Today was supposed to be the day that Nottingham Forest found out who their opponents would be in the UEFA Conference League.
However, a lot has happened since the season finished in May.
Crystal Palace, who pinched the Europa League place by winning the FA Cup, have been demoted from the competition after UEFA ruled they’d breached multi-owner stipulations that needed to be completed ahead of participation.
As a result, UEFA have subsequently kicked them out and replaced them with Forest, who must now wait for the outcome of Palace’s appeal process to discover which competition they will play in.
Who Nottingham Forest will play if UEFA Conference League is on the agenda
If Palace are successful and win their appeal to get a place back in the Europa League, Forest will face a trip to Scandinavia.
Today’s draw has thrown Crystal Palace a trip to play the loser of Fredrikstad from Norway or Midtjylland from Denmark in the play-off stage of the competition.
Forest have never played either team and it does feel as though Fredrikstad will be the most likely of the two teams that lose and face a Conference League play-off.
Now, all eyes are on the CAS over whether or not they determined that UEFA were wrong to kick Palace out of the Europa League and give them their place back.
When Forest will discover European fate
The appeal will be heard overseas on Friday with Forest set to have a representative present at the hearing, with the Reds set to benefit if it goes wrong for Palace.
Forest fans will look forward to the UEFA Conference League if not and the consensus will be that the tournament is winnable from the team’s perspective.
The Europa League would naturally throw up some very intriguing ties for Forest and nobody would be turning their nose up at that competition.
Now, all eyes will be on the CAS for Evangelos Marinakis and it will be fascinating to see what happens with regard to Palace and their appeal process.
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