Nottingham Forest on verge of being purchased in £54million US takeover
John Jay Moores gets the green light to complete purchase of Championship strugglers
AMERICAN financier John Jay Moores is completing a £54million takeover of Nottingham Forest.
Moores and his team have finalised lengthy talks with former supremo Fawaz Al Hasawi and have been given approval by the Football League and FA.
The veteran businessman tried and failed to buy Swansea and Everton last season and wants to put a new structure in place to tap into Forest's potential.
Moores will bring in former Bournemouth chairman Trevor Watkins as his new chief executive and shake up other positions before looking at the performance of French coach Philippe Montanier.
Al Hasawi has been looking to leave for months and finally sorted out the sale after snags cropped up for previous buyer Evangelos Marinakis.
The unpredictable Kuwaiti has recouped some of his losses with the sale price after a costly attempt to get the club out of the second tier and a succession of managerial changes.
Al Hasawi took over Forest in July 2012 following the death of previous chairman Nigel Doughty.
Current boss Philippe Montanier is the eighth manager to work under him since his arrival.
The Tricky Trees are currently languishing in midtable in the Championship.
They sit in 16th spot, nine points adrift of the play-off places.
Forest welcome Preston to the City Ground on Wednesday evening.