Vince became a major shareholder and chairman of semi-professional football club Forest Green Rovers in 2010, implementing eco-friendly initiatives and turning it into the world's first all-vegan football club. The team was recognised as the world's first carbon-neutral football club. At the end of the 2023–24 season, Forest Green Rovers were relegated back into non-league football.
Vince was appointed OBE in 2004 and received an honorary degree in 2013. He faced a financial claim court case from his ex-wife, which was settled in 2016. Vince has donated to both the Labour Party and the Green Party and endorsed politicians from both parties in general elections. In 2022 his net worth was estimated at £107 million.[9]
When RAF Molesworth was chosen to become a base for the US Air Force's mobile nuclear armed Ground Launched Cruise Missile in 1980, Vince occupied the nuclear base in protest. And he was one of the new-age travellers at the Battle of the Beanfield at Stonehenge in the mid-1980s.[7]
In 1991, he saw his first windfarm ("I thought, either I can carry on by myself with the windmill on my van, or I can get into the big stuff"[12]) and, in 1995, he founded the Renewable Energy Company.[10] In 1996, he launched his first wind turbine supplying "green electricity".[13]
In October 2020, The Guardian reported that he plans to create artificial diamonds by chemical vapor deposition using "carbon dioxide captured directly from the atmosphere to form the diamonds – which are chemically identical to diamonds mined from the earth – using wind and solar electricity, with water collected from rainfall."[14]
In April 2022, Vince announced he planned to sell Ecotricity and go into politics. He said part of the reason was that a new owner "can achieve even more, faster. We've got a massive pipeline of projects that need to be built requiring £2 billion of investment." As well as developing his interest in politics, he would focus on renewable projects such as tidal lagoons and geothermal energy.[15][16]
Football
Jeremy Corbyn and Vince at Forest Green Rovers Football Club in December 2019
In 2010, Vince became a major shareholder of Forest Green Rovers FC,[17] and three months later was appointed club chairman.[18] In February 2011, Rovers players were banned from eating red meat for health reasons,[clarification needed] and a few weeks later the sale of all red meat products was banned at the club's ground, leaving only vegetarian options and free-range poultry and fish from sustainable stocks.[19]
Vince introduced a number of different eco-friendly developments at the club including the installation of solar panels[20] on its New Lawn home ground, the use of a solar-powered robot grass mower,[21] and the creation of the world's first organic football pitch.[22] In September 2015, Vince revealed Forest Green were using a player recruitment method similar to the 'Moneyball' model that had been initially used in baseball to sign players by using computer-generated analysis.[23] In October 2015, Forest Green became the world's first all vegan football club.[24][25]
In 2021, the team became the first in the world to play in a football kit made from a composite material consisting of recycled plastic and coffee grounds.[26]
The United Nations has recognised Forest Green Rovers as the world's first carbon-neutral football club and it was described by FIFA as the "greenest team in the world".[26][27] In 2024, Forest Green lost their Football League status after suffering two successive relegations.
While studying, Vince met and married Kathleen Wyatt, two years his senior and with a child of her own, in 1981. The couple subsequently became New Age travellers together, living off state benefits. They had a son together, Dane, in 1983.[30] They separated some years later, and Wyatt reportedly raised the couple's son largely alone thereafter. They divorced in 1992.[2]
Divorce and financial claim court case
After Vince had made his fortune, Wyatt, who had lived what was later described in court as "16 years of real hardship", lodged a financial claim of £1.9 million against Vince in 2011, nearly 20 years after their divorce.
The Court of Appeal rejected the claim, stating it had "no real prospect of success" and was an "abuse of process".[2] However, in March 2015 the Supreme Court set aside this decision, ruling that there was no time limit in law for claims for financial provision, and the claim could progress in the High Court.[31]Lord Wilson said the court must have regard "to the contribution of each party to the welfare of the family, including by looking after the home or caring for the family", but the claim only had a prospect of "comparatively modest success" with a £1.9 million payout "out of the question".[2]
In a statement, Vince branded the court's decision as "mad". "I feel that we all have a right to move on, and not be looking over our shoulders. This could signal open season for people who had brief relationships a quarter of a century ago", referring to his marriage of eleven years by which he fathered his first child.[32] Prior to the case settlement, Vince paid the legal costs for both parties, of over £500,000, as divorce law permits costs to be charged to the combined resources of both parties.[31][33]
In 2016, the case was settled when Vince agreed to pay £300,000 to Wyatt. He commented that the case had been "a terrible waste of time and money". He stated the settlement barely covered Wyatt's legal fees which he had already paid prior to the settlement. He then repeated his opinion that he was "...disappointed that the supreme court decided not to throw out the case, given it was brought over 30 years [sic] since the relationship ended" before adding, "There clearly needs to be a statute of limitations for divorce cases – a time limit beyond which a claim cannot be made. Such a thing exists in commercial law for good practical reasons."[34]
Vince has been described as "anti-Israel" and "anti-Zionist" by The Jerusalem Post, which reported that, by dint of his public comments and hoisting the Palestinian flag at Forest Green Rovers' New Lawn stadium, he was using the club "as a means to promote his anti-Israel agenda."[38]
He also caused controversy when speaking on Times Radio in the immediate aftermath of the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel during which he stated that 'one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter' when asked about Hamas which was referred to as 'appalling' by senior Labour politician Angela Rayner.[39]
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