Overview

• Nottingham Forest have yet to resolve their dispute with Gary Neville, demanding he pledge to moderate his language about owner Evangelos Marinakis before granting him accreditation at the City Ground.
• Sky Sports maintains it has settled the issue and intends to keep broadcasting Forest’s opening match, though Neville will cover Manchester United’s season opener at Old Trafford instead.
• The dispute was triggered by Neville’s description of Forest as a “mafia gang” and his criticism of Marinakis’s on-pitch intervention, which led the club to accuse him of “fake news.”
• Forest previously imposed an unprecedented ban on Neville for their final game last season, forcing Sky to switch to studio coverage and prompting the broadcaster to apologise for any offence his comments caused.
• Broadcasters warn that clubs’ control over accreditation could set a problematic precedent for media access and press freedoms in English football.