We Are The Rovers

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WATR held their first post AGM board meeting last night and would like to let you know the situation regarding a board reshuffle. We would like to thank the departing Chair, Mike Graham, for all his hard work and dedication over the last two years. We would also like to thank Steve Williams for his excellent work as Heritage Lead over the same period. Steve has also decided to stand down from the board at this time. Both Mike and Steve have our appreciation, respect and best wishes for the future. Replacing Mike as Chair are Duncan Miller and Glen Mullan who will act as co-Chairs. Supporting Duncan and Glen will be Adam Deshmukh who has been elected Vice-Chair. In addition to Glen, we would like to officially welcome new board members Jakob Ward, James Hamill, Jamie Hoyles and Dan Worden. We look forward to serving the best interests of our members and helping to ensure a bright future for Blackburn Rovers.

April 2025 Newsletter We have 2 important items in this latest membership Newsletter. Our AGM and a statement about the Club; in this statement for call for a change in ownership of Our Club. AGM: The AGM of We Are The Rovers, the Blackburn Rovers Supporters Trust will take place as follows: 7pm Prompt Wednesday 25th June At Blackburn Library (upstairs), entrance via Northgate, Blackburn. Non-members are welcome to attend. However you must be a paying member to be nominated for our Board and to vote on any issues (Join via www.roverstrust.co.uk) We will be holding a free raffle for all attendees on the night. We are looking for additional Board members. Meetings are hybrid Zoom and in person. This is unpaid and is voluntary. We are looking to extend and diversify our board and encourage nominations from fans of all ages and backgrounds. We are particularly in need of adding skills in marketing and social mediamanagement. Please advise if you wish to be nominated by emailing peterridehalgh@talktalk.net with the email subject ‘WATR Board Nomination’ before 15th June at the very latest. We look forward to seeing you on 25th June. Mike Graham Chair WATR STATEMENT re BLACKBURN ROVERS: On 3rd January 2025 we wrote to the club to advise them we believed the Rao family’s continued ownership of Blackburn Rovers had become untenable and called for them to sell the club. Due to our Memorandum of Understanding with the club, we have since been attempting to arrange one of our overdue mandated meetings as a matter of urgency. We allowed leeway during this time while the club sought to appoint a managerial replacement, and after us chasing up this request numerous times we were granted a meeting with senior club executives on Tuesday 1st April. Our agenda items and questions provided to the Club are listed at the end of this Statement; however, the ultimate reason for our meeting was to press for a face-to-face meeting with the Club Owners. Sadly, the key attendee the Club’s Chief Operating Officer Suhail Pasha/Sheikh who had earlier confirmed his attendance was instead making media appearances to defend the Club’s ownership before going “travelling”. Despite assurances of his attendance, and our willingness to accommodate his diary, COO Suhail Pasha/Sheikh failed to attend. This wasn’t the first time he has done so and indeed has always appeared reluctant to engage despite the best efforts of the WATR board and other club officials. We have instead been offered a meeting with the Chief Executive Steve Waggott prior to the Middleborough game this Friday evening. Prior to the release of 2024/25 season tickets, We Are The Rovers met regularly with club staff to discuss our proposals for them. After a tumultuous season we were encouraged that some of our ideas had been taken on board. We would have liked them to have gone a lot further and committed to a strategy designed around 3 core activities: Recruitment, Retention and Re-engagement. We were however hopeful that the modest reduction in the early bird phase, and significant savings across concessionary tickets would mitigate the inevitable drop off due to events that occurred during the season. In a previous meeting with the Rovers executive team, Suhail Pasha/Sheikh told us that: “The biggest mistake we (Venky’s) ever made was listening to Steve (Waggott) and Fraser (Read) and reducing season tickets by £30. What do you want next year, a reduction of £150?” Fraser Read had left the club by this point with his ticketing duties assumed by Yasir Sufi, and Suhail has taken all responsibility for ticketing matters away from Steve Waggott. When we pointed out that an extraordinarily high number (26%) of season ticket holder had opted not to renew due to incredibly poor performances on the pitch and chaotic events behind the scenes, we were told we can’t keep using transfer window failures as an excuse, and that the core support of Blackburn Rovers is only around 6,000 fans. Yasir Sufi also told us to forget about re-engagement with lapsed fans, and that getting the new generation of support in was where their priorities lay. This season there has been very little engagement from the club regarding our proposals. We have been asked how we think we can add thousands to the gate, but any solution offered that involves expenditure or price reduction has been dismissed out of hand. Furthermore, we have continued to highlight the importance of improved communication and engagement with the wider fanbase. While Steve Waggott has been open and approachable and agreed readily to meet and discuss all matters with WATR as an entity, the club has failed to extend this to the fanbase with initiatives we suggested, such as reinstating some form of open consultation meetings ignored. This appears to be a directive from above the level of CEO. Presently we are concerned that the club are completely unprepared for upcoming changes to Fan Engagement rules that form part of the Football Governance Bill, and threats to cease engagement with us, contrary to the terms of our MOU, due to perceived criticism of their running of the club would be in direct conflict with Government recommendations and EFL rules. As an organisation formed by and for the benefit of Supporters, we can only echo the collective fan statement dated 28th of March as regards Suhail Pasha/Sheikh. Our experience leads us to believe his input is detrimental to the desires of Rovers fans and to the success of our club. To reiterate our previous stance, the one constant throughout the Venky’s tenure has been Suhail Pasha/Sheikh. While his title has changed in that time, his role as advisor/conduit/owners representative has remained broadly the same. With the Rao family remaining absent for over a decade he appears to hold a lot of power. We feel that the only acceptable advice for Suhail to pass on to the Rao family is to finally do the right thing and sell the club. New owners who care for the club and will treat Rovers and its supporters with the respect we deserve are long overdue. The WATR agenda items provided in advance to the Club are as follows: 1. Club and Owner aspirations 2. Fan Engagement 3. First Team Performance 4. Ticketing and attendances 5. Finances In order to be open and up front we list below the questions we will asking under each of the above discussion headings. We stress our request for direct dialogue with the owners. 1. Club and Owner aspirations - What are the owners aspirations for the club? - Have you advised the owners that the best thing they could do is put the club up for sale? - Where do YOU think Blackburn Rovers ought to be? 2. Fan engagement - Do you realise you are in real danger of going into a historic anniversary year against a backdrop of protests? And what are you doing to try and prevent this? 3. First team performance - Ordinarily we wouldn’t want to discuss on pitch matters, however it is evident that off field happenings are impacting upon the team’s success. - What was the hiring process for Valerien Ismael? Who had the final say? - It is well publicised that several player contracts will be expiring in the summer. Are discussions underway currently, and who is responsible for negotiating new deals? - The sale of key playing assets has put us in an enviable position in terms of P&S rules, however, this only gives us a finite window to reinvest in the squad and make a genuine push for promotion. Why didn’t this happen in the last 2 windows? What assurances can you give supporters the summer window will be any different? 4. Ticketing and attendances - What is the rationale around season ticket pricing? Given the disappointing number of adult tickets sold last year, how do you feel increasing prices will impact this? - Who is responsible for setting ticket prices, and is their only success measure based on revenue, or are numbers a consideration? We also want to bring to your attention the following report on an excellent recent initiative at League 2 Bradford City. If this can be done at Bradford it can be replicated at Ewood. Initiatives such as this are key to building the longer term health and wealth of our Club. Do you have the resources to support such an initiative linked to our 150th Anniversary this coming November? [Bradford City link: https://widthofapost.com/2025/03/24/what-place-could-saturdays-superb-win-over-colchester-take-in-bradford-city-folklore/ ] 5. Finances - Can you explain when Venky’s last remitted any money? - Can you provide an update on plans to bring the training ground back under club ownership?’

