Forest had played a role in getting his side demoted from the Europa League to the Conference League. It was found Palace had breached Uefa rules on multi-club ownership and they were replaced in the Europa League by Forest. Palace went on to win the Conference League.

Relations remain so sour between the clubs that when Forest named Oliver Glasner, who had previously been the Palace manager, as their new head coach this summer they failed to mention Palace when listing his achievements.

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