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This Championship Side Desperately Needs New Owners

Three-time champions of the top flight of English football.

Six-time winners of the FA Cup.

Winners of the League Cup just 24 years ago.

Legendary players such as Alan Shearer, Chris Sutton, and Bob Crompton have passed through their ranks.

Over the past 16 years, the mood at Blackburn Rovers has steadily soured, shaped by an ownership era that began with the takeover by Venkys London Limited, the UK arm of India’s VH Group.

Led by Anuradha Jitendra Desai, Banda Venkatesh Rao, and Banda Balaji Rao, the Venkys took control of Blackburn in November 2010 when they bought the former English champions for £23 million—becoming the first Indian owners of a Premier League club in the process.

The Blackburn #Rovers Supporters Coalition has sent an Open Letter to Venkys & SP calling for the club to be put up for sale.

This will be hard on us all, but until that time we are asking for a phased, strategic boycott of home games.

Further details will follow shortly. 🔵⚪️ pic.twitter.com/o9pBWfxsvT
— Blackburn Rovers Supporters Coalition (@BRFCCoalition) December 15, 2025

On the pitch, the early returns were modest rather than disastrous. Blackburn finished 15th in Venkys’ first season in charge, securing survival with room to spare.

But any sense of stability proved fleeting.

A year later, Blackburn would find themselves relegated back to the Championship after 11 years in the Premier League as they finished 19th on just 31 points—seven points adrift of safety.

And since the end of the 2011–12 season, little has improved for Blackburn’s long-suffering support.

The decline deepened in 2016–17, when Rovers were relegated to League One after finishing 22nd in the Championship with 51 points—their first spell in the third tier since 1980.

Promotion followed on the first attempt. Blackburn finished second in League One the following season to secure an immediate return to the Championship.

But the Venkys had already done the damage, and the scars inflicted could not be easily undone.

And now, more than 15 years into Venkys’ stewardship, the relationship between owners and supporters has frayed beyond repair, culminating in fans preparing a boycott for their home game against Watford on January 24.

Taken for granted for too long. We WILL be heard. Enough is enough. pic.twitter.com/VXFNSo7l1x
— Blackburn Rovers Supporters Coalition (@BRFCCoalition) January 1, 2026

This season, two home fixtures—against Ipswich Town and Sheffield Wednesday—have been postponed due to a waterlogged pitch at Ewood Park, an issue that has sharpened criticism of the club’s infrastructure and, by extension, the level of investment under Venkys’ ownership.

Postponed games are not uncommon the further you go down the pyramid within English football. But repeated issues at the same ground tend to point to deeper problems.

Blackburn currently sits 20th in the table, teetering on the verge of a second relegation in the past 10 years. Off the pitch, frustration has intensified, particularly after a summer in which large parts of the squad were stripped away.

Dominic Hyam, Callum Brittain, John Buckley, Joe Rankin-Costello and long-serving captain Lewis Travis were all allowed to depart. Between them, the quintet accounted for more than 800 appearances for the club.

Blackburn’s fate for this season is yet to be decided. But one thing is clear: if the Venkys remain in control of the historic English club, things will not improve; they will only get worse.