On October 30, Forest Green Rovers filled their first-team dressing room with more than 60 houseplants. The English club plays in the National League, the fifth division. Forest Green is often called the world's greenest football club. Before a match against Harrogate Town, players walked in among the leaves, not only toward a tactics board.
The display was set up with Plants and Flowers Foundation Holland and sports psychologist Josephine Perry, during International Stress Awareness Week. The plants came from the Netherlands. Perry said greenery in a high-pressure room is a simple way to help people stay steadier and keep their focus.
First-team coach Yan Klukowski said the club wants ways for players to cope with a demanding workplace. "We believe that the psychological and physical aspects of the game go hand in hand," he said. Looking after players' minds, he added, matters as much as looking after their bodies.
Midfielder Oliver Ewing said he had never seen a dressing room like it. Those rooms can be tense, he said, especially after a loss. Plenty of people already keep plants at home. In this one, he felt a calming effect around the place.
Club chairman Dale Vince pointed to a more familiar picture: plants on office desks, already used to support wellbeing. If a workplace can hold a pot of green, he asked, why not a dressing room?
Football dressing rooms are built for confrontation and results. This one was rebuilt as a small indoor garden before kick-off. Players still get the tactics. They now get them in a room that has been softened the way some people soften a desk, with plants.