Forest Green Rovers Take Legal Action Over Robbie Savage's Move
Forest Green Rovers owner Dale Vince has escalated his row with Peterborough United by launching legal action over what he calls the "tapping up" of former manager Robbie Savage.
Vince revealed the move in a short social media video, saying the club had "begun a legal process for the tapping up of our manager, now ex-manager, Robbie Savage". The language was deliberate. So was the timing.
Savage left Forest Green earlier this month to take charge at League One side Peterborough, a switch that has already stirred up ill-feeling between the clubs. Vince says he initially blocked Peterborough from speaking to the 51-year-old, only to relent after Savage told him he had been approached directly.
That, in Vince’s eyes, crossed a line.
How the dispute began
The flashpoint came in the days around Savage’s appointment at London Road.
"Peterborough themselves have covered themselves in no glory here. They came to us and said, 'We would like to speak to your manager,'" Vince told BBC Radio Gloucestershire 10 days after Savage’s move.
"We said no, and so they spoke to him, and then he came to us and said, 'I hear Peterborough want to speak to me.' So, that's an illegal approach."
Forest Green have now decided those words need backing in a legal arena, not just a radio interview.
Peterborough, for their part, are standing their ground. The club declined to comment on the legal action when contacted, but chairman Darren MacAnthony had already publicly rejected the claims, insisting on X that the process to appoint a new manager was "100% correct and proper, following all the rules".
Two clubs. Two versions. One looming fight over where the rules begin and end.
Savage’s rapid rise
At the centre of the dispute is a manager whose stock has risen quickly.
Savage arrived at Forest Green Rovers in July 2025 on the back of a striking spell with Macclesfield FC, the phoenix club born from the ashes of Macclesfield Town’s winding-up in 2020.
With the Silkmen, he stormed through the then-seventh tier. Promotion to National League North. A remarkable 109 goals. An equally eye-catching 109 points. Those numbers travelled with him, the mark of a coach on the up.
Forest Green gambled that he could carry that momentum into Gloucestershire. For one full season, he did.
Savage guided Rovers into the play-offs, only to see the campaign end in defeat to Boreham Wood. It was a promising, if painful, finish. The kind of near-miss that usually becomes the platform for another push.
Instead, it became the high point of a short reign.
By 2 October, Savage was gone, leaving Forest Green sitting 13th after 11 matches of the new season. The table suggested a middling start. The boardroom told a far more turbulent story.
Peterborough’s new man under scrutiny
Peterborough moved quickly to make Savage their man, and the argument over how they did it has now overshadowed his early weeks in the job.
On the pitch, his start has been steady rather than spectacular: two wins, two draws and two defeats in all competitions. Enough to buy time. Not enough to drown out the noise.
Every result now lands in the context of a legal row. Every touchline shot of Savage carries a sub-plot: the manager at the centre of a tapping-up claim his new employers firmly reject.
Forest Green, meanwhile, are left to rebuild with a sense of grievance and a determination to test their case.
The legal process will run at its own pace. The fixture list will not wait. One way or another, the next few months will show whether this is just a brief flashpoint between ambitious clubs, or the start of a battle that forces English football to look again at how managers are approached, persuaded, and prised away.
