Exclusive: Nottingham Forest eye ‘really intricate’ boost from Crystal Palace
Nottingham Forest are looking to gain a financial boost from Crystal Palace but the workings of it are “really intricate”.
That is how football finance expert Dan Plumley explained the situation exclusively to Football Insider, as the Eagles face a fight to be admitted into next year’s Europa League.
John Textor’s shareholding in both Palace and French side Lyon are proving to be an issue.
Both teams qualified for the Europa League next season, but as the Ligue 1 club finished higher than the South London club in their division, they take precedence for entry to UEFA’s second-tier club competition.
Textor had the opportunity in March to put his Palace shares into a blind trust, but given Oliver Glasner’s team were nowhere near the race for Europe in the Premier League at the time, the American businessman chose not to.
That decision looks to be coming back to haunt both the businessman and club, as his shareholdings in both teams violate UEFA’s rules on multi-club ownership [UEFA].
Whilst not confirmed, if Palace were to be barred from entry to the Europa League next season, Forest may be given their place instead after finishing seventh in the Premier League and qualifying for the Conference League.
Evangelos Marinakis, owner of the Tricky Trees, did put his shares into a blind trust earlier in the season and seeing an opportunity to profit from the situation, the club have written a letter to UEFA expressing their concerns about the Eagles’ participation in European competition [The Times].
Nottingham Forest looking to ‘further their own interests’
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, finance expert Plumley outlined why Forest had chosen to write to UEFA.
He stated that whilst it was “really intricate”, the motivation was to gain the financial boost from competing in the Europa League over the Conference League.
The finance expert had previously explained to Football Insider that competing in the Europa League group stage alone was worth around €20million (£17m).
Plumley said: “It does become really intricate when you get into the detail, certainly from a Forest point of view, this is an example of them looking to further their own interests, absolutely.
“And given where they finished in the league and that one place difference, you can see the financial boost it would give to them for Europa League versus Conference League.”
Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace continue to go head-to-head
The jousting between the two clubs is not just limited to the boardroom level, as Mick Brown revealed to Football Insider that Forest and Palace are amongst the clubs keen on signing Man City winger Oscar Bobb on loan.
The Norwegian starlet is one of the Premier League’s brightest young talents, but the 21-year-old missed almost the entirety of last season due to injury.
With both clubs set to compete in Europe, as things stand, Bobb would represent a fantastic addition to their respective squads.
Both Morgan Gibbs-White and Eberechi Eze are linked with departures from their respective clubs, and the youngster would help fill the void that their potential exit’s would open up.