Blackburn Rovers: When the Owners Turn Chicken

A demand for £10m to be deposited in the club’s bank account by 31 December is an unusual Christmas message. Yet that was the ultimatum issued to Venky’s by Barclays, Blackburn Rovers’ bankers, who claimed a long-standing agreement to inject capital had been breached. The owners insist their global assets can cover any overdraft, but the episode highlights the perilous state of a club whose leadership seems to have vanished.

Since the death of benefactor Jack Walker in 2000, Rovers have struggled to find their way. The Jack Walker Settlement, a Jersey-based trust, provided £3m annually for the “foreseeable future”, but that future ended in January 2008. The club was put up for sale, attracting a string of suitors before the Rao family, owners of the Indian poultry giant, arrived in 2010. They were introduced by the agent Jerome Anderson, a step down from the investment bankers Rothschilds, who had handled the initial search for a buyer.

It was perhaps a lucky escape that a previous front-runner, Ahsan Ali-Syed, was exposed for his murky business dealings before completing a takeover. He would later leave Racing Santander in administration.

A Vacuum at the Top

The early signs under the Raos were not promising. An £18.6m loss for the 2010/11 season tells its own story, but the chaos is best illustrated by a gaping leadership vacuum. Following the departure of the respected chairman John Williams, the club has operated without a formal replacement. A new finance director, Karen Silk, arrived just fifteen days before signing off the annual accounts, four months after her predecessor had resigned. Paul Hunt was appointed Deputy CEO eight days before the end of the same accounting period, despite the club having no CEO. This lack of control has had tangible consequences, not least the £1.65m paid in agents’ fees for the £398,000 transfer of Ruben Rochina last January.

Most fan anger, however, has been directed at manager Steve Kean. An Anderson client, his promotion from the coaching staff coincided with the new ownership, a connection Anderson dismisses as “absolute, utter rubbish”. Yet with just 37 points from his 42 Premier League games, the numbers are damning. Kean has attracted sympathy for the abuse he has received on matchdays, with Everton manager David Moyes walking out of a game against Bolton at half-time in what he described as a protest. But for many supporters at Ewood Park, he is a symptom of the wider disease affecting their club.

Building the Wrong Brand

The owners’ strategy, if one exists, appears to be a case of putting the cart before the horse. Anuradha Desai, the family matriarch, told the Times of India that owning a major football club would “help build our brand”. A fan on the BRFCS.com messageboard put it more bluntly: “Venky’s want global publicity for Brand Venky’s not Brand Rovers.” This objective is stated explicitly in the club’s annual report under the heading “building the brand”. Plans have included a concert featuring R&B stars Akon and Kelly Rowland, while talk of signing Ronaldinho proved to be little more than a PR stunt. The entire project rests on one critical foundation, as Deputy CEO Paul Hunt noted in the same report: “The club must preserve its Premier League status.” A club in the Football League will not be building any global brands.

This makes the owners’ apparent complacency towards the threat of relegation mystifying. Their recent actions, from awarding Kean a new contract in November to bristling at the bank’s £10m demand, do not suggest a leadership focused on survival at all costs. Supporters who defend Venky’s point to the “£43m” spent on the takeover, but conveniently ignore that half of this was bank debt. They claim financial problems are exaggerated, even as the club’s own accounts state it “will require significant funding” over the next 18 months to remain a going concern.

A United Front

The protests have grown in volume and intensity. This week, Jerome Anderson appeared on Sky television and insinuated that the motivation for the protests was racism, with the broadcaster framing shots of fans to suggest Nazi salutes. It was a cynical attempt to discredit a genuine movement of concerned supporters.

Those supporters have now found a single voice. After a planned meeting with the club was postponed, disparate fan groups and websites came together to produce a “United Statement”. It carefully called for the appointment of an experienced manager and a modern administrative structure as “the first steps in the restitution of our football club”. It did not demand the Raos sell up, a pragmatic acknowledgement of the limits of fan power.

Venky’s must act. Their entire business plan depends on Premier League football, yet they seem unwilling to finance the necessary squad improvements this January. If they fail to do so, and Rovers are relegated, they will stand condemned by their own flawed logic.