Ex-Forest owner eyes move for Sky Blues, claim reports
FORMER Nottingham Forest owner Fawaz Al Hasawi is reportedly looking to get back involved in English football.
The ex-Forest owner was linked with an interest in purchasing troubled League One outfit Bolton Wanderers during the summer when the Trotters were close to going out of business.
Now reports in The Athletic claim that Coventry City could be a club of interest to Al Hasawi.
This won’t necessarily be an appealing prospect for the Sky Blues or any other potential clubs bearing in mind Al-Hasawi’s time at the City Ground was accompanied by a series of winding-up orders, wages and debts repeatedly being paid late, a transfer embargo for breaching financial fair play regulations, a near relegation to League One and all sorts of eccentric decision-making.
According to one ally of Al-Hasawi, the Kuwaiti millionaire briefly had an interest in Bolton before deciding they were too far north of his property in London.
Coventry are now said to be an option, reports The Athletic. The Kuwaiti took over Forest in 2012 before selling it to Evangelos Marinakis in 2017 after almost five years at the helm. Despite arriving at the City Ground with good intentions and grand ambitions, Al Hasawi’s tenure saw the club make the headlines for the wrong reasons.
Forest endured a Financial Fair Play transfer embargo while he was at the helm and worked their way through a series of managers, which saw supporters protesting against his reign.
The club is now on the rise with Marinakis backing manager Sabri Lamouchi and his players to push for promotion to the Premier League.
A fifth attempt to buy Coventry City FC was made by former vice chairman Gary Hoffman and his consortium of local businessmen back in March – a move that was flatly rejected by Sky Blues owners Sisu.