Crystal Palace are in talks with Nottingham Forest, and the Metropolitan police, over the provision of increased security for Sunday’s Premier League game between the teams at Selhurst Park.
Palace supporters are understood to be planning a protest at the fixture over Forest’s perceived role in getting them demoted to the Conference League, with Nuno Espírito Santo’s side replacing Palace in the Europa League after they were found by Uefa’s Club Financial Control Body [CFCB] to have broken multi-club ownership rules due to their former shareholder John Textor’s ownership of the French club Lyon, who also qualified for the latter competition. Forest wrote to Uefa with their observations about the alleged breach and sent their legal team to attend Palace’s appeal hearing at the court of arbitration for sport, which upheld the CFCB’s decision last week.
The Palace chairman, Steve Parish, said in an interview with Gary Lineker’s Rest is Football podcast last month that Forest had played a key role in the decision to ban them. “We were told that and I think it’s been made public,” Parish 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 got 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 fans have rallied behind Parish’s sense of injustice and are planning to make their feelings known at Sunday’s game, which would ordinarily be categorised as a low-risk fixture by the Met. While details of the protest have yet to be confirmed, there have been suggestions that protesters plan to arrive early at Selhurst Park and target the visitors’ team coach, which may require additional protection from police and stewards.
Hundreds of Palace supporters marched to Selhurst Park in protest after the initial decision to ban them from the Europa League last month, which the supporters’ group the Holmesdale Fanatics described as “a terrible injustice for both our club and the game of football as a whole”. More fans are likely to protest before what is Palace’s first home game of the season, particularly given the identity of their opponents.
Forest’s owner, Evangelos Marinakis, is likely to be a target of abuse if the Greek billionaire decides to attend the game. Marinakis goes to most of Forest’s games in London and will be free to make his way to south London given his Greek club, Olympiakos, begin their season with a home game against Asteras Tripolis on Saturday evening.
Marinakis will have his own security detail with him at Selhurst Park if he does attend, as is standard practice, while Forest’s safety and security team are involved in ongoing discussions with their counterparts at Palace to assess the level of risk. Despite the ill-feeling between the clubs, Palace have made it clear that Marinakis will be welcome in the boardroom.
A Met spokesperson told the Guardian: “Officers will be in attendance at the upcoming Crystal Palace-Nottingham Forest game. Our priority is keeping fans and the wider public safe, and we will continue to monitor the situation for developments.”