On January 3rd, the WATR board sent the following communication to Steve Waggott: “We are writing on the eve of one of the most important games in recent times. Rovers haven’t beaten our arch-rivals in 14 years, and the fortunes of our respective clubs have taken polar opposite paths during the time Venky’s have been our owners. Ewood Park will be full of passionate Rovers fans for the first time in many years due in no small part to the belief and togetherness that has been driven by John Eustace so far this season. Aside from being a hugely important league game this fixture could also prove to be a watershed in reconnecting the fanbase with the club. Whatever the result, there are encouraging signs that things are improving, and the club must proactively step up its efforts in fan engagement to capitalise on this. Despite this we do have some major concerns. While we hope these prove to be unfounded, we believe it is necessary to outline our current position. Failure to adequately invest in the playing squad during this window would make it necessary for us to change our outlook and public stance. We remain committed to supporting the team on the pitch, and to working with the staff at Ewood to ensure supporters are represented. However, it would mean that we would have to publicly call for the owners to sell the club. To reiterate what we have said many times before, the last 2 January windows have been nothing short of farcical, and damaged the credibility of our club,owners and senior staff. Last year also seriously jeopardised our Championship status. Furthermore, the nature of our failings have led to supporters questioning the competence and motives of the owners and those within their employment. We simply cannot have another similar situation, and there are people within the club who must understand and acknowledge this. A repeat ofJanuary 2023 or 2024 will not only decimate the good work that has been done but would also likely lead to turbulence and protests against you and the owners. Given our strong P&S/FFP position, our current league position, and the overall strength (or otherwise) of the division there are no excuses as to why we shouldn’t be signing players to give the manager and squad the best chance of success. The entire point of a football club is to compete and strive to be better. We are constantly told that the owners are committed to returning Rovers to the Premier League, and now is the time for them to back up their words with actions. For the third time in four seasons, we have a realistic chance to make at least the play offs, thanks to an impressive first half ofthe season. But this can only be achieved with investment in strengthening the playing squad. A third failure to do so during the January transfer window while nicely poised would render the relationship between the owners and the supporters untenable. John Eustace is on record as saying the squad needs investment. You have also stated publicly that transfer funds are required and have been requested from the owners via Suhail. If funds are not forthcoming, we can only conclude that the aspirations of the owners and their representative for the football club do not match those of the management, board, players and fanbase. We believe in the club, and think that John Eustace can bring us success, but neither you nor he can succeed with one hand tied behind your backs. Given our well documented struggles to keep within P&S limits for years, this is an opportunity which may not come around again for many years. Players that command a fee like Adam Wharton are exceptions. The legacy of that sale must be the progression of the squad to promotion challengers, it can’t be to maintain mid table mediocrity in the second tier. We do not think decent investment in the playing side is a big ask, particularly given the transfer fees we have recouped in the last 12 months. It is a necessary expense in football, and the duty of our owners to make the team as strong as possible. The owners must understand how privileged they are to be involved in our football club. We are confident that if any of our members had their financial wherewithal they would do everything in their power to ensure Rovers were a success, and we expect the same from the Rao family. This window represents a real opportunity for them to turn the club into an asset rather than the burden they seem to currently view it as.” While the club managed to bring in 6 signings, 5 of them are contracted only until the end of this season, and the short term nature of them does nothing to allay our long term concerns for the wellbeing of our club. Evidently John Eustace is of a similar opinion. To lose a manager who has done so much good work to restore some pride and hope to our club is heartbreaking. To lose him from a playoff position to a team currently in the relegation zone is a damning indictment of everything that is wrong with our club. There is a massive amount of completely justified anger from our fanbase at present, and fan unrest has been a near constant for the entirety of Venky’s ownership. This is hardly surprising considering the catalogue of disasters we have experienced over the last 14 years. It’s irrelevant who is employed as a director of the club: Karen Silk, Derek Shaw, Alan Myers, Simon Hunt, Paul Hunt, Mahesh Gupta, Vineeth Errabelly, Mike Cheston, Rohan Bhagwat, Paul Agnew, Ian Silvester, have all come and gone since Venky’s took over, and none of their departures brought about change. What M Sreenivasa Rao and Gandhi Babu do is anyone’s guess. It is apparent that Steve Waggott is expected to run elements of the club without the required autonomy or backing to do so. The one constant throughout the Venky’s tenure has been Suhail Pasha. While his title has changed in that time, his role as advisor/conduit/owners representative has remained broadly the same. With the Rao family remaining absent for over a decade he appears to hold a lot of power despite having no prior experience in football. We feel that the only acceptable advice for Suhail to pass on to the Rao family is to finally do the right thing and sell the club. New owners who care for the club and will treat Rovers and its supporters with the respect we deserve are long overdue. Sent on behalf of the Board of We Are The Rovers Supporters Trust

