Nottingham Forest have become the first Premier League club to launch an elite-level netball team as part of ‘major plans to develop a multi-sport model’.
Nottingham Forest Netball will play in a revamped Netball Super League (NSL) from 2025, with owner Evangelos Marinakis looking to add other sports like he has at Olympiacos, whose vast portfolio includes basketball, volleyball and handball teams.
The newly-formed netball club will play at the Motorpoint Arena Nottingham and train at the University of Nottingham.
Forest said in a statement: ‘Evangelos Marinakis has always shown a strong commitment to developing a more diverse and inclusive sporting portfolio, which he has successfully implemented at Nottingham Forest’s sister club, Olympiacos.
‘The opportunity to extend our brand into netball was too good to be missed. Netball is the most played team sport by women in the UK with over 3million people playing annually and over 8.5m people tuning in to watch during 2023.
Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis has launched a netball team that will compete in a revamped eight-club Super League from 2025
The Netball Super League is the top division in the UK – pictured are Manchester Thunder against Surrey Storm last year
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‘We have so many young female fans who can now dream of not just playing in the Garibaldi red of Forest in football matches, but now on the netball court.’
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Forest are one of two new sides included in next season’s eight-team NSL, along with Birmingham Panthers, who are linked with the University of Worcester.
Manchester Thunder, London Pulse, Loughborough Lightning, Cardiff Dragons, London Mavericks and Leeds Rhinos have all retained their places in the league.
But five-time champions Team Bath have controversially been left out, as have existing NSL sides Strathclyde Sirens, Surrey Storm and Severn Stars.
Team Bath said in a statement: ‘This news will be a bitter disappointment to our fans across the southwest and understandably has left everyone involved in the franchise shocked and devastated.’
Following a tender process which opened last October, clubs were selected based on their ‘ability to deliver on and off-court advancements’ in order to ‘raise the standards of the league’.
The NSL said that player salaries will increase by ‘at least 60 per cent’, with the minimum salary ‘more than doubling’.
Olympiacos, also owned by Marinakis, have a basketball side which reached the Final Four of the EuroLeague this season
NSL managing director Claire Nelson said: ‘This is an incredibly exciting day as we unveil the clubs which will help to define our league as we enter this new era for our domestic game.
‘Going from 10 clubs at present to eight next year will be a case of fewer, bigger, better.
‘Clearly, we’ve had to make some really difficult decisions along the way, decisions that were necessary to enable us to create a product that is built to last and one that our fans want to be a part of now and long into the future.’
