Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis is suing Crystal Palace in the High Court over a banner displayed by the south London club’s supporters.
Lawyers for Marinakis lodged the defamation claim almost a year after the banner appeared at a Premier League fixture between the two clubs on 24 August 2025.
The banner depicted Marinakis holding a gun to the head of Forest captain Morgan Gibbs-White, referencing the player’s U-turn over a transfer last summer.
It also bore the words: “Mr Marinakis is not involved in blackmail, match-fixing, drug trafficking or corruption.”
Greek shipping magnate Marinakis has never been charged with any of the stated offences and has previously vigorously denied any allegations connected to them.
The High Court claim names Crystal Palace and “Persons Unknown” as defendants in the defamation proceedings.
The Football Association charged Palace in November 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.”
The club were fined £50,000 in February, with the FA noting: “The fact that Crystal Palace had a policy to prevent banners being smuggled into the stadium demonstrates that it was aware of the risk.”
The banner incident arose amid significant ill-feeling between the two clubs over their respective European competition places last season.
Crystal Palace had qualified for the Europa League by winning the FA Cup in 2024-25, but were removed from the competition after being found in breach of rules on third-party ownership.
Forest took Palace’s Europa League place, leaving Palace demoted to the third-tier Europa Conference League, which they went on to win for their first ever European title.
That victory earned Palace a return to this season’s Europa League, adding another layer of tension to the clubs’ already strained relationship.
In a further twist, Palace manager Oliver Glasner departed at the end of last season and subsequently joined Forest in the same role, working directly under Marinakis.
Lawyers for Marinakis were approached for comment, while a spokesperson for Crystal Palace declined to comment on the legal proceedings.