From telegraph.co.uk/sport

A group of Nottingham Forest players could be the
focus of a police investigation following claims
of a rowdy night out in Nottingham just 24 hours
after a humiliating Boxing Day collapse against
Oldham Athletic.

Several professionals at the League One club are
accused of causing mayhem after allegedly being
captured on CCTV in the trendy Hockley area
inside two bars where staff complained that some
members of the group had behaved "like animals".

Female members of staff claimed some of the
players were "aggressive, arrogant idiots" as
they drank in Muse and Revolution, prestigious
bars that attract a young clientele.

The manager of one of those bars, who did not
want to be named for fear of reprisals from
Forest fans, said: "I told them [the police] that
we have our regular customers here but once the
Forest players came in, they disrupted
everything."
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Insp Paul Winter, local area commander for
Nottingham city centre, confirmed police had been
contacted. "We will talk to the managers of the
bars concerned," he said.

Curiously, the Forest players were allegedly
socialising after a 5-0 defeat at Boundary Park
that ousted them from the automatic promotion
places. Forest once held a seven-point advantage
at the top of the table but have now lost three
of their last five league games.

The club declined to make any comment. They face
Charlton Athletic in the FA Cup third round at
the City Ground tomorrow.

Despite Forest's decline from the top of the
domestic game to its third tier, the first
European Cup winners to sink that low, their
players remain the most lavishly rewarded at this
level with an annual wage bill of around £6.5
million, higher than most Championship clubs.
That has not prevented the club facing
allegations of a 'drinks culture' in the past.

Two years ago, as the team plunged further down
the Championship, then manager Gary Megson
ordered an internal investigation after Forest
players were accused of lurching in drunken
revelry from one bar to another just days before
a crucial match.
--
Emeritus Prof.John Barsby, Classics Dept, Univ. of Otago, Box 56, Dunedin, NZ
phone +64 3 479 8709 fax +64 3 479 9029 home +64 3 479 0169
email: john.barsby@... web: www.otago.ac.nz/classics
home address:12 Royal Terrace, Dunedin, NZ

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