Marinakis ban appeal dismissed
On this day in Nottingham Forest history in 2024 the FA announces Evangelos Marinakis’s stadium-ban appeal has been dismissed.
Evangelos Marinakis’s five-match stadium ban remained in place after the FA confirmed that his appeal had been dismissed.
The case related to Nottingham Forest’s Premier League match against Fulham at the City Ground on 28 September 2024. After full time, the match officials were walking through the tunnel when Marinakis was standing near the end of the tunnel area. The FA case centred on an allegation that he spat on the floor as the officials passed him.
Marinakis denied improper behaviour and said he had been suffering from a hacking cough. He argued that, as the officials approached, he coughed downwards and away from their path. The Regulatory Commission rejected that explanation after considering the officials’ accounts and CCTV footage. The referee reported that Marinakis had spat on the floor next to his left foot, while another official said he saw a spitting action as the officials walked past.
The Commission found the charge proven and imposed a five-match stadium or ground suspension. Marinakis appealed against both the finding and the sanction, but the Appeal Board dismissed the appeal and left the punishment standing.
The decision came during a period when Forest were attracting attention both on and off the pitch. Results under Nuno Espírito Santo had lifted the team into an unexpectedly high league position, but the tunnel incident kept the club’s relationship with football authorities firmly in the news.
Sources
The FA; Reuters; Morning Star
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Evangelos Marinakis’s five-match stadium ban remained in place after the FA confirmed that his appeal had been dismissed. The case related to Nottingham Forest’s…