Nottingham Forest owner rages at EFL for vital Bournemouth defeat

Jacque Talbot

• Updated: 5 May 2022 18:25 BST
• 4 min read

Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis blasted the EFL following his side’s 1-0 loss to Bournemouth on Tuesday.

The Midlands club missed out on the chance to put an automatic promotion spot firmly in their hands in the Championship encounter at the Vitality Stadium, with Kieffer Moore’s goal securing promotion for the Cherries.

But Forest were controversially denied a penalty when Sam Surridge was ruled offside by one of the assistant referees, just after the attacker was fouled in the penalty area.

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There was no VAR available, so match officials were unable to review their initial decision, even though subsequent highlights showed Sturridge was onside.

And the incident has reportedly engaged Reds chief Marinakis.

Speaking on BBC Radio Nottingham, sports presenter Colin Fray discussed a phone conversation he had with the Greek owner.

“For the first time since he took ownership in 2017, I took a phone call last night from Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis,” Fray said. "He did not want to be interviewed but told me of his frustrations. He said he is not happy with the federation - in this case, the EFL.

"In addition to decisions within games, he also feels that Forest were not backed by the EFL when this game against Bournemouth was originally postponed. Again, controversially, last night's goalscorer Kieffer Moore was one of the injured players Bournemouth had at the time and would not have been able to play when the game was originally scheduled.

"Mr Marinakis said he wants to express his frustration and a desire to see a fair referee and federation so that the game can be decided on the grass."

Fray continued: "There are limited options. Referees are marked by clubs in every match and they are assessed. This doesn't seem to be helping, in my opinion, I don't think Forest have had many good officials this season particularly.

"Mr Marinakis told me they have written letters several times but nothing happens. He says he is frustrated because he is putting millions of pounds into the club. From Mr Marinakis' point of view, millions of pounds have gone into the squad and team. He has finally got the head coach and the squad in place and he feels promotion has been snatched away."

Cooper rues ref's mistakes

It comes after Forest boss Steve Cooper claimed that referee Stuart Attwell even apologised to him after the match for the 'error.'

Cooper said: "The players are disappointed, of course. And really annoyed with the ref; really annoyed with the referee.

“When the referee has asked to see me and apologised, held his hands up, it doesn’t make it any better. I think he’s tried to soften me up, to be honest, because he knows he and the linesman have made a huge error.

“But it won’t soften me up. These things need to be reported correctly, which we do. here’s a lot of annoyance at that. There’s a disappointment, but we don’t say too much after games. We’ll get back, reflect and keep going.”

The knock-on effects for Forest could be huge, with the cost of missing out on promotion to the Premier League equalling many tens of millions of pounds.