The Premier League punishment Tottenham can face after Nottingham Forest take action over Morgan Gibbs-White

Nottingham Forest have launched a remarkable complaint against Tottenham for their approach to signing Morgan Gibbs-White, but there is a previous precedent in the Premier League.

Forest are preparing a complaint about Spurs over an alleged illegal approach for Gibbs-White, with the issue said to stem from Spurs’ knowledge of the release clause in the midfielder’s contract.

To the surprise of the entire football world, Spurs triggered a £60m release clause in Gibbs-White’s contract, but Forest have raised concerns as to how they became aware of the clause in the first place.

Should Evangelos Marinakis pursue this official complaint, it wouldn’t be the first time the Premier League have dealt with a dispute over the confidentiality of a release clause, with a near identical situation presenting itself back in 2000.

The Premier League have dealt with release clause disputes before

Nottingham Forest News reported that both parties still expect Gibbs-White to move to Spurs, even with the delay to the deal caused by Forest’s complaint.

The situation may seem unprecedented, but the Premier League actually had to deal with another issue surrounding a release clause being triggered when Liverpool signed Christian Ziege from Middlesbrough.

Ziege moved to Anfield after Liverpool triggered a £5m release clause in his contract, but Middlesbrough were adamant that the Merseyside club couldn’t have known about this clause lawfully, leading to a Premier League charge.

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According to Sky Sports at the time, Liverpool were charged by the Premier League for making an illegal approach to Ziege. In this case, it was Ziege who made the clause known to Liverpool, leading to the German also facing a charge from the league.

Marinakis will be happy to know that the Premier League have taken a similar complaint seriously, but perhaps not as pleased at the actual punishment that Liverpool ended up facing.

Liverpool faced a lenient punishment in the Christian Ziege case

Despite the charge, Ziege did become a Liverpool player, evidence enough that Forest’s complaint is incredibly unlikely to stop Gibbs-White’s move to North London.

31 Jan 2001: Alf Inge Haaland of Man City clears from Christian Ziege of Liverpool during the match between Manchester City v Liverpool in the FA Carling Premiership at Maine Road, Manchester. Mandatory Credit: Alex Livesey/ALLSPORT

Marinakis may still want Spurs punished, though, but he would likely be disappointed by the outcome if the Premier League followed the same precedent they set in the Ziege controversy.

According to the Liverpool Echo in 2023: “Liverpool were charged with making an illegal approach for the player [Ziege] and ultimately fined £20,000.

“And it was only in March 2004 that it emerged a secret compromise had been reached between Liverpool and Middlesbrough over compensation for the Teessiders shortly before the matter was due in court.”

Perhaps the Forest owner will be angling for a bit of compensation for the club just as Middlesbrough received, but if the Ziege example is anything to go by, Spurs won’t be sweating over Marinakis’ complaint.

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