You wonder if, just for once, this evening’s traditional rendition of Mull of Kintyre might not be the loudest moment prior to kick-off at the City Ground.
For some time now, when the Premier League anthem is played ahead of the pre-match handshakes between the two sides, it has regularly been greeted by a smattering of boos and jeers from the Nottingham Forest fans.
This time, you sense the volume might go up a notch again.
When Forest face Crystal Palace, they will do so without their owner, Evangelos Marinakis, in the stadium, without their head coach, Nuno Espirito Santo, in the dugout, and without their most influential player, Morgan Gibbs-White, on the pitch.
All three are the subject of Football Association (FA) sanctions. In the space of roughly a week, Forest have collected a combined nine-match ban and fines in excess of £825,000 ($1.1m).
Marinakis has a five-match suspension, it is three for Nuno, and one for Gibbs-White to add to the one-game ban he has already served following his red card at Brighton & Hove Albion.
That came after the club had been fined £750,000 for the statement posted on social media in the aftermath of the controversial game at Everton last season when they had been denied three penalty claims.
And there will be a sense of injustice surrounding the absence of all three people.
That is not to say that anyone should have escaped punishment. Any verbal abuse of a match official should never be either overlooked or condoned.
But there is a broader context to consider; there are reasons why, on every occasion, Forest were justified in feeling disappointed, angry and frustrated. In each instance that led to a punishment for Forest, they can point either to a refereeing error or inconsistencies with the way the laws were applied.
Forest must assess where they can improve their own behaviour, regardless of how much they feel they have been wronged. But, while they need to look in the mirror, one or two lines from Nuno in his pre-match press conference also feel increasingly pertinent.
“I hope it’s not like that, I hope we’re not a target. I want to think and believe that everything is normal; that the judgement is equal for every team,” he said when asked if the club feel as though they are being singled out. “We want to believe everything is equal for everybody — the right mindset is to accept the sanction and move forwards, expecting that things improve and that the judgement is equal for everyone.”
More than 48 million people have now viewed Forest’s post following the 2-0 defeat at Goodison, which came after the match officials had failed to award any of three penalty claims Forest had in the match.
Three extremely poor decisions – three penalties not given – which we simply cannot accept.
We warned the PGMOL that the VAR is a Luton fan before the game but they didn’t change him. Our patience has been tested multiple times.
NFFC will now consider its options.
— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) April 21, 2024
What the FA took issue with was the suggestion that Stuart Attwell, the VAR official in question, might be biased because he is a historic fan of Forest’s then-relegation rivals Luton Town. The FA felt this was so serious that it pushed for a fine of £1million. It is a number that sent out a clear message. It is a message that has been underlined with everything that has happened since.
Forest questioned the authorities and their response was to come down hard.
The social media post after the match at Everton sums up Forest’s behaviour. It was completely over the top and poorly conceived, but also born out of justified frustration. The Key Match Incident Panel — made up of three former players or coaches, one Premier League representative and one from the Professional Game Match Officials Board, the referees’ body — voted unanimously that one of the three penalty incidents should have been awarded: when Ashley Young brought down Callum Hudson-Odoi in the 55th minute.
And the same can be said of the other two incidents that have landed the club’s owner, manager and star player in hot water since.
Gibbs-White will serve a two-match ban for reacting angrily to a decision the panel again ruled was incorrect, after he was shown a second yellow card for a challenge on Brighton’s Joao Pedro in a 2-2 draw on September 22. Referee Rob Jones initially indicated that Gibbs-White had won the ball, only to change his mind after talking to fourth official Anthony Taylor.
Gibbs-White automatically received one game for the red card and had another added by the FA for his reaction to the decision. Is there not an argument to be made that the first of those bans was unreasonable, as he should not have been sent off? Does adding a further suspension to the punishment rub unnecessary salt in the wound?
It was not hard to see that Nuno’s message — albeit a forcefully delivered and seemingly sweary one — to referee Jones was that this was the second time he had inflicted an incorrect decision on Forest.
The red card shown to Willy Boly in Nuno’s first game in charge, in December last year — again for a second booking — remains one of the worst decisions I have seen in almost two decades of covering Forest. It was comically bad. Yet it was Forest who paid the price for his error as they finished the game with 10 men and then had Boly suspended for the next match as well, as clubs are not allowed to appeal against red cards that come as a result of two yellows.
Nuno’s anger at seeing a similar thing happen again, at the hands of the same match official at Brighton, was understandable.
Forest are rightly being punished for their abusive responses. When the written reasons for their punishments are published by the FA, they may not make for pretty reading, but a three-match ban feels excessive in the circumstances.
Brighton’s head coach, Fabian Hurzeler, who encroached onto the pitch to berate fourth official Taylor in the aftermath of the Gibbs-White challenge, was given a fine of £8,000. Along with his three-match ban, Nuno was given a fine of £55,000.
Marinakis was charged with misconduct following Nottingham Forest’s Premier League match against Fulham on September 28.
As the FA statement read: “It was alleged that his behaviour around the tunnel area after the final whistle was improper. He denied this charge, but it was found proven by the independent regulatory commission and a five-match stadium/ground suspension has been imposed.”
Forest intend to appeal against the ban, but Marinakis will not attend the game tonight while that process unfolds. Nuno was allowed to remain in the dugout while his hearing was pending, as his presence could have had an impact on the outcome of the game.
A football club owner being charged with improper conduct is highly unusual. Only time will tell how the written reasons for his punishment will reflect on him. Whatever is revealed, a level of decorum should be expected from a man in his position.
Marinakis’ suspension is the longest handed to an owner in English football since Leyton Orient president Francesco Becchetti was banned for six games for violent conduct in January 2016 for appearing to aim a kick at his own team’s assistant manager, Andy Hessenthaler.
But, again, Marinakis’ actions came after a match in which Fulham claimed a 1-0 win thanks to a soft penalty, awarded against Murillo, while a similar incident at the other end of the pitch, when Anthony Elanga was tripped, was not given.
These are all emotional reactions to perceived injustices. Now Forest are determined to keep their noses clean; not to provide any reason for further sanctions. They must work to protect the club’s reputation, to repair any damage that has already been caused.
Nuno’s message in his press conference on Friday was clear: the only thing that matters in the short term is finding a way to ensure his absence on the touchline does not impact the team. He will be in communication with the bench from the stands tonight and when Forest face Leicester City and West Ham United beyond that.
The City Ground is always loud but, with the Sky TV cameras visiting for the first time since the company apologised to Forest “for any offence caused” by comments made by Gary Neville about the club, it will almost certainly raise its voice again.
Neville, 49, had accused Forest of acting like a “mafia gang” following that statement the club released after their loss at Everton in April, which prompted Forest to send Sky a legal letter. Neville will not be present at the City Ground tonight — which is not unusual as he does not work many of the Monday night games — but he is expected to be part of the Sky team when Forest visit Leicester on Friday.
Tonight, Forest must try to use any lingering sense of injustice as motivation; to harness it in a positive manner. And you can expect that the fans will have a message of their own to deliver from the stands.
(Top photo: MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
