Brief history of Nottingham Forest F.C.

Nottingham Forest Football Club is an English football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire that currently plays in theFootball League Championship. Forest have been based at the City Ground since 1898. The club is often referred to simply as Forest.

Founded in 1865, Forest were founder members of the Football Alliance in 1889 and joined the Football League in 1892. Forest won the FA Cup in 1898 and 1959, but their most successful period came under the management of Brian Clough, between 1975 and 1993, during which time they won their only league title, two consecutive European Cups, four League Cups and two Full Members Cups. Since then the club have fallen on harder times and have been outside the top-flight since 1999.

Nottingham Forest have worn red since the club’s foundation in 1865. At the meeting in the Clinton Arms which established Nottingham Forest as a football club, the committee also passed a resolution that the team colours should be ‘Garibaldi red’. This decision was made in honour of Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Italian patriot who was the leader of theredshirts party. At this time, clubs identified themselves more by their headgear than their shirts and a dozen red caps with tassels were duly purchased, making Forest the first club to ‘officially’ wear red, a colour that has since been adopted by a significant number of others. Forest is the reason behind Arsenal's choice of red, having donated a full set of red kits following Arsenal's foundation in 1886.

The current club badge was introduced in 1974. The logo has been reported as being the brainchild of manager Brian Clough, however he did not arrive at the club until the year after.


Whilst Notts County is the closest professional football club geographically, Forest have remained at least one division higher since the 1994–95 season and the club's fiercest rivalry is with Derby County, located 14 miles away. The two clubs contest the East Midlands derby, a fixture which has taken on even greater significance since the inception of the Brian Clough Trophy in 2007. Leicester City are Forest's other East Midlands rival due to the close proximity of the two cities. During the pre-Clough era, Leicester were largely considered Forest's main rivals. This is still the case for Forest fans of Melton Mowbray, Loughborough, Rutland and yesteryear. A Football League Cup tie in September 2007 took on an extra dimension after Leicester defender Clive Clarke collapsed due to heart failure. After the match was abandoned, Leicester demonstrated sportsmanship in the replay and allowed Forest keeper Paul Smith to score at the beginning of the match. This was in acknowledgement that Forest were leading 1–0 when the original tie was abandoned. The act was met with applause from both sets of fans and praised by the press.

Forest's other regional rival is Sheffield United, based in the neighbouring county of South Yorkshire, a rivalry which has roots in the UK miners' strike 1984-85 when the miners of South Yorkshire walked out on long strikes but the Notts Miners, who insisted on holding a ballot, continued to work. The exciting 2003 Football League Championship Play-offsemi final between the two clubs, in which Sheffield United finished as 5–4 aggregate winners, also fuelled the rivalry.

Forest's fanbase includes a host of celebrity of supporters, including England international cricketer Stuart Broad, boxer Carl Froch, golfers Lee Westwood and Greg Owen, politician Kenneth Clarke, Manic Street Preachers singer James Dean Bradfield, actor Jason Statham, Brazilian football manager Luiz Felipe Scolari, actorJoe Dempsie, Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice, fashion designer Paul Smith, artist David Shrigley, comedian Matt Forde and actress Su Pollard.