Finance guru: Nottingham Forest ‘looking for new deal’ amid ‘£7m’ offer claim
Nottingham Forest partnering with refugee charity UNHCR is admirable but it stems from the club’s £10million overvaluation in the summer.
That is the view of finance expert Doctor Dan Plumley, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about the commercial shortcomings of Forest over the summer.
It was reported by The Athletic last Thursday (29 December) that Forest are set to start 2023 with a new shirt sponsor after agreeing to a partnership with the UN refugee charity UNHCR.
The charity supports relief efforts for people fleeing conflict and persecution around the world and will be present on both the men’s and women’s shirts for the remainder of the season.
Forest played the first half of the campaign without any shirt sponsor and Plumley believes the club’s failure to strike a deal in the summer comes from their overvaluation as a newly-promoted club.
“It’s a really nice gesture. It’s great that the club have gone down that road in that regard as it’s much better than leaving it blank for the rest of the season,” The Sheffield Hallam University expert told Football Insider’s Adam Williams.
“But the backstory in the summer was that they were holding out for a deal of around £10m, which is pitched very high for a newly-promoted club compared to some of the benchmarks and averages in the league.
“I suggested at the time that if there was a deal on the table for around £5-7million that would have been a good deal to take.
“They were holding out for £10m and they have their reasons for that.
“But it’s now halfway through the season and there’s no way they extract as much value from that deal.
“They’ll now be looking for a new deal for next season which will largely depend on whether they are in the Premier League or the Championship.
“So it’s a great gesture but it comes off the back of not being able to strike a shirt sponsorship deal at the start of the season.
“They were holding out for a deal that was beyond them. They’re not short of cash generated but that was definitely an oversight for a newly-promoted club.“
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