Nottingham Forest owner Marinakis sues Crystal Palace over fan banner depicting him holding a gun to Gibbs-White's head
Evangelos Marinakis, the owner of Nottingham Forest, has filed a defamation lawsuit against Crystal Palace at the High Court in London over a provocative fan banner displayed at Selhurst Park last season.
Lawyers for Marinakis lodged the claim against CPFC Limited and "persons unknown" on Monday, August 10, 2026, according to The Guardian. Reuters confirmed the High Court libel filing.
The banner appeared midway through the first half of Crystal Palace's 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest at Selhurst Park — a match played almost 12 months before the legal action was lodged. It depicted Marinakis holding a gun to the head of Morgan Gibbs-White, the England forward who plays for Forest. Alongside the image ran a message: "Mr Marinakis is not involved in blackmail, match-fixing, drug trafficking or corruption." Yahoo Sports also reported the depiction of the banner.
Read that message one way and it reads as sarcastic provocation — a fan group implying the opposite of what the words literally say. That is the crux of the defamation claim: Marinakis's legal team is arguing that the banner's combination of imagery and text falsely associated him with serious criminal activity.
The Football Association had already dealt with the incident. In February, Crystal Palace were fined £50,000 after being found guilty of failing to prevent spectators from behaving in an "improper, offensive, abusive, insulting and/or provocative way" at the match. The FA noted that Palace had a policy in place to stop banners being smuggled into the stadium, which demonstrated the club was aware of the risk.
That FA ruling covered the regulatory side — fan behaviour and the club's responsibility for it. The lawsuit filed this week moves the matter into civil law, where Marinakis is seeking damages for harm to his reputation. Naming "persons unknown" alongside CPFC Limited suggests his lawyers may still be trying to identify the individuals who made and displayed the banner.
This is not Marinakis's first High Court action over alleged reputational damage. In October 2024, The Guardian reported that he was suing a Greek football rival for more than £2.1 million in a separate libel claim over an alleged "smear campaign." That case involves a different defendant and set of allegations but speaks to a pattern: Marinakis has shown he is willing to use the English courts aggressively to protect his public image.
For Crystal Palace, the legal challenge adds a civil dimension to a matter the club might have considered closed after paying the FA fine. For Forest fans, the player at the centre of the banner image — Gibbs-White — is a homegrown talent who has broken into the England senior setup, which made the depiction particularly uncomfortable.
The case will now proceed through the High Court, where the arguments over what the banner meant, who was responsible for it, and how much damage it caused will be tested in front of a judge rather than a football crowd.
