Cricket: X
On Wednesday, November 5, the Football Association (FA) charged Crystal Palace with misconduct due to their supporters holding an offensive banner of the Nottingham Forest owner, Evangelos Marinakis, nearly three months ago. During a 1-1 draw between both the sides in the Premier League clash at the Selhurst Park, the Crystal Palace fans showcased a banner of Evangelos Marinakis in which he was holding a gun to the head of Morgan Gibbs-White.
The banner had also written on it, “Mr Marinakis is not involved in blackmail, match-fixing, drug trafficking or corruption.” As per the report from BBC Sport, while the Nottingham Forest owner has consistently denied doing anything wrong in regards to the allegations, the FA decided to charge Crystal Palace, not for the banner specifically but not ensuring that their supporters didn’t behave in an improper, offensive, abusive, or provocative way.
Crystal Palace were replaced by Nottingham Forest in UEFA Europa League after demotion
The reason for such an offensive banner could be attributed to how Nottingham Forest replaced Crystal Palace in the UEFA Europa League (UEL) after the latter got demoted to the UEFA Conference League for breaking the multi-club ownership rules. Furthermore, Morgan Gibbs-White, who was slated to leave Nottingham Forest in the summer, stayed at the club before speaking about his decision in an interview in the presence of Evangelos Marinakis.
While Crystal Palace haven’t officially acknowledged the decision yet on their official channels, they have until Tuesday, November 11, to respond to the charge. Moreover, the London-based club are currently in ninth place in the Premier League standings with four wins and four draws in their first 10 matches, accumulating 16 points, just three away from second place.
