Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis stormed onto the pitch and seemingly confronted manager Nuno Espirito Santo immediately after the final whistle against Leicester.
Forest conceded a late equalizer in the last ten minutes, resulting in a 2-2 draw with Leicester and potentially impacting their European qualification hopes.
Marinakis` action of entering the field occurred as players, coaches, and officials were exchanging post-match handshakes.
The Greek owner initially seemed to walk past Nuno but then turned back to speak to the Forest manager after Nuno had finished interacting with Oliver Skipp.
Marinakis was seen gesturing intensely and appeared frustrated as he spoke to Nuno in what was described as a forceful manner.
Nuno seemed somewhat resigned to the situation, extending his arms in a gesture resembling a shrug.
Former player and pundit Gary Neville expressed his disapproval of Marinakis` actions, calling them `scandalous` on Twitter.
“Scandalous from that Forest owner. Nuno should go and negotiate his exit tonight with him! The Forest fans, players and manager do not deserve that.”
Speaking later on Sky Sports, Neville repeated his strong condemnation, calling the owner`s conduct on the pitch `absolutely scandalous` and an `absolute joke`. He emphasized that Forest had just secured European competition and that such a public confrontation in front of fans was unacceptable.
Nuno later clarified that Marinakis` frustration stemmed from the situation involving player Taiwo Awoniyi, who continued playing despite sustaining an injury after hitting the goalpost.
Awoniyi was reportedly asked if he needed substituting but declined, leading Nuno to use his final substitution elsewhere (bringing on Jota Silva for Elliot Anderson).
However, Awoniyi was indeed injured and unable to perform effectively in the closing ten minutes, which apparently triggered Marinakis` displeasure.
Speaking after the match, Nuno commented on the incident, stating:
“Football is emotions. Today there were more than 30,000 people in the ground with their own emotions. It was a tough moment, after the situation with [Taiwo Awoniyi] we had one man less after a misunderstanding. It’s difficult to control emotions when we had so much expectation on a day like this.”
When asked specifically if the Awoniyi situation prompted Marinakis` reaction, Nuno confirmed:
“Yes, it was because of that. It was a misunderstanding, a miscommunication. I’m sorry, I cannot go much further. It’s based on emotions, you cannot make a big deal out of it. It happens and it will happen again. With the emotions today, it’s understandable.”
Marinakis later released a statement addressing the incident, emphasizing the team`s European qualification but also acknowledging the frustration regarding Awoniyi`s injury and the medical staff`s assessment:
“Today is a day for celebration, because after 30 years Nottingham Forest is now guaranteed to be competing on the European stage once again – a promise I made to our supporters when we achieved promotion.
With two more games to go in the Premier League, we must keep believing and keep dreaming, right to the final kick in the final game.
We are extremely proud and close to Nuno and the team, and we must all celebrate the historic achievements of this season.
Everybody – coaching staff, players, supporters and including myself – we were frustrated around the injury of Taiwo and the medical staff’s misjudgement on Taiwo’s ability to continue the game.
This is natural, this is a demonstration of the passion we feel for our club. Let’s all be grateful, passionate and keep on dreaming.”
This was not the first instance of Marinakis entering the pitch immediately after a match.
In March of the previous year, he went onto the field to speak with officials after Liverpool scored a late winning goal against Forest at the City Ground.
He expressed anger after Liverpool scored during nine minutes of added time.
In that previous match, referee Paul Tierney had stopped a Forest attack due to Ibrahima Konate`s apparent head injury. Marinakis was reportedly escorted away by security after following Tierney down the tunnel.
Marcus Bellamy