On Friday August 2nd, representatives of We Are The Rovers met with club CEO Steve Waggott and COO Suhail Shaikh to discuss recent events and raise ongoing supporter concerns. During the meeting we touched on three main areas: - The lack of clarity around the ongoing court case - Questions about the owners ability/willingness to fund the club - Level of communication and engagement We impressed upon them the growing concern that supporters have around the ongoing legal issues involving the owners, which appear to be impacting the clubs ability to function. We stressed that if the owners are either unwilling or unable to run the club on a benefactor model, placing the club up for sale was the only viable option. The forthcoming 20th August Delhi High Court case was also discussed. It was reiterated to WATR that the forthcoming 20th August Delhi High Court hearing is seen as an opportunity for the Owners to agree a better solution is in place for remittance of funds to BRFC in the UK, and that the Owners are committed to continue to fund any losses of Blackburn Rovers for the coming season. It was highlighted that much of the unrest is a result of a void in communications, and the need for a full explanation of the current position is required directly from the club. As a result of this initial meeting, it was agreed that a wider consultation between the club and a broad range of supporters and fan groups should take place at an appropriate time in the future. Planning for this is ongoing and further details will be provided in due course. The COO has agreed to attend future scheduled WATR Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) meetings on a regular basis. Work will also be undertaken to allow regular communication and, if possible, in person meetings between the Owners and representatives of WATR in the future. While the meeting was positive overall, and welcomed by both WATR and the Club, it is only the first step to improving engagement between the club and its most important stakeholder - its fanbase.

