Pundit Simon Jordan has accused Nottingham Forest of being “mean-spirited” for reportedly outlining their concerns over Crystal Palace’s Europa League place.
The Eagles are at risk of losing their spot in Europe’s second tier club competition, which they secured by winning the FA Cup last month. Governing body UEFA must decide whether the south London side have breached the rules regarding multi-club ownership.
If it is deemed Palace have fallen foul of the rules and they are booted out of the Europa League, the Reds stand to benefit. Finishing seventh in the Premier League qualified Nuno Espirito Santo’s side for the Conference League, but they could be bumped up to the Europa League if their divisional rivals are kicked out.
Forest, who are owned by Greek businessman Evangelos Marinakis, are understood to have written to UEFA asking for clarity after expressing concerns over Palace’s Europa League spot. As a result, former Eagles chairman Jordan has hit out at the Reds putting their “two penneth in”.
“I’m trying to put myself in the situation where I wonder what I would do,” he said on talkSPORT. “Obviously I’ve got a vested interest because it’s my former football club and my allegiance is with them.
“I’m trying to work out, if I were Nottingham Forest, would I feel a necessity to put my two penneth in when UEFA have already made their position clear that Crystal Palace need to find a solution to the problem. Crystal Palace and Lyon need to find a solution to the potential problem they’ve got, and I don’t think it needs Nottingham Forest to put their two penneth in. But Marinakis being Marinakis, he will suggest that actually we (Forest) had the foresight to avoid the same problem.”
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Palace’s run-in with the rules has come about because John Textor, who holds a 43 percent stake in the club through his company Eagle Football, is also the owner of French side Lyon. The French outfit qualified for the Europa League courtesy of their sixth-placed finish in Ligue 1. No individual is permitted to have a significant say in the running of two clubs competing in the same UEFA competition.
Palace are reportedly confident no rules have been breached. They held a meeting with UEFA officials last week, but it could be later on this month before a decision over their fate is made.
At one stage last season, it looked as though the Reds and fellow Marinakis-owned side Olympiacos might both qualify for the Champions League. To avoid potentially being in the situation Palace are in, Marinakis placed his Forest shares in a blind trust so as not to fall foul of the regulations.
Jordan branded the multi-club ownership rules as “slightly ludicrous”. He pointed to the difference between how European football is run compared to a more united front when it comes to sport in America.
“Nottingham Forest are in the business of looking after Nottingham Forest,” he said. “When I was doing a television documentary and went over to America, one of the things (I noticed) was the owners all work together in American sports because they are all united by an outcome which is based upon mutual interest.
“Relegation doesn’t form part of it and you’ve got a central theme, which is that we all work together because we know the outcome is going to benefit all of us. In European football, it’s a bastion of division and competition and there’s no two people who think the same way.
“You’ve got different ownership models left, right and centre. And of course you have got jeopardy, which is relegation and failure to qualify (for Europe). It creates a culture where people don’t work as business partners, which means you can’t ever make changes that are structural to the sport because you are always going to have one person that argues against it.”
He continued: “You’ve got that backdrop. So in that backdrop, why wouldn’t Nottingham Forest stoke the fire?
“Why wouldn’t Nottingham Forest say: ‘Err, excuse me, this lot over here (Palace), I don’t think so. Make sure you sharpen your pencils, make sure you look at Crystal Palace in a way that we’d like you to. Crystal Palace are not likely to be here again, so you’re not offending one of the big clubs by booting them out of Europe. Just be mindful of that.’” Jordan added: “It’s a bit mean-spirited, isn’t it?”
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