ROVERS CHIEF IS OBLIGED TO SAY ‘SORRY’

DALE VINCE isn’t happy. Neither should Forest Green Rovers’ local newspaper be. The eco-warrior owner has the hump with Cheltenham Town, reporting the National League champions to the FA for an alleged illegal approach for winger Elliott Frear.

But remember back to August. There was nothing in the paper’s story that there was interest in the player from across the county. Scurrilous journalism, how very dare they.

So furious was Vince that the Gloucestershire Citizen – one of precious few news outlets to offer the club, and in turn his Ecotricity business, regular publicity – ran a story suggesting Cheltenham wanted Frear that he stopped them from covering the club’s home game with Southport.

An untruth, he claimed – surely aware he was damaging a good reputation. Rovers released a pathetic statement saying the paper would be “placed on the naughty step” with a one-match press box ban for unsettling the player.

I tweeted the development with a link to their release, and after an hour of mickey taking, their childish and cringeworthy wording of the paper’s suspension was removed.

Vince now says: “We’ve asked the FA to investigate what looks like an illegal approach for one of our players by Cheltenham.

“They claim to have made an approach, to have been in detailed negotiation with this player – and they have to take responsibility for this. They either made that up or they broke the transfer rules. We expect the FA to get to the bottom of it.”

Perhaps as they await an outcome, Vince could find some time to issue an apology to a newspaper who have followed his dream and rarely criticised the club’s yearly failure to make it into the Football League despite boasting one of the division’s biggest budgets.