24 minutes ago, StubbsUK said:

Here's a good round up of what we know: https://www.brfcs.com/magazine/articles/breaking-down-venky's-and-hmrc's-impact:-what's-next-for-rovers/483

Sorry Stubbs, I was talking about a cribsheet of some kind that can easily be read on Twitter / Facebook etc.

21 minutes ago, glen9mullan said:

Just copied what we recorded below,  might be worth additional questions posing by FF or RT

 

As promised Mark and I met with the CEO and this is a brief run down of discussions.

 

1. Bridging loan - Taken out by Venkys against the training ground, using a long standing relationship with UK based businessman. The plan is this to be short term and they intend clearing it as soon as there is a relaxing of funds from India. They had to put up Parent company guarantees, but the liability of the loan remains with Venkys and won't appear as in the club accounts. The funds were made available to aid cash flow and ensure priority bills were paid.

2. Cash flow - although challenging the club has paid all priority bills, or renegotiated terms during the period up until and including the cash injection earlier this month, this includes all bonuses. No wages or bonuses have been deferred by anyone at the club.

3. Cash injection - the club are relieved with the 11 million or so which had been sanctioned by the Indian courts. Its a less than ideal situation as substantiation must be provided with each application and only bills, operating costs will be sanctioned. The money cannot be diverted to transfer funds and will be auditable on future applications. This money was to see the club until December 2023.

4. What's the plan for funds for the rest of the season? The club has once again put together a list of bills which will need to be paid, this will again go to the courts for authority to pay, the club are confident this will also be sanctioned.

5. Does that mean no transfer funds? If there is not a relaxation in India, then funds will need to be generated via player trading

6. Venkys sponsorship - Club taken 3 years payment of the 5 year deal in advance to cover cash flow.

7. DOF/CEO model, who decided this? This was Venkys Idea after seeing other clubs use this approach.

8. Have you taken paycut to fund a second person doing something you previously did on your own?  No

9. We have had a good record previous to a DOF of buying players with a good sell on value, is it fair to say that most of our playing assets are now from the academy, who have a genuine decent value? CEO acknowledged that our assets are from within rather than those purchased. It was noted that Hyam, Smodzics etc were scouted prior to the new Management set up and have been a success in terms of purchase price, but also the previous recruitment team.

10. Are you on a rolling contract/fixed contract? Notice period from either side required to terminate.

11. Season tickets - Club recommended a much lower price to India, in particular on the early bird,  however this was not acceptable and they set a higher opening early bird offer. It was acknowledged that the early bird offer didn't help low income families with the short duration and the club needs to learn from this. It was also acknowledged that the price was a stumbling block and something they will be looking at. However a large drop in price would have much wider implications if the club needed to later increase these year upon year, with the rises being much steeper for the club to remain viable in terms of minimum revenue required to operate within FFP.

12. Shirt launch - How do we launch a shirt and sell out within 2 hours?  The club ordered 15000 shirts, and he feels the launch was great success, obviously we need to sell all stock as 15000 was big commitment, however the limited opening batch was out of the clubs control with all shirts ordered in good time. The lack of shirts was not related to the clubs funding issues.

13. Closing the Blackburn End - the club received a number of complaints and hindsight is a wonderful thing. With cash flow a major issue at this time, the club attempted to try and limit match day costs. As CEO, he needed to look through a wider lense if funds were not forthcoming.  Being responsible for the lights being able to be turned on was the priority during a challenging period and the decision was not taken lightly.

14. Shaw will be remembered for a fax machine, and you for a coach you didn't buy but said you did? After a debate it was agreed the coach was a lease and we asked him to admit saying otherwise has become a standing joke with JDT. He stated they wanted to put some positive PR out as the coach is state of the art. We told him, that the demographic he is preaching to, some can't afford a holiday or the basics and it was a poor effort to appease the fans.

15. We asked what he feels is his achievements to date as CEO? He said stabilising the Club during the bad press. We challenged had he stabled the club or have those more vocal given him time and patience to rebuild? We pointed out crowd's have continued to dwindle,  and season ticket holder retention should be one of his main priorities l. It's no good selling 800 new season ticket holders, if you are losing a 1000 existing ones. We pointed out that they have not left their offices, gone out to the masses in and around the area, surrounding areas , put pop-ups up or to date given supporters a reason to return.

16. Is there any redundancies planned as part of the cut-backs? Not at this time, some have left employment for other reasons and these won't be replaced.

17. Supporter consultation meetings, why have they ceased , we do not believe meeting the FF in isolation instead of an open forum ticks the leagues mandate following consultation with the league ? He disputed this, but was happy to be corrected if that's the case. They stopped because of covid, but would be open to them restarting instead of multiple meetings, if there is genuine interest from supporters to attend a more open forum.

