Nottingham Forest demand assurances from Neville to lift City Ground ban | OneFootball

Nottingham Forest have yet to resolve their dispute with Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville as the new Premier League season begins.

The stand-off dates back to May, when Neville was denied media accreditation for Forest’s final game of last season against Chelsea.

The decision followed comments he made criticising owner Evangelos Marinakis for confronting manager Nuno Espirito Santo on the pitch after a 2-2 draw with Leicester.

Marinakis claimed he was acting out of concern for striker Taiwo Awoniyi, who had collided with a post and later required abdominal surgery.

Neville described the intervention as ‘scandalous’ and suggested Nuno should ‘negotiate his exit’ in light of the incident.

Forest responded with a statement urging public figures to ‘resist the urge to rush to judgement’ and condemning ‘ill-informed outrage’ for social media traction.

This was not the first clash between Neville and the club. In April 2024, he likened a Forest statement criticising VAR Stuart Attwell to something from a ‘mafia gang’.

The post-match statement, issued after a defeat at Everton, alleged bias and highlighted Attwell’s supposed links to Luton Town.

That comment prompted threats of legal action from Marinakis and a formal apology from Sky Sports, who acknowledged the language could offend. Neville agreed not to use similar terms again.

Despite the apology, the relationship has remained strained.

Forest maintain that Neville is not formally banned but say further assurances are needed before he can return to the City Ground. These assurances would relate to how he addresses Marinakis in future broadcasts.

Sky Sports had assumed the ban was a one-off, but the matter remains unresolved ahead of Forest’s opening fixture against Brentford. Neville will instead be on duty for Manchester United’s home game against Arsenal.

The Premier League has privately expressed concern at Forest’s treatment of one of its key broadcast partners, although clubs retain the right to deny accreditation at their discretion.

Sky previously described Forest’s decision to block Neville’s access as ‘unprecedented and unwelcome’. Neville himself called it ‘disappointing’ and ‘symptomatic’ of issues at the club over the past year.

The situation has raised wider questions over how pundits and clubs interact in an era of increasingly public criticism and social media fallout.