Nottingham Forest

United States consortium frustrated with failed Nottingham Forest takeover talks

By Giuseppe Labellarte, ReporterPublished: 19 January 2017 9:29 PM

The United States-based consortium which has been trying to buy Nottingham Forest insists that it still wants to complete a takeover of the club.

Current Reds owner Fawaz Al Hasawi had said that a deal with the group, led by John Jay Moores, was not in the "best interests of the club" when talks broke down.

Moores and Charles Noell, the two figureheads leading the consortium, released a statement in which they claim to have made an offer to buy the club outright in recent days.

It read: "We are disappointed that it was not possible to close the proposed deal for our acquisition of Nottingham Forest Football Club Limited. Until now we have chosen not to comment openly about the process of our negotiations with the club's ownership. We recognise the anxiety and uncertainty this situation has caused among fans and share the deep sense of frustration they are currently feeling.

"We have been firmly committed to completing the acquisition since we opened negotiations in August and we remained optimistic throughout that the sale would be completed. That the deal remains incomplete is not due to any lack of immediately available capital, belief, desire, action or ability on the part of either ourselves or our advisory team, who have worked tirelessly throughout.

"In anticipation of this sale actually closing, we made extensive preparations to improve the club, both on and off the pitch. We also chose to support the club financially by lending monies to it to ensure that salaries were met in November and December.

"Our most recently revised offer was made earlier this week. It was made with significantly enhanced terms to acquire 100% of the club, which was the owner's preference. Sadly, this offer was not accepted. This offer was made following us being informed last week by the current owners that there was no longer a desire to conclude on the agreed terms reflected in the documentation.

"We will remain interested in following Forest's performance with a view to perhaps re-engaging with the ownership about acquiring the club in the future."

Forest are currently without a manager and sit in 20th place in the Championship standings.