June 1 – Nottingham Forest’s new chairman, Nicholas Randall QC, has written an open letter to the club’s fans outlining the management plans for club and shedding more light on the new owners and in particular Evangelos Marinakis, also the owner of Greek champions Olympiacos.
Marinakis has received positive coverage over his takeover of Nottingham Forest, but in Greece and outside of the Olympiacos faithful he is less popular, with a number of allegations against him having been dismissed by the Greek courts and one case still pending.
(see Exclusive: Olympiacos’s Evangelos Marinakis – Enough with the Mr Bad Guy)
Randall’s comments are interesting in that he emphasises the compliance Marinakis has in his other businesses (the US in particular) and the financial sustainability criteria of the Football League. He also points the finger at Olympiacos’s Greek football rivals as the motivated sources of the allegations against him
Randall is a QC who specialises in the areas of employment, sports and pensions law. His football clients have included Kevin Keegan, Sir Bobby Robson, Roy Keane, David O’Leary, Wayne Rooney, and the FA Premier League – he regularly sits as an FA Arbitrator and is a member of the FA Premier League Panel.
With that background, he says “that if I had any doubts at all about the suitability of Mr Marinakis to be the owner of your club I would not have accepted the offer to be chairman.
“It is clear that Mr Marinakis has never been convicted of any crime in any jurisdiction of the world. That is a fact. All but one of the allegations made against him in the past have already been dismissed or not even proceeded with. Many, if not all of those allegations, have been made against him by his competitors in football,” he continues.
“Furthermore, there is cogent evidence that there has been nefarious intent behind many of those allegations.”
Regarding the outstanding case against Marinakis he says: “My independent view on the material I have seen is that this one outstanding charge is, like the remainder, also unsustainable and will ultimately be dismissed. This is not just my own view based on my own legal experience and expertise. It is a view that is also shared by eminent lawyers and Professors of Law in Greece…I do not believe that there are any sustainable fears regarding Mr Marinakis.”
Looking to the future Randall believes that Marinakis and his business partner Sokratis Kominakis “are the perfect owners at this moment in the club’s history.” He says that “the club in its current state is not fit for purpose.”
Changing that requires action, according to Randall, in three key areas. “The first is the playing side; then the administration; finally the proposals for structural reform.”
Randall says to achieve this “the first requirement is stability. Stability is one of the most precious commodities in football and it has been more or less entirely lacking at the club for far too long.”
On the playing side he emphatically endorses manager Mark Warburton as the person to change the playing style and bring back success. That will be backed up with a higher level CEO, management and commercial team on the administrative side of the club.
Forest is a grand old club with a history of attractive football and giant killing acts – for too long the present has struggled to cope with its illustrious past.
These aren’t issues that seem to bother an owner like Marinakis who clearly revels in embracing both.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734960751labto1734960751ofdlr1734960751owedi1734960751sni@n1734960751osloh1734960751cin.l1734960751uap1734960751