Nottingham Forest Football Club is an English Football club based in West Bridgford, Nottingham, that currently plays in the Football League Championship. Forest have been based at the City Ground since 1898.

Founded in 1865, the club were founder members of the Football Alliance in 1889 and joined the Football League in 1892. Forest won the FA Cup in 1898 and 1959, but their most successful period came under the management of Brian Clough, between 1975 and 1993, during which time they won their only league title, two consecutive European Cups and four League Cups. Forest have become a yo-yo club since, and their last spell in the Premier League ended in 1999. Forest are the only former European champion club not to be currently playing in their top-tier domestic league or division.

The club is often referred to simply as Forest, the name the club carries on their crest and sometimes, erroneously, as Notts Forest, which is actually an abbreviation of Nottinghamshire and thus a reference to cross-city rivals Notts County. The team are also called the Reds, due to the colour of their strip.

Nottingham (ⁱ/ˈnɒtɪŋəm/ NOT-ing-əm) is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and is one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group.

Nottingham is famed for its links with the legend of Robin Hood and, during the Industrial Revolution, obtained worldwide recognition for its lace-making, bicycle and tobacco industries. With origins tracable back to 600 AD, Nottingham was granted its city charter as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of Queen Victoria in 1897 and has since been officially titled the City of Nottingham. The city has historically been nicknamed The Queen of the Midlands, being the smaller yet less industrialised regional neighbour to the Midlands biggest city, Birmingham. Nottingham is considered the primary centre of England's East Midlands region, being home to numerous regional headquarters and media stations including the BBC East Midlands and the Regional Government Office.

Whilst Nottingham has always had a tightly-drawn authority boundary, accounting for its relatively small population of 306,700, Nottingham's Urban Area has a population of approximately 670,000; in the 2001 census, it was the eighth largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Eurostat's concept of the Larger Urban Zone listed the area's population at 825,600 as of 2004.

William McIntosh "Billy" Davies (born 31 May 1964) is a Glasgow-born Scottish former football manager, noted for his achievement in the Football League Championship with East Midlands Rivals Derby County and Nottingham Forest and Preston North End which has led him to be described, in 2011, as "probably the best manager at this level, in the game." He won the 2007 Playoffs with Derby County, finished as runners-up in 2005 with Preston and reached the semi-finals in 2006 (Preston), 2010 and 2011 (both with Nottingham Forest). He also holds the record for the most Football League Championship Manager of the Month awards (jointly with Neil Warnock having won two each at Preston, Derby and Nottingham Forest).

As a schoolboy, Davies was associated with Manchester United and he was offered a contract by then manager Dave Sexton.

Davies started his professional playing career at the Scottish club Rangers F.C., where he spent six years. He made his debut aged &1000000000000001700000017 years, &10000000000000115000000115 days against Brechin City on 23 September 1981. He had a brief spell with Swedish team IF Elfsborg. Davies went on to play for St Mirren, Leicester City and Dunfermline Athletic before he finished his playing career with Motherwell in his native Scotland.

Roy Maurice Keane (born 10 August 1971) is an Irish former footballer and manager. In his 18-year playing career, he played for Cobh Ramblers, Nottingham Forest, and Manchester United, before ending his career at Celtic. Keane was a dominating central-midfielder, noted for his aggressive and highly competitive style of play, an attitude which helped him excel as captain of Manchester United from 1997 until his departure in 2005, having joined the club in 1993. Keane helped United achieve a sustained period of success in more than 12 years at the club. He then signed for Celtic but retired as a player less than a year later.

He played at international level for much of his career, representing the Republic of Ireland over a period of 14 years, most of which he spent as captain. He played in every Republic of Ireland game at the 1994 FIFA World Cup, although he was sent home from the 2002 World Cup after an incident with national coach Mick McCarthy.

He was appointed manager of Sunderland shortly after his retirement as a player, and took the club from 23rd position in the Football League Championship in late August to win the division title and gain promotion to the Premier League. Keane's arrival was cited as the catalyst for Sunderland's recovery. He managed to keep Sunderland from relegation in the 2007–08 season, but in his second season as a top-flight manager he left his position with Sunderland in the relegation zone. In April 2009, he was appointed as manager of Ipswich Town, but was sacked by the club in January 2011 with them 19th in the Championship.

Brian Howard Clough, OBE (/ˈklʌf/ KLUF; 21 March 1935 – 20 September 2004) was an English footballer and football manager.

As a player Clough was a prolific goalscorer with Middlesbrough and Sunderland, scoring 251 league goals from 274 starts. He also won two England caps, both in 1959. Clough retired from playing at the age of 29, after sustaining anterior cruciate ligament damage. He remains one of the Football League's highest goalscorers.

In 1965 Clough took the manager's job at Fourth Division Hartlepools United and appointed Peter Taylor as his assistant, the start of an enduring partnership that would bring them success at numerous clubs over the next two decades. In 1967 the duo moved on to Second Division Derby County. In 1968–69, Derby were promoted as Second Division champions. Three years later, Derby were crowned champions of England for the first time in the club's history. In 1973 they reached the semi-finals of the European Cup. However, by this point Clough's relationship with chairman Sam Longson had deteriorated, and he and Taylor resigned.