https://mcusercontent.com/f646174da39488e19ed1200d3/images/f8b32a03-310e-b17a-b39e-07e79f98a2f3.png AGM Agenda Wednesday 26th June - 7pm Blackburn Rovers Senior Training Centre SECTION A: AGM Business Welcome from Mike Graham, Chair of We Are The Rovers Minutes of the AGM held 22nd June 2023 (MG) - View on our website Chair’s Report for 2023 - written report - followed by questions (MG) - View on our website Election of Additional Board Members for 2024/25 (Linda Chelton) Adoption of Annual Accounts to June 2023 (Peter Dickinson) Membership Report (Marc O’Neill) SECTION B: Presentations on the work of We Are The Rovers (each presentation followed by a brief Q&A) The Rich and Unique Heritage of Blackburn Rovers (Steve Williams) Season Ticket Discussions and Fan Engagement in 2024/25 (Duncan Miller) SECTION 😄 Our Keynote Speaker (session chaired by Steve Williams) John Eustace our Head Coach will speak on the recent end of season challenges and looks forward to the coming season. This will be followed by a brief Q&A* session. (*written questions can be submitted during the meeting) RAFFLE Please note that WATR have arranged a free raffle for supporters attending this AGM. At present the prizes are: 1st - Fully signed and framed 2023/24 first team shirt. 2nd - £30 meal voucher for the excellent Cavendish Arms, Brindle near Chorley. 3rd - Adidas Spezial ‘coffee table’ Decades Book signed by Gary Aspen with an Arte Et Labore message. 4th - Team sheet from the Rovers v Newcastle FA Cup game signed by Sammie Szmodics. We will also be live streaming the event. A link will sent out by email on the morning of the 26th June. The meeting will finish at 9pm at the latest.

Player Meeting - Statement Representatives from We Are The Rovers joined other fan groups and individuals to meet with a delegation from the club, including 5 senior players on Wednesday 7th February. This was arranged with less than 24 hours notice. This meeting was never intended to be secret, but the fact that a breech in GDPR led to immediate speculation amongst the wider fanbase meant issuing a collective and comprehensive review by attendees became difficult. We were still sat round the table when CCTV footage started circulating and speculation began. We have a platform to put questions and suggestions to the club on a regular basis. Our next meeting with the Club on the basis of our Memorandum of Understanding is scheduled for next week. The discussions and outcomes will be comprehensively minuted and publicly available, we continue to seek input and questions to pose from our members. Other groups/individuals in attendance do not have that mandate, and this meeting presented them with an opportunity to voice concerns that many of their members, followers and fellow supporters have been raising. All supporters and players were given opportunities to speak, and there was a frank discussion around current form and morale in the squad. Nobody in the room was happy with current results and agreed they need to improve as a matter of urgency. The players were critical of their own performances. There was naturally discussion about the atmosphere at the QPR fixture. It was made very clear that any booing and chanting was not simply a result of that performance, but a culmination of anger and frustration at current events at board and ownership level that have been prevalent for many years. We Are The Rovers have repeatedly challenged the club to work with supporters on improving the match day experience and atmosphere. The players were in agreement with us that this should be addressed. Simply, a lively atmosphere is preferable to a lack of atmosphere, and a toxic atmosphere can be demoralising. A more in depth review from other perspectives will be shared by the respective attendees, but some takeaway points from us: - It was interesting to see players questioning Steve Waggott on ticket pricing. A drum we constantly bang. - Players were as vocal, disappointed and angry as anyone round the table regarding the Duncan McGuire transfer saga. - The players and the fans share the same opinion that current results have not been good enough, and a strong desire to see them improve - There was no attempt to try to silence voices, quash criticism, or avoid issues from anyone involved. Everyone did however express a desire to come together and ensure the season does not end in relegation. - There has been speculation about certain elements of the meeting not being shared with the wider fanbase. We were made aware that there would likely be upcoming media speculation, which occurred before we left the venue. https://www.roverstrust.com/news/player-meeting-statement

February 2024 Newsletter Dear Member, Your Rovers Trust Board clearly have concerns with the current issues surrounding our football club. As such we held an emergency meeting of the We Are The Rovers (WATR) Board on Sunday evening 4th February. You will be aware WATR recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the club. This provides us with an excellent opportunity to raise issues and concerns with representatives of the owners. The next MoU meeting is on the 15th February. We have asked if this meeting can be brought forward given our concerns. The MoU meeting will give your Board the opportunity to raise our serious concerns on the following areas: ownership; finances; club communications; culture; and reputational damage. We can assure you the above will be robustly and properly raised on behalf of our WATR members and the wider fanbase. We will keep you updated.

