Sky Sports apologises to Nottingham Forest for Gary Neville comments after Everton defeat

Sky Sports has issued an apology to Nottingham Forest following comments made by Gary Neville in which he accused the club’s ownership of behaving like a 'mafia gang'.

The former Manchester United defender accused Forest of acting like a 'mafia gang' after they released a controversial statement following their 2-0 defeat to Everton, saying that they were 'considering their options' over 'extremely poor' refereeing decisions. The Midland club were left furious after seeing penalty claims centred on incidents involving Ashley Young waved away.

As well as slamming Forest for the statement, Neville also said that former referee Mark Clattenburg should resign from his position as a consultant. The Midlands club, however, were furious with the pundit’s comments and sent a legal letter to Sky.

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But now, in a statement released on their website on Friday, Sky issued an apology to Forest as well as revealing that Neville has agreed not to use the same or similar terms in future coverage.

“In response to a Nottingham Forest statement outlining their grievances with PGMOL following their match with Everton on 21 April Gary Neville, commenting on Super Sunday, strongly criticised Nottingham Forest’s approach,” the statement said.

“Sky Sports have discussed with Gary the language used and its potential to cause offence. Gary has agreed not to use the same or similar terms in future coverage.

“Sky Sports apologises to Nottingham Forest for any offence caused by this language.”

Forest issued the highly critical post on X around five minutes after the full-time whistle went at Goodison Park. But reacting to the statement ahead of Fulham's game against Liverpool later on the day, Neville said: "It’s like a mafia-gang statement. I mean, honestly, what the hell are they playing at? It’s like a petulant child, it’s embarrassing.

“And some of those things they’re saying in there, the suggestion of some sort of inferring of cheating because there’s an official in VAR in Stockley Park who’s a Luton fan is a scandal, and they will pay for that.”