18. New Indian Based Commercial Director - He is cc'd on emails as a director however to date, has not got involved with Ewood and is not on the pay role.  The other Indian based directors are also not paid by Rovers, though Gupta does attend meetings and in particular surrounding finance. He plays a more active role, than is forseen with this new appointment which is more of a tick box exercise.

19. JDT contract - it is a 3 year deal with no talks of a new contract planned at this stage, he is ambitious. We asked why JDT thinks he was sold a pup?  He reiterated that its the same job as its always been with no pressure on league position. Its always been about developing and trading regardless of financial restrictions this summer.

20. Did we adopt quantity over quality this summer ? It was acknowledged that not all signings have worked out yet, either this season or last. We've had to take more chances , but some players take longer than others to settle.

21. Have the EFL or football league asked questions or taken closer look at Rovers since the investigations India?  He stated he talks weekly with both parties and at no point had their been any discussions or contact either formally or informally. The club are completely compliant.

22. Given the fans found out the bad news from the press, as it appears he does, is he aware of any more bombshells from India, that have yet to hit print? He said he was not aware of anything and Mr Desai has repeatedly reiterated the owners commitment to providing funds.

23. When does he think we wil be clear, so funds can be provided normally? He does not know beyond the short term facility in place.  He is confident that although substantiation is required to get funds signed off, that there should be no blockers to prevent these funds being transferred. He again reiterated the owners long term commitment.

24. Have they considered partnering with a credit union or endorsing one to offer supporters a facility to save for season tickets, given not all appear yo even pass the strict finance criteria by the clubs credit provider? He was interested on how this could work and would be open to looking at various options to aid affordability over a period of time, providing the club were not responsible/liable for the savings.

25. Large agent fees - We asked why the agent fees were so big? He stated some are historical and on long payment terms, so this is not just recent spend, it's cumulative of a number of seasons.

26. Loan from league during covid - Its been a bit of a noose but the final repayment will be made in January.

Above is just brief and I will happily have a chat off line with anyone who wants me to elaborate 

Thanks Glen 

9 minutes ago, glen9mullan said:

The loons borrowed money where the liability is theirs using personal guarantees. The repayments are their responsibility and SW stated this loan won't appear in club accounts. He was also confident that this money loan would be paid off within months and the number was not that vast .

It was a way of them putting money in from other sources other than India. 

He added that the source of the loan was from a long standing business associate of the v's who they utilise for other endeavours.

It was in minutes I posted in meeting with Swag in December 

But isn't it secured on the training ground? (Which I know technically isn't 'ours')

It still stinks and to me it's still a worry.

Maybe there needs to be a summation of the facts and made in to an image and get it plastered everywhere. Hopefully then it'll focus people's minds

12 minutes ago, Herbie6590 said:

Page 35 in this thread

But, but the only money we owe are to the Raos themselves.

We really are going to the wall here. It's a matter of when and not if, isn't it.

23 minutes ago, wilsdenrover said:

I’m not sure the sum borrowed was disclosed but other than that I think you’re right.

This in itself should be worrying each and every Rovers fan. Borrowing money in this way means we are both desperate and exhausted normal funding routes.

No doubt this is also prohibitively expensive so sucking more of our limited funds out of the club. 

Am I in cloud cuckoo land, or did we lend the thick end of 10m from a random company based in somebody's house a few months ago?

1 minute ago, glen9mullan said:

Totally agree its a big issue, it was a big issue 9 months ago too,

What are we doing about it?

I'm genuinely not sure. I saw a poll before this came to late somebody had done on Facebook asking who wanted the Raos out and who wanted them to stay and it was pretty evenly split.

I personally worry that there isn't enough ground swell of support for anything serious to happen (ie protests, tennis balls etc) so those that do participate get turned upon...but I could be wrong.

9 hours ago, glen9mullan said:

They were not served with a winding up notice.

They were warned they had to pay bill or it would be result in being served one

Whether they were served or warned of being served due to late payment then it is a big issue. If the club is at any point having threats due to not paying their bills on time, that to me is a huge issue...but equally and sadly almost a welcome one as it HOPEFULLY means the end is nigh for the Raos.

The club being served a winding up petition by HMRC due to owing 3.5m isn't insignificant. Lots of people will know that winding up petitions get issued, but it isn't 'normal' at all.

What it shows is that we are / have been pissing very close to the wind and adds further fuel to the fire that we are knee deep in the biggest pile of shite we have been since these shysters took over...and that's saying something!

2 minutes ago, Upside Down said:

Exactly what's happening here.

As you say, who is setting the agenda? We don't even sell these players most of the time so who benefits? Well agents do of course, and we all know  about their involvement in the club in days gone by. Didn't we have to pay a massive amount in agent fees not that long ago?

After the O'Brien debacle last January, which I suspect was another occasion of the owners stopping the deal, I made the observation that they don't want to get promoted. Some people scoffed at this idea but I don't see how you can claim anything different.

