Crystal Palace have contacted the Metropolitan Police to ask for additional resources ahead of a potentially fiery clash with Nottingham Forest.
Palace have contacted the Met for additional supportFears over planned protests ahead of the matchForest replaced Palace in the Europa LeagueFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?
Palace were booted out of the Europa League by Uefa after falling foul of the governing bodies' multiclub ownership rules. They were subsequently demoted to the Europa Conference League and replaced by Forest, who lobbied Uefa and sent a legal team to attend Palace's hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Palace fans have made their feelings clear already, including banners at the Community Shield clash with Liverpool and plan another protest on Sunday, where they face Forest at Selhurst Park.
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Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis will likely be the main target of Palace fans' fury, should he be in attendance for the match. And Met police told the Guardian: "Officers will be in attendance at the upcoming Crystal Palace-Nottingham Forest game. Our priority is keeping fans and the wider public safe, and we will continue to monitor the situation for developments."
WHAT PARISH SAID
Palace chairman Steve Parish said: "We were told that (Forest were involved) and I think that's been made public. There doesn't seem to be a lot of confidentiality that comes out of certain organisations. But we're led to believe that's the issue – if there wasn't somebody that wanted to get in as a consequence, then there wouldn't be a problem. People have got to take a look at themselves. Some people will say it's fine, some people will say it's not."
Getty Images SportWHAT NEXT FOR PALACE AND FOREST?
The ill-feeling between the clubs will likely rumble on for some time, but Palace have more pressing matters heading into the match. Palace have a dreadful record against them, having never won in 10 previous Premier League meetings, drawing six and losing four.