Football club takes red meat off the menu

Burgers and bangers are off the menu at Forest Green Rovers football club after red meat was banned from being sold to fans.

Red meat was removed from the diets of players at the Blue Square Bet Premier club a few weeks ago, but the policy has now been extended to the whole stadium.

Dale Vince, who runs green electricity company Ecotricity, owns the Gloucestershire club.

Tom Williams, Forest Green Rovers communications director, told the BBC: "Following discussions with the manager and on nutritional advice, it was decided to no longer feed our team red meat for health and performance reasons.

"It has now been] decided that this policy should be extended to the stadium, at least in part as a further step in establishing ourselves as a ‘green' organisation."

Free-range poultry and fish from sustainable stocks will continue to be served.

Vince, who is vegan, added that "if red meat was not good enough to feed our players, then it wasn't good enough for our staff, fans and visitors too".

He said: "At its worst it means once every two weeks watching a football game without being able to eat red meat.

"Anybody that really needs it can bring a ham sandwich or something if they wish - that's no problem."

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By Janie Stamford

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