Nottingham Forest won the Championship playoff final to seal a return to the Premier League after more than two decades away.
Forest overcame Huddersfield Town, 1-0, with Premier League football at stake on Sunday evening at Wembley Stadium.
𝐖𝐄 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐄𝐑 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐆𝐔𝐄.
— Nottingham Forest FC (@NFFC) May 29, 2022
🌳🔴 #NFFC pic.twitter.com/CTLXZjGdZd
The Championship playoff final is essentially worth up to £250million and hence is often dubbed the richest game in the sport. Securing top-flight football guarantees a substantial injection in revenue and avoiding relegation in the first season after promotion further boosts a team’s financial aid over a five-year period.
Forest qualified for the promotion playoffs by finishing 4th in the Championship before they saw off Sheffield United, 3-2 on aggregate, in the semifinals. The corresponding semi saw Huddersfield beat Luton Town, 2-1, over two legs.
In the decider it was Steve Cooper’s side that came out on top, by a goal to nil, to send Forest up to the summit of the English football pyramid for the first time this century.
Forest endured a meteoric rise since the ex-England U/17 manager took charge last September, with the Nottinghamshire club at the foot of the Championship standings at the time of his appointment. Forest have since seen a major change in fortunes with Cooper at the helm, going from the bottom end of the table to nearer the top.
Chris Hughton was manager at the start of the campaign, and for close to a year prior to, but he was dismissed mid-September with Forest winless in their opening seven games of the season.
Under the jurisdiction of 42-year-old Cooper, Forest have been a completely different animal with 23 wins in 38 league outings. Cooper’s men tasted league defeat only five times – one fewer than the team lost in their first seven games under Hughton.
Welsh attacker Brennan Johnson was Forest’s most prominent source of goals this term, as the 21-year-old bagged 16 goals in the Championship league season and an additional two in the playoffs.
Cooper also guided the Tricky Trees in disposing of 14-time FA Cup winners Arsenal and then-holders Leicester City, before they fell short to eventual winners Liverpool in the quarter-finals.
Forest were a Premier League team in the inaugural season after the competition’s inception 30 years ago, and they played in the top tier for five of the first seven seasons following reformatting from the old First Division.
Forest were relegated from the Premier League three times (1993, 1997, 1999), finishing last on each occasion, and up until now had not returned to the premier division since going down at the back end of the 20th century.
Despite being absent from top-flight football since 1999, Forest remain one of the most successful English clubs of all-time. In 1978 they emerged as First Division winners before going on to complete back-to-back European crowns in 1980 under legendary manager Brian Clough.
Forest now join Championship winners Fulham and runners-up Bournemouth who will also be partaking in the 2022/23 Premier League campaign.
Norwich City and Watford were relegated to the Championship, both after a single season back in the top-flight, and they are accompanied by Burnley who succumbed to the drop after six years playing Premier League football.
