Nottingham Forest cancels friendly versus Orlando City

Orlando City Soccer Club announced today the cancellation of next Saturday’s international friendly match against English Championship side Nottingham Forest due to Forest canceling their entire 2012 U.S. tour.

“Given the major changes Forest are going through we completely understand their position and decision,” said John Bonner, Owner/Chairman of Orlando City.  “But obviously we are hugely disappointed and devastated that our fans will not now be able to see what would have been a fantastic match.”

The cancellation of the match is the result of several changes made at Nottingham Forest in the last week.  Following the death of the club's previous owner, Nigel Doughty, the club was bought on Tuesday by the Al-Hasawi family, and today it was announced that manager Steve Cotterill is departing the club with immediate effect.  These changes forced the cancellation of the entire U.S. tour as Nottingham Forest must now search for a new manager and new players with just over a month left until the first match of the 2012-13 Championship season.  As of now, Forest’s roster contains just 15 senior players, only one of which is a defender.

“On behalf of the club, I would like to apologize for the inconvenience this has caused to [Orlando City and Charleston Battery],” said John Pelling, Finance Director at Nottingham Forest.  “We really appreciate all of the efforts [by both clubs] to organize the trip that, regrettably, we feel unable to complete.”

“With just 15 senior players on the verge of this trip, we would not have been able to do ourselves justice or benefit fully from the trip,” said Pelling.  “Our efforts in the coming days will be concentrated on replacing Steve Cotterill and assembling a squad.”

The Stoke City match on July 28 will replace the cancelled Forest match in the season ticket package.  Orlando City will announce further details regarding Stoke City and Nottingham Forest tickets within 48 hours.

Those details will be released on the Orlando City website, www.orlandocitysoccer.com, as well as through direct contact to the individual buyers via the Orlando City ticket office.  For more information, call 855-ORL-CITY or email tickets@orlandocitysoccer.com.

WFTV