Nottingham Forest CEO Lina Souloukou has spoken on what the summer might hold for the club and the potential impact of qualification for the Champions League.
Souloukou, who joined the club in December having previously held similar positions at Olympiakos and, most recently AS Roma, has forged a reputation as one of the best operators in European football, with her appointment seen as something of a coup at the time for Forest.
Hiring Souloukou was a signal of intent by club owner Evangelos Marinakis to build on the success of the club on and off the pitch and help it become a mainstay in the Premier League and with the ability to challenge for honours.
Forest are enjoying a remarkable season. Under the guidance of head coach Nuno Espirito Santo the club sit third in the Premier League with 11 games left and in the hunt for Champions League football, something that seemed unthinkable at the start of the season but that could be transformational to the club’s finances.
But Forest, hit with a four-point deduction last campaign for breaching the league’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR) for the 2022/23 season, have to be more mindful than most when it comes to having the financial flexibility to invest in the squad this summer to build on what has been achieved. The addition of European football could add an extra layer of complexity to the situation.
Speaking at the Financial Times Business of Football Summit last week, when quizzed on what the summer might look like for Forest, Souloukou said: “Of course it’s hard. To be where we are right now is totally unexpected. It is totally different if by the end of the season you are competing in European competitions, there are certain things that you need to do to adapt in terms of squad, investment and rotation, even the operations of the club. Adding a new competition is a totally new thing.
“It is true that there are certain limitations imposed by the regulation, and also with the different things you are having to comply with, and with what is going to happen with the independent regulator.
“For sure, we need to really think. Right now the Premier League is discussing transforming the current system to one based on squad cost.
“The Premier League is built on excitement, you never know who is going to win the league and there are no easy games. If the clubs do not have the ability and ambition to prosper and invest when they have an owner like Mr Marinakis who is very committed, do we really allow serious investors to do that?”
Souloukou spoke on the plans that the club had to try and find other ways to be competitive in a market where the 19 other clubs share similar media revenues. In order to invest in the product on the pitch, Forest must find ways to build the other revenue pillars of the football club, such as matchday revenue and commercial revenue.
“For clubs like us, the core business is football,” said Souloukou. “The success on the pitch is what plays an important role with revenues and how you are able to build on this success commercially.
“Companies normally want to associate with a success story. People want to come and watch winning teams and buy shirts when the results come, but for now we are seeing that media rights are flattening out.
“We need to think of other revenue streams or how we can recover it. On an individual level, paying more attention on the commercial side of the business and the matchday revenues. We are lucky to have a committed owner who is actually now in the process of redeveloping the stadium and its capacity in order to improve the matchday experience and boost revenues as much as possible.”
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Having worked for Marinakis at Olympiakos in Greece, a club he also holds a majority stake in, Souloukou was well versed in the way the Forest owner worked and took little convincing to make the move.
“We are in a demanding environment,” she said. “It is the demands of the owner that makes us perform, or outperform, to bring success.
“What I truly like, and I think this is why Mr Marinakis has been successful in every club that he has been involved with, is that he is very committed, very present, he is disciplined and supports the people he works with. This is creating an environment that helps you grow while at the same time this is passing down through the organisation, arriving even on the pitch now.
“Being a female executive in this industry, it's not easy to find people to trust you to oversee the whole business of the club, not just business and corporate but the whole business of a football club.”