Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis has used Olympiacos’ impressive win over Aston Villa to take a swipe at authorities.
Sport 24 cover the Greek owner’s comments today after he gave an emotional speech following the win over Aston Villa in the Europa Conference League.
The Greek side were 2-0 winners over Unai Emery’s side last night, ensuring their place in the final with an impressive 6-2 win on aggregate following a 4-2 win at Villa Park.
It was a huge moment for the Greek side, who had not been fancied to progress from the semi-final given Villa are challenging for the top four in the Premier League this season and led by Emery, an expert in European competitions.
It meant celebrations were naturally wild after the game and Marinakis was part of it, perhaps taking advantage of one of his clubs enjoying success this season.
He’s had something of a miserable year at Nottingham Forest, who have been battling relegation throughout this campaign and had to deal with a points deduction to boot for Profit and Sustainability rule breaches.
Their appeal against that four point deduction was rejected this week, leading to further anger and disappointment in a season full of it.
Marinakis has been at war with the establishment in the UK for months over the situation, but he was turning his attention elsewhere in an emotional speech last night.
“Tonight, millions of people have not understood what has happened,” the Nottingham Forest owner said.
“Olympiacos playing in this final, beating teams that are in the Champions League, teams with seven times the budget and playing as they are playing at home or as tonight at our home , fills us with great joy, great optimism.
“One has to think from which country we started and did this, with which football federation did we do this, with which government did we do this and despite the difficulties we achieved this great dream.
“What I want to say is that at first nobody believed it, then two, and then more. Slowly everyone believed it. Despite the difficulties, despite what is written, what everyone may be discussing, we have faith in our dreams, we support them with hard work and all together I believe we can conquer the top.
“It is a great night, historic for Greek football. Tonight all the Greeks are together. We need them all in a short time, on Greek soil, to lift it all together. It is something we will do for our Greece, for our Legend, for our Piraeus, but above all for our place.”
