The 1990s Struggles

Lore & Background

Founded in 1865, Nottingham Forest have played their home games at the City Ground since 1898. The club has won two European Cups, making them one of six English clubs to have claimed the competition. Forest is the only team in Europe to have won the European Cup or Champions League more often than the domestic championship (one). Additionally, they have secured one UEFA Super Cup, one League title, two FA Cups, four League Cups, and one FA Charity Shield. The club has competed in the top two tiers of English football in all but five seasons since their admission to the Football League. Its most successful period came under the management of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor in the late 1970s and early 1980s, during which they achieved back-to-back European Cup triumphs in 1979 and 1980. In Clough's final decade at the club, Forest won the 1989 and 1990 League Cups. They were also losing finalists in the 1991 FA Cup final and 1992 League Cup final, before relegation from the Premier League in 1993. Upon their immediate return, Forest finished third in the Premier League in 1995, before suffering relegation again in 1997 and 1999. The team returned to the Premier League by winning the play-offs in 2022.

Reader's Guide

Nottingham Forest's main rivalry is with Derby County, with whom they contest the East Midlands derby. In 2007 the Brian Clough Trophy was founded, which has since then been given to the winner.

Did You Know?

• Nottingham Forest is the oldest remaining club in the English Football League, according to the EFL and football historian Mark Metcalf.
• The club's colours, Garibaldi Red, were chosen at the founding meeting in 1865, named after the Italian leader of the 'Redshirts'.
• Forest donated a set of football kits to help Arsenal establish themselves in 1886.
• The club's baseball team were British champions in 1899.