Could Marinakis be an issue if Forest get into Europe again?
[Getty Images] As the battle for places in Europe hots up in the Premier League, the race to shuffle papers to satisfy Uefa's bureaucrats has been just as intense. This is because European football's governing body has strict multi-club ownership (MCO) rules. Those rules could cause a team to be demoted from one competition to another, like Crystal Palace were from the Europa League to the Conference League last season, or miss out on Europe altogether.
Last year, Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis placed the club into a blind trust in case they qualified for the Champions League. That could have presented a conflict with his other club, Olympiakos. With Forest in the semi-finals of the Europa League, once again they have a chance of being in the Champions League.
And Olympiakos look like being in it too. In a blind trust, relevant parties transfer their shares to independent trustees, whereby all the decision-making of the club will rest solely under the control of the third party. The club are controlled through a company called NF Football Investments.
Until 28 February, Marinakis was the only person with significant control. He was removed and it was passed to another company, Pittville Four Limited, controlled by Janet Lucy Gibson, Henry Peter Hickman and Eleanor Catherine Walsh. Those three independent trustees were also added to the football club's board, replacing Mighael Dugher, Simon Forster and Jonathan Owen.
Forest's problem could be that the new additions had to pass the Premier League's owners and directors test. It was not until 17 April that Companies House was updated. The Premier League's register of directors, last updated on 2 April, still lists Marinakis, Dugher, Forster and Owen.