Forest Green Rovers Initiates Legal Action Over Robbie Savage's Transfer to Peterborough

Forest Green Rovers owner Dale Vince has escalated his row with Peterborough United, confirming the club has started legal proceedings over what he calls the "tapping up" of former manager Robbie Savage.

In a brief but pointed video posted on social media, Vince revealed Forest Green have "begun a legal process for the tapping up of our manager, now ex-manager, Robbie Savage". The line was delivered without frills, and with clear intent: this is no routine grievance.

Peterborough, contacted about the development, declined to comment on the legal action. They have already publicly rejected any suggestion of an illegal approach, and chairman Darren MacAnthony has previously insisted on X that the club’s recruitment of Savage was "100% correct and proper, following all the rules".

The dispute centres on how Savage’s switch from Gloucestershire to Cambridgeshire unfolded earlier this month.

Savage, 51, left Forest Green to take charge at League One Peterborough after just over a year in the job. Vince has long maintained that he initially blocked Peterborough from speaking to his manager, only to relent when Savage himself said he had been contacted.

"Peterborough themselves have covered themselves in no glory here," Vince told BBC Radio Gloucestershire 10 days after Savage’s appointment at London Road.

"They came to us and said, 'We would like to speak to your manager.' 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."

That allegation now forms the backbone of Forest Green’s legal challenge. If proven, it would amount to a breach of the game’s rules on approaching contracted staff, a subject that rarely reaches the courts but always stirs strong emotions behind the scenes.

Savage’s rapid rise

The row threatens to overshadow what has been a sharp climb through the ranks for Savage as a manager.

He arrived at Forest Green in July 2025 on the back of a strikingly successful spell at Macclesfield FC, the phoenix club that emerged after Macclesfield Town was wound up in 2020. With the Silkmen, Savage oversaw a surge out of the seventh tier, winning promotion to National League North with a side that scored 109 goals and amassed 109 points. Those numbers turned heads across the lower leagues.

Forest Green moved quickly. They handed him the reins, and in his first full campaign in Gloucestershire he took them into the play-offs, only to fall short against Boreham Wood. It was an encouraging first chapter that hinted at a longer project.

Instead, that season now looks like a one-off. Savage departed on 2 October with Forest Green sitting 13th after 11 matches, leaving Vince to pick up both the pieces on the pitch and, now, the legal battle off it.

Peterborough’s gamble

Peterborough, for their part, made a decisive call in turning to Savage. A club known for backing bold, ambitious appointments has again chosen a manager with a track record of attacking football and rapid progress.

The early returns have been mixed rather than spectacular. Since stepping into the dugout at London Road, Savage has recorded two wins, two draws and two defeats in all competitions. It is a start that offers hints of promise without yet silencing debate over how he was prised away.

MacAnthony has been firm in his defence of the process, stressing that Peterborough followed the rulebook. Vince, now backed by legal counsel, clearly believes otherwise.

What happens next will be played out not in a technical area or a boardroom, but potentially in front of lawyers and, if the case goes that far, a tribunal or court. At stake is more than just compensation or vindication; it is a question of where the lines truly sit in the frantic, competitive world of managerial recruitment.

For Forest Green, the search for stability continues on and off the pitch. For Peterborough, the real judgment on their move for Savage may not come from any legal ruling, but from where his team finishes when this season finally closes.