Nottingham Forest, and particularly their owner Evangelos Marinakis, have been labelled football’s Donald Trump after their furious reaction to the VAR incidents in the defeat to Everton.
Sweden’s Sportbladet lay into the club today as the fallout from their comments on VAR over the weekend continues.
Nottingham Forest have found themselves in the eye of the storm after tweeting after the loss to Everton over the weekend, essentially suggesting VAR was biased.
They had been left frustrated after being denied three penalties at Goodison Park, all involving Ashley Young, with none of the incidents seemingly being analysed by the VAR on the day.
They’ve since claimed the man in charge is a Luton fan, the suggestion being he ruled in Everton’s favour as the Hatters try to chase down Nottingham Forest in the relegation battle at the bottom of the table.
The tweet is now being investigated by various parties, as are comments from the staff and defender Nico Williams, who also commented on the incidents after the game.
Sportbladet are unimpressed, though, saying Nottingham Forest are ‘like football’s Donald Trump’ for the way they are behaving.
They say the tone of the controversial tweet was ‘typical of Evangelos Marinakis’, Nottingham Forest’s owner, who has taken a similar stance with referees in Greece, where he owns Olympiakos.
They say the club’s words after the game ‘drip with arrogance’ and the ‘bizarre mess’ suggests two things clearly, that they don’t understand that refereeing verdicts are subjective with or without VAR and that they will always be disappointed if they expect otherwise.
Instead, they believe Nottingham Forest are leaning too hard into pleasing their fans and social media and buying into the increasing trend of blaming others rather than looking at their own mistakes.
There is a difference between questioning those in power and crossing the line, though, and in Nottingham Forest’s case Sportbladet say they ‘thunder right over it’.
Their posts ‘drips with arrogance’ and the fact that Marinakis reportedly had to be convinced not to go even further speaks volumes about his way of communicating.
