Evangelos Marinakis makes big boardroom call at Nottingham Forest and we think we know why

Add as preferred source on Google

Another Nottingham Forest board member was removed on Thursday, but Evangelos Marinakis may have had a very good reason to do so.

February saw Socratis Kominakis removed as a Forest director in what was a surprising move at the time given that he had been part of the initial consortium when Marinakis took over the Reds in 2017.

Marinakis has certainly been busy behind the scenes this season as the Forest squad continues to excel on the pitch. Marinakis has plans to turn the City Ground into a 50,000 capacity stadium whilst financially, the club is beginning to show greater strength as Forest had just a £16m transfer net spend.

Whilst the City Ground redevelopment has been delayed until 2026, Marinakis remains mobile in the boardroom, and Thursday’s news proves this, as the Forest owner’s decision had clever forward thinking in mind.

Evangelos Marinakis terminated Ioannis Vrentzos’ role as a director at the City Ground

With the Premier League set for five Champions League spots, it is becoming more and more likely that Nuno Espirito Santo is going to be lining up his Forest squad in European competition next season, which may have distracted from Ioannis Vrentzos’ departure.

In a companies house update, it was revealed that Vrentzos was removed from his role as director at the start of March. Vrentzos was initially CEO at Forest before Dane Murphy took on his role in September 2021, moving Vrentzos into the director role.

His American replacement has also left the club, but nearly returned to the Premier League, as Murphy was linked with a role at Everton but such move never materialised.

Vrentzos’ next move remains to be seen, but there is one likely reason why Marinakis is making all of these seemingly important moves behind the scenes at the City Ground.

Why Evangelos Marinakis may have removed Ioannis Vrentzos will benefit Nottingham Forest

Given that Marinakis owns Olympiacos in Greece, who are regulars in continental football. The Forest board must be a completely separate entity, as UEFA have strict rules on competing clubs sharing the same officials at boardroom level.

According to the UEFA Champions League regulations: “No individual or legal entity may have control or influence over more than one club participating in a UEFA club competition.” In Vrentzos’ particular case, the most important aspect of “control or influence” is set out as:

• “Being able to exercise by any means a decisive influence in the decision-making of the club.”

Therefore, Marinakis and Forest must be seen to have no similarities at boardroom level to Olyimpiacos; otherwise, the Reds would risk being unable to play in the tournament.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
1	LiverpoolLiverpool	28	20	7	1	66	26	40	67
2	ArsenalArsenal	27	15	9	3	51	23	28	54
3	Nottm ForestNottingham Forest	27	14	6	7	44	33	11	48
4	Man CityManchester City	27	14	5	8	53	37	16	47

Occupying third place in the Premier League table, Espirito Santo’s side are looking good for at least some form of European football. Therefore, losing out on this achievement due to behind-the-scenes regulations would be a bitter pill to swallow, hence Marinakis’ move to act.