Newsletter: January 2024 Our latest ‘We Are The Rovers’ Supporters Trust Board Meeting took place on the evening of the 23rd January. This newsletter records the key outcomes of the discussions from that meeting. ‘Fans Takeover’ Games We had a full discussion on fan takeovers, and it was agreed that the atmosphere at both the Girona pre-season friendly and the Watford league game were the best at Ewood for some time; this was achieved due to the initiative of the Supporters Trust. The Trust welcomed the support and commitment from Club staff for the Watford and Girona games and the excellent support from 4000 Holes, brfcs.com, Rovers Chat, Proud Rovers, Her Game Too, and the South Asian Supporters group. The Board reiterated its own commitment and resources for future fan takeover events as building new support, retaining existing support and re-engagement of lost support is a key part of our remit as a Trust. The Board also wanted to see what the Club’s medium to long term plan is for the building support base and improving what we believe to be a very poor match day atmosphere. Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) The Board reiterated its commitment to the MoU. It is an important agreement, a unique line of engagement with the Club, and is a precursor to a Shadow Board. The next MoU is on 15th February and the Board agreed our representatives for that meeting. Our agenda items to be shared well in advance with the Club presently are: Fans Takeover Club Communications (and the need to share more re finances) Club Finances* Season Ticket Offering for 2024/25 Engagement with the Club Owners Heritage (150th Anniversary Arrangements / Rovers Museum) * We will express our concerns regarding the ongoing 1/4’ly Delhi High Court applications for essential funding to ensure statutory payments re maintained and staff are paid. Of particular concern to us is that we believe we are subject to the agreement of a Court many thousands of miles away; Court documents (31/10/2023) state ‘the inquiry which is going against the Petitioner is only at the nascent stage’, thus suggesting to the Trust Board the process of High Court applications could continue for a lengthy period of perhaps some years. We will also be asking for agreed minutes of the MoU meetings to be published on the Club’s website. If members have any suggestions as to additional agenda items, or points you wish us to stress then please email us via: chair@roverstrust.co.uk Heritage Our Heritage led Steve Williams is making a presentation at Blackburn Library on ‘Rovers Past & Present’ on the evening of the 8th February; this is supported by ‘We Are The Rovers’. We are also looking to repeat the event in the spring at a venue in Chorley as part of our outreach work to supporters outside of BwD. ‘We Are The Rovers’ AGM The Supporters Trust Annual General Meeting will take place on the evening of 26th June 2024. We are presently sourcing a cost-effective venue. Members will be advised in advance. A signed and framed Rovers 2023/24 shirt has been donated by a Trust Board member as a raffle prize. We will also look at the possibility of live streaming the event. South Asian Supporters Launch Steve Williams will be making a presentation on Rovers Heritage and History to the SAS launch event at the QPR game on Saturday 3rd February.

Our home fixture against Watford on December 23rd will see the second Fan Takeover day. Following on from the success of the pre season fixture against Girona a number of supporter groups/organisations will be working with the club to bring you a Blue and White Christmas. We think that with the great value of the ticket offering we can help attract a bumper crowd and that Rovers fans from far and wide will come and cheer the team on. We hope those supporters who will be back in Lancashire for the festive period will come along, or why not gift a ticket as an early Christmas present to a friend or family member who hasn’t been to Ewood in a while? We’d like to see everyone in their colours, and the theme of the day is Blue and White Christmas. We Are The Rovers will be unveiling some new crowd banners we hope will become a fixture at home and away games going forward - please bring your banners and flags and get behind the boys! As well as the usual match day offerings there will be festive food and drink choices and offers on the concourse. We will be joined by other fan groups, including our good friends at BRFCS and 4,000 holes, Her Game Too, Proud Rovers and Rovers SAS in the fanzone prior to the game. We’ll have some festive gifts to give away and some activities planned. We’ll also be selling gift membership packs for anyone in need of a last minute present for the discerning Rovers fan. There’ll be plenty of updates between now and then so keep your eyes peeled here and on our new look website for that, as well as some exclusive fan driven content from BRFCS, the 4000 Holes podcast and Rovers Chat in the build up.