Marinakis dilutes control of Forest

Evangelos Marinakis completed a takeover of Nottingham Forest in 2017

Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis has diluted his control of the club in preparation for Champions League qualification.

Uefa, European football's governing body, has strict rules regarding multi-club ownership models such as the one Marinakis heads up.

In addition to owning Forest, the Greek businessman also controls Greek team Olympiakos, as well as Portuguese side Rio Ave.

Forest and Olympiakos are both on course to qualify for next season's Champions League, a prospect that would contravene Uefa's rules that state clubs under the same ownership cannot compete in the same European competition.

Documents filed at Companies House show that Marinakis has ceased to become a "person with significant control" of NF Football Investments Limited, the vehicle that owns the City Ground club.

While Marinakis has placed his shares in a blind trust, a Forest source confirmed to the BBC that he remains the club's owner and is still committed to the club.

The development is among a number of changes filed with Companies House in light of Uefa's rules.

Sources have confirmed the move is designed to ensure the ownership model is positioned to ensure Forest comply with Uefa's rules.

The alterations in ownership structure had to be completed by the end of April, a rule Forest have complied with.

With Marinakis stepping back, Forest's co-owner Sokratis Kominakis returns to the club's board.

Forest are sixth in the Premier League, level on points with fifth-placed Chelsea, who occupy the final Champions League qualification spot. Forest have a game in hand over Chelsea.

Olympiakos are top of the Greek top flight and are set to qualify for the Champions League.

Manchester City and Girona, who are both owned by City Football Group, were cleared to compete in this season's Champions League after changes to its control arrangements at the Spanish club.

Meanwhile, former Arsenal sporting director Edu is expected to be confirmed in a new global role within Marinakis' multi-club model in the coming weeks.

Edu left Emirates Stadium last November and has completed a period of notice with the north London club.

BBC Sport understands the Brazilian executive has been working on an informal basis since leaving Arsenal, but his appointment is yet to be concluded.

That process is ongoing amid an expectancy that his formal appointment is completed and announced later this summer.

'Uefa will have to assess Marinakis move'

Simon Stone, chief football news reporter

The established ways round Uefa's multi-club ownership rules are to either reduce a stake in one of them - as Brighton owner Tony Bloom did with his Belgian outfit Union-Saint Gilloise when they found themselves in the Europa League with Brighton - or put one of them into a 'blind trust' so an individual cannot exert influence over two clubs, as happened with Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the potential conflict between Manchester United and French club Nice.

Yet Ratcliffe subsequently complained at the additional ruling, which prevented players being transferred from one club to another as he wanted United to sign central defender Jean-Clair Todibo, who joined West Ham on loan instead.

Uefa will need to assess exactly what Marinakis has done before Forest are cleared to play in European competition.

Last year it was 8 July before United and Nice, as well as Manchester City and Girona, were ushered through - and it is clearly possible Olympiakos and Nottingham Forest will not end up in the same European competition.

But with Olympiakos starting out in the second qualifying round of the Champions League on 22 July and the potential for clubs to drop out of that competition into the Europa League before the actual tournament begins in September, the ruling has to be made a long time ahead of knowing whether Forest and Olympiakos could meet or not.

'Changes make a lot of sense' - analysis

Kieran Maguire, football finance expert

It looks as if Marinakis is future-proofing things at Forest by effectively transferring control of the club to another company and to other people.

There will therefore be no conflict of interest should Forest be in the same competition and potentially with fixtures against Olympiakos.

We've seen in cases like Manchester United, Aston Villa, Brighton, Manchester City that they are part of multi-club ownership models and changes have had to be made.

With Forest's excellent form this season, meaning they are potentially going to be featuring in the Champions League next year, the decision to make some legal changes to the control of both Forest and NF Football Investments makes a lot of sense.

By creating a blind trust it means that the day-to-day operations of Nottingham Forest will be determined by independent parties. Marinakis will not be involved in decision-making such as player recruitment, who is going to be the coach, the style of play and so on.

Multi-club ownership does bring complications first of all for Uefa and potentially longer term for Fifa as well, considering the expansion of the Club World Cup that we will see this season.

But it is also important, from the perspective of many shareholders, gambling companies, fans and broadcasters, that the competition, both from Uefa and Fifa's perspective, is fair and honest.