Forest owner Marinakis sues Palace for defamation after ‘gun’ banner

John PercyMon, August 10, 2026 at 6:05 PM UTC

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Evangelos Marinakis was said to be furious at the banner unfurled by Crystal Palace fans last August - Bradley Collyer/PA

Evangelos Marinakis, the Nottingham Forest owner, has escalated his bitter feud with Crystal Palace after issuing a claim for defamation.

Marinakis is suing Palace over the controversial banner unfurled at Selhurst Park during the Premier League game between the two clubs on August 24.

The banner appeared to depict the Greek businessman holding a gun to the head of Morgan Gibbs-White, who had recently signed a new contract with Forest after rejecting interest from Tottenham.

It also included the words “Mr Marinakis is not involved in blackmail, match-fixing, drug trafficking or corruption”.

Marinakis, and Forest, were furious at the time and have now lodged a claim with the High Court.

In February, Palace were fined £50,000 by the Football Association after being charged with failing “to ensure its spectators and/or supporters (and anyone purporting to be supporters or followers) didn’t behave in an improper, offensive, abusive, insulting and/or provocative way at this match”.

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The row between Palace and Forest ignited last year after the south London club were demoted to the Uefa Conference League in a dispute over multi-club ownership rules.

Forest took the FA Cup winners’ place in the Europa League competition, with Palace chairman Steve Parish telling Gary Lineker on The Rest Is Football podcast that Forest were culpable.

He said: “There doesn’t seem to be a lot of confidentiality that comes out of certain organisations. But we’re led to believe that’s the issue – if there wasn’t somebody that wanted to get in as a consequence, then there wouldn’t be a problem.

“People have to look at themselves. Some people will say it’s fine, some people will say it’s not. I don’t really have control of that. I only have control of the arguments that we put forward to Uefa.”

Palace did win the Conference League under the management of Oliver Glasner, while Forest reached the semi-finals of the Europa League.

Oliver Glasner has joined Nottingham Forest as manager after leaving Palace earlier this summer - Getty Images

Marinakis has since appointed Glasner as Forest’s new head coach, after the Austrian’s exit from Palace at the end of last season.

Lawyers for Marinakis declined to comment. Palace declined to comment.

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Source: “AOL Sports”