Nottingham Forest are in a truly bizarre position as they head into the business end of the season.
Vitor Pereira’s side are in a relegation dogfight, and the threat of being relegated to the Championship is very concerning.
Nottingham Forest picked up a crucial 3-0 win away at Tottenham Hotspur before the international break, but they’re still just three points above the drop zone with seven games to go.
Forest are also still fighting for silverware, as they’re in the quarter-finals of the Europa League with a two-legged tie against Porto getting underway tonight.
Winning the competition would automatically qualify them for the Champions League, so in theory, they could be playing Lincoln City next season with a trip to the Bernabeu in between.
Forest fans are split on whether they’d rather stay up or win the Europa League and get relegated when we posed the question on TalkingPoints.
Thoughts Forest fans? 🤔
Europa League trophy.
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Now, Kieran Maguire has come out and explained which outcome would be better for the club from a financial perspective.
Kieran Maguire says Nottingham Forest would be better off remaining in the Premier League
Speaking to the Telegraph, Maguire explained that Forest would be better off surviving relegation.
“Forest would be far better off remaining in the Premier League than getting relegated and qualifying for the Champions League.”
Maguire states that Forest could reasonably earn £40m from a Champions League campaign, but that’d be less than half of what the Premier League would generate in revenue.
The report further explains that the City Ground’s expansion plans from 31,000 to 52,000 would likely be halted should they go down, which would limit future revenue.
Juggling a Championship season with the Champions League would also bring its own challenges on the pitch, as Forest would have to play a minimum of 56 matches.
So, that could seriously affect their form in the league and result in another year in the second tier if they fail to gain immediate promotion.
There is another side to this away from the financial perspective.
Fans live for memories in football, and lifting silverware is ultimately what every single team in the country dreams of.
So, even if it meant getting relegated, winning the Europa League would create memories to last a lifetime, and surely that’s what it’s all about.
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