Even this year the owners put a stop to a FREE transfer of an experienced defender, something we desperately need.

From the first moment of them taking over the aim was to get the club dolloping along in this division. Relegation from the Premier League was 100% deliberate and there has been absolutely zero attempts made to get back there.

Starting to think this is absolutely the scenario 

I not upset Travis is gone. I don't rate him and think he's a poor captain.

Why I'm more galled at is if the supposed replacement is the kid from Brighton. We should be replacing what we've got with better, experience quality. Not taking a chance on some clubs inexperienced kids.

Only a hunch but I just get the feeling something will happen out of the blue one day. We will all wake up one morning and we will have been sold or gone in to admin with no warning whatsoever. 

This whole crappy situation has now been a saga for more than a third of my lifetime and I'm genuinely fearful that it could be for the rest of it. Things do change though so we must all live in hope it'll one day come to pass.

Cov and the barcodes have gone through similar and come out the other side so here's hoping we still can too.

May as well have booted that in to his own net. Terrible goalkeeping 

I often attend games on my lonesome. Feel free to hit me up and I'll glad share a pint and a myther before a game

What's all this pivot and double pivot stuff?

Do you mean 2 central midfielders?

3 minutes ago, rigger said:

Do icebergs have layers ?

Please get it right. It's a shitberg 😁

3 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

Not sure about that as they did the same offer last season.

Think they've done it for the past few seasons

Great goal

I'm going to stick my neck out here and go for a 0-2 win. 

Gareth, being the big Rover that he is, will do us a favour

We are in big trouble.

10 hours ago, JHRover said:

They just don't give a stuff as to the impact their policies have on people or the club's reputation.

As you say, what happened in January was not only an embarrassment for the club, but also probably dragged our reputation into the gutter. Other clubs, if they weren't already, will treat us with extreme caution, knowing that even if we say we want a player, even if we get all the work done on it, we are capable of letting it collapse at the 11th hour due to various ridiculous reasons. Such nonsense can cause havoc to other clubs and their players. 

If what I've heard about Moran is correct then that's another example of us treating other clubs and their players like rubbish.

My suspicion is that the club has also mucked around numerous players over recent years at least when it comes to contract extensions and departures. I believe that many of those that have left in recent years have done so after Rovers have failed to make them appropriate offers in appropriate timescales and so they have felt little other option but to look elsewhere. I'm sure such stories spread in players circles which only contributes further to our struggles to attract proven quality (if it wasn't already hard enough with next to no budget). 

The way we've treated Broughton and JDT again a further example of taking people for fools. It seems they were both undermined mid-transfer window having previously agreed to already stringent restrictions and planned accordingly. The arrogance of the people owning the club is such they clearly think they can do whatever they please and care little for the consequences. 

Fans have been treated like dirt for years now. Taken for granted, taken for a ride on tickets and pricing, dropping shareholder and consultation meetings from the calendar, then they have the audacity to claim that fans' views are important and taken on board. Are they b0llocks.

Ultimately an unprofessional and classless football club. You only have to glance at the state of the owners and CEO to see they are well short of what is needed. They clearly take no pride at all in the club, its appearance or reputation, Ewood Park is a disgrace and as we've said many a time could be tidied up and maintained for an insignificant amount of money, but when the owners treat the club as 'out of sight, out of mind' and employ charlatans to run it in their absence, people who boast about getting the pitch ready on time for the new season and hiring a new coach, it is clear to see what standards he is measuring himself against.

 

Sad to say that this is a great post and sums the club up perfectly. I am by no means a big Mowbray fan but lets not forget the poor way in which they also treated him at the end of his tenure.

The slow demise of Blackburn Rovers continues and in the most painful way possible; death by a thousand cuts.

6 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

Anyone can cut costs. It's easy to save money in any business. You don't need to have an exec on £300,000 to cut costs. 

A large part of a CEO's remit is to grow and expand the business, and for instance for the Cardiff game aim to get 10,000 in by going out and selling the game to the East Lancs public, Has he heard of one-match promotions?

This is all clearly beyond Maggott, probably because it's too "difficult", and closing the BE is easier.

First job for any new owner is to shunt this bloke out of the club

 

He has absolutely and categorically failed on this point to date. The guy is a shyster and the only way he seems able to 'balance the books' is by increasing costs for the supporter and reducing expenditure. GROWING THE ATTENDANCES AND THE FAN BASE WILL INCREASE INCOME.

1 hour ago, Mellor Rover said:

JRC rode the crest of a wave last season and has now, as I predicted, reverted to type.

Awful footballer, can't defend, can't pass, can't shoot.

Hyperbole of the year thus far

Valiant defeat. Inevitably Hirst will score a penalty for Ipswich.

2 - 0