Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis is furious with the Premier League's characterisation of his team.

Marinakis has hit back at Premier League chief executive Richard Masters, who is said to have called Forest and Everton “small clubs."

He felt that Masters' comments at a parliamentary select committee earlier this month were careless.

“I think that was not appropriate,' Marinakis said.

“I think it was a bit careless. I think that Nottingham Forest and Everton are very big clubs and maybe are bigger than the ones that we consider today big clubs.

“Of course we have surveys, extensive ones that examine supporters in the UK that show how big the support is for these clubs. Here in Nottingham and the region around the city it's about 2.2m people.

“Big team and small teams is maybe not an appropriate expression. Many teams have a lot of support or have achieved a lot of victories or a lot of trophies.

“But if you analyse you see who are these teams, these are the teams with the big crowds.

“Rarely is it teams without a solid supporter base who go on to win a trophy.

“You see the power of your supporters in the ground and even when you don't play well the support makes you feel stronger. I think this is very important for our sport."