(CNN)The chant goes up, "You dirty vegan b*****d, you're eating our grass." The abuse is directed at a player of fourth-tier English soccer club Forest Green Rovers. He is lying face down and motionless after he'd been on the wrong end of a challenge from a Walsall FC player in a League Two game last month.
Forest Green, located in rural Gloucestershire in south west England, might be a lower-league club, but it has arguably become one of the most talked about football teams in the world. It has fan clubs in more than 50 countries and its new green and black zebra stripe shirt sold out in minutes at the start of the season with online orders coming from USA, China and Australia.
While some soccer teams get talked about for the number of trophies they've won or attractive style of play, Forest Green has a very different narrative. It is the only UN-recognised carbon neutral sports club
Dale Vince, chairman of Forest Green Rovers, poses next to a solar panel at the New Lawn. The Stadium is completely fulled by renewable energy.
'Decent thing to do'
At Forest Green, the team bus and lawn mower are both fully electric. The grass on the pitch is free from pesticide. The players' shirts and shin pads are made from biodegradable bamboo. The soap in the bathroom is plant based and eco friendly. The food served on match days is completely free from animal products, and in 2017 the club was the first football team to receive the Vegan Trademark from the Vegan Society.
That the club exists to sell food of any sort is remarkable given it was facing extinction in 2010. Bac