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Posted

West Ham… oof, they’re in trouble. Brentford and Wolves look like they might be as well. Maybe this is a year more than one newly-promoted club survives. 

Posted
3 hours ago, Ted Lange said:

 

 

Apparently the FA wasn’t amused and will launch “an investigation.”

Spoiler

The English FA will investigate a banner displayed by Crystal Palace fans showing Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis holding a gun to the head of midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White.

The banner was displayed in the Lower Holmesdale Stand, where the Holmesdale Fanatics supporters’ group sits, at Selhurst Park during Sunday’s Premier League game between the sides. It was not shown during Sky Sports’ UK broadcast of the match.

On the banner, Gibbs-White is shown with a speech bubble next to him reading: “Mr Marinakis is not involved in blackmail, match-fixing, drug trafficking or corruption!”

Marinakis has always strongly denied any wrongdoing in relation to these allegations.

As well as Gibbs-White, the banner also depicts Marinakis holding a briefcase overflowing with cash; what appears to be a UEFA delegate standing behind bags which read “correspondence” with the UEFA and Forest badges on; former Palace minority shareholder John Textor as a clown; and a ship with Marinakis’ name on — the Greek businessman is the founder and chairman of Capital Maritime & Trading Corp.

On the Palace website, in a statement which ends with “Published by The Football Association Premier League Limited”, the club say, “Banners must not contain foul language, be defamatory or contain political or offensive slogans and the club reserves the right to turn banners away if the content is felt to be offensive in any way.”

When contacted by The Athletic, the Premier League indicated the incident was a matter for the FA. Palace and Forest were approached for comment. The Holmesdale Fanatics declined to comment.

Sunday’s game finished 1-1  after goals from Ismaila Sarr and Callum Hudson-Odoi (Eddie Keogh/Getty Images)

Ahead of the game, Palace said on social media that they “would like to remind supporters that acts of discrimination, including inappropriate chanting, violence and entering the field of play, will not be tolerated at Selhurst Park”.

Gibbs-White signed a new contract at Forest in late July, having been the subject of bids from Tottenham Hotspur and appearing set to have a medical at the north London club. The Athletic reported that Gibbs-White had a key 30-minute meeting with Marinakis before committing his future to Forest until 2028.

Tensions between Palace and Forest have grown over the summer after the former was demoted from the Europa League to the Conference League — with the latter promoted as a result — having been found to have breached UEFA’s multi-club ownership rules. UEFA’s decision to demote Palace was upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) earlier this month.

In 2021, a banner displayed at Selhurst Park by the Holmesdale Fanatics was the subject of a police investigation. That banner was on display when Newcastle United faced Palace, shortly after the north-east club’s takeover, which was largely funded by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF). The banner took aim at the Premier League’s owners’ and directors’ test, and the Croydon Metropolitan Police said it had been reported as “offensive”.

Explaining the Palace-Forest tensions

By Nick Miller

In the aftermath of Palace’s demotion, their chairman Steve Parish did a round of media interviews in which he intimated that someone else had been behind the punishment.

“We’re led to believe that’s the issue,” said on The Rest Is Football podcast, when asked by host Gary Lineker if Forest had “played a part” in the process. “If there wasn’t someone who wanted to get in as a consequence, then there wouldn’t be a problem.”

This was in reference to a letter that Forest had written to UEFA about the issue, which they have always insisted was a matter of them simply seeking clarity about which competition they would be in this season, so they could plan accordingly. Forest also say the letter was sent when UEFA was already investigating Palace’s status amid a crackdown on these rules, which had already seen European football’s governing body kick Irish side Drogheda United and Slovakia’s DAC 1904 out of the Conference League for similar breaches.

Nevertheless, Forest’s owner Marinakis, along with former Palace minority shareholder John Textor — whose controlling stake in French side Lyon had been the trigger for Palace’s demotion — and UEFA, became the focus of Palace fans’ ire.

At their first three games of this season — the Community Shield at Wembley, the goalless Premier League draw away to Chelsea and the first leg at home against Fredrikstad — Palace fans displayed a banner with the words ‘UEFA MAFIA’ on a version of the body’s logo with a Euro symbol replacing the map of Europe, and also chanted “F*** UEFA, f*** John Textor, f*** Marinakis.” It’s clear who they blame for the situation, and it’s not anybody in the current Palace hierarchy.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6572365/2025/08/24/marinakis-banner-palace-forest/Ed

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