Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest FC was founded in 1865 by a group of local players and is among the oldest clubs in world football, predating the Football League itself by more than two decades. The club's early history left a lasting mark on the sport: Forest are widely credited as the first team to wear shin pads, in 1874, and one of their matches in the 1870s is also cited as the first in which a referee used a whistle to stop play — small details that reflect the club's long, formative role in shaping the modern game.
Forest's defining era arrived under manager Brian Clough, who took charge in January 1975 with the club in the Second Division. Clough, working alongside assistant Peter Taylor, led Forest to promotion in 1977, and in their very first season back in the top flight the club won the First Division title in 1977–78 — a feat achieved by very few promoted sides before or since. What followed was even more remarkable: Forest won the European Cup in two consecutive seasons, 1979 and 1980, beating Malmö and Hamburg respectively in the finals. It remains one of the most improbable achievements in football history, given that the club had been playing second-tier football only three years earlier. Forest also added the European Super Cup and four League Cups during Clough's 18-year reign, the longest and most successful managerial tenure in the club's history.
After Clough's departure in 1993, Forest endured a long period of instability, including relegation from the inaugural Premier League and years spent outside the top two divisions. The club eventually returned to the Premier League in 2022, ending a 23-year absence from English football's top flight, and has since re-established itself as a regular top-flight side under owner Evangelos Marinakis.
Forest play their home matches at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Trent, a ground the club has occupied since 1898. In the 2025–26 season, the club enjoyed its deepest European run since the Clough era, reaching the semi-finals of the UEFA Europa League — their first continental semi-final in more than 40 years — before being eliminated by Aston Villa, who won the second leg 4–0 at Villa Park to complete a 4–1 aggregate victory after Forest had taken a 1–0 lead in the first leg at the City Ground.
The current squad is built around the creativity of Morgan Gibbs-White, the club's top scorer in 2025–26, and the experience of Serbian centre-back Nikola Milenković. Combining a rich, trophy-laden history with renewed Premier League ambition, Nottingham Forest remains one of English football's most storied clubs.
