[Archived] 400 junior teams set to wear Rover's colours.

[K-Hod]

Good for Rovers in India, though frankly this would only be good news if BLACKBURN Rovers was in good health

[Steve Moss]

I'll take your manager, def midfielder, and right back and raise you a chief executive (one who isn't a yes-man).

I believe you are correct, but it wouldn't be a pressing issue so long as the Pune crowd were making timely decisions grounded in common sense. Since they aren't, it is.

[ABBEY]

F the V's !!!!!!!

My team is in lancs not India and they are killing it!!!

VENKYS OUT

[AggyBlue]

The worrying aspect for me is Venkys are obviously desperate for an Indian player to help promote their brand, so will push any old ###### into the side, irrelevant of ability.

Far easier to fit an Indian player into Championship team than a Premier League team

[PAFELL]

Oh well at least somebody wearing a Rovers top will be on the winning side.

Just a thought, can they use BLACKBURN ROVERS as a BRAND name? Is it legal?

[Paul]

Kean will also say we have signed the next Tendulkar.

So that's the problem, he thinks we playing cricket.

[Hughesy]

Why do they have to use our horrible yellow away kit too? lol

Nothing wrong with starting the league up and growing the brand, perhaps they can get an exclusivity deal on the players too incase any of them make it good enough so that we have 1st refusal on them?

You never know if it takes off we might find a willing sponsor to give us lots of cash to sponsor that and also perhaps the stadium or kit. Anything that helps grow our income im all for.

Yes its not in the UK but clubs like ours need extra income from somewhere.

Agreed we need a Chief Exec and a better manager, no doubting that.

[AllRoverAsia]

Why do they have to use our horrible yellow away kit too? lol

Nothing wrong with starting the league up and growing the brand, perhaps they can get an exclusivity deal on the players too incase any of them make it good enough so that we have 1st refusal on them?

You never know if it takes off we might find a willing sponsor to give us lots of cash to sponsor that and also perhaps the stadium or kit. Anything that helps grow our income im all for.

Yes its not in the UK but clubs like ours need extra income from somewhere.

Agreed we need a Chief Exec and a better manager, no doubting that.

I rather suspect that any income produced from the Indian childrens league would be kept in India and used to enhance Venky's standing there.

[broadsword]

It's putting the cart before the horse.

It's a bit ridiculous to try to make Blackburn Rovers India's team, when the club is in complete disarray.

It doesn't really add up at all. What is the strategy here, what are they trying to achieve? Just because these kids wear blue and white halves when playing football doesn't mean they won't support Man Utd when they're on the telly.

Foreign fans want to support winning teams.

We have won two games with almost half the season gone.

Who's to blame? The very people trying to "grow the brand". It's pure idiocy, as though this activity in India is completely independent of what's happening in the UK. While the club is being starved of capital and being run on debt with the bank knocking on the door, over in India, 400 kids will be running around in blue and white halves in an initiative presumably paid for by Venky's. It's either a serious lack of joined-up thinking or incredibly cynical.

They didn't want to sell their baby because apparently of these grand schemes they have in India. Well, actually Mrs Desai still wanted to sell, which suggests to me that these schemes in India are hare-brained projects that will come to nought (because she seems to be the brains of the outfit). In any case, the important part is Blackburn Rovers. If the club goes under, it won't matter how many poxy kids are running around in blue and white halves, they'll be no club to follow.

Dopey-ar5ed tw*ts.

[BlueMonday]

Fiddling while Rome burns.....

[AllRoverAsia]

Whilst this is a good initiative to encourage Indian youngsters to play football it doesn't mean Rovers have captured the Indian market.

Many of the TOP PL clubs already have or are planning a presence in India including Man U, Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal. Six months ago Spurs were looking at something similar to what Rovers plan to do at school level.

Over time the better players in India will go to the bigger/better clubs who have a presence in India making Rovers PL survival essential to the long term success of the Rovers initiative.

[Majiball]

Whilst this is a good initiative to encourage Indian youngsters to play football it doesn't mean Rovers have captured the Indian market.

Many of the TOP PL clubs already have or are planning a presence in India including Man U, Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal. Six months ago Spurs were looking at something similar to what Rovers plan to do at school level.

Over time the better players in India will go to the bigger/better clubs who have a presence in India making Rovers PL survival essential to the long term success of the Rovers initiative.

Yes your right and some already have, take MUSS they've held camps in India and had ridiculous numbers of kids turning up without shoes and so on. However the same coaches all feel that it will take a very long time to produce premier league standard players from India and by that I mean double figures. SO I have to say I agree with yourself, it's pointless and fruitless as at the end of the day the real Rovers must be in the premier league for it all to come off and well, Mmmm.

[the original david brent]

This may sound rather narrow minded but i couldn't care less about this initiative in India. What long term benefit will this have for the future of the club? It won't.

They should be spending this alloted money and doing these initiaves in Blackburn, Darwen and the surrounding areas. Schools and Junior football teams in the local area should be given these kits and other equipment. A mate of mine runs a local junior team and they struggle to make ends meet; Im sure they would appreciate a Rovers kit!

When i was a kid in the early mid 90s, our primary school was given a kit by Rovers. Blackburn Rovers Soccers Skills used to come every Friday in the Spring time. Colin Hendry once came and presented us medals. There used to be organised school trips, subsided by Rovers, to home games on a regular basis. The result...a generation of Rovers fans.

Nowadays, we don't see any of this. In fact it concerns me to see the amount of local kids wearing Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool shirts. It is on the increase. I really do fear for the future of Rovers support in the long term, given factors like this, and also given the demographics of the town.

The club would have reaped more benefit doing this initiative, or similar initiative, in the local area, not in India

[Hughesy]

A mate of mine runs a local junior team and they struggle to make ends meet

Why?!?

[broadsword]

The club would have reaped more benefit doing this initiative, or similar initiative, in the local area, not in India

Yes, but perhaps it's not being done to benefit the club, but rather to benefit Venky's. Two rather different things methinks.

[booth]

It's putting the cart before the horse.

A perfect way to sum it up.

[Mike Graham]

So that's where all the unsold shirts from the Rovers store are going!

[Paul]

This may sound rather narrow minded but i couldn't care less about this initiative in India. What long term benefit will this have for the future of the club? It won't.

They should be spending this alloted money and doing these initiaves in Blackburn, Darwen and the surrounding areas. Schools and Junior football teams in the local area should be given these kits and other equipment. A mate of mine runs a local junior team and they struggle to make ends meet; Im sure they would appreciate a Rovers kit!

When i was a kid in the early mid 90s, our primary school was given a kit by Rovers. Blackburn Rovers Soccers Skills used to come every Friday in the Spring time. Colin Hendry once came and presented us medals. There used to be organised school trips, subsided by Rovers, to home games on a regular basis. The result...a generation of Rovers fans.

Nowadays, we don't see any of this. In fact it concerns me to see the amount of local kids wearing Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool shirts. It is on the increase. I really do fear for the future of Rovers support in the long term, given factors like this, and also given the demographics of the town.

The club would have reaped more benefit doing this initiative, or similar initiative, in the local area, not in India

This is absolutely spot on. My kids did all sorts of football, Rovers related stuff through the 90s. It definetley helped make them fans and got parents involved in the club. It can't have cost much and the benefits are huge.

I very much doubt the Raos appreciate this. - I could provide them with living proof.

[the original david brent]

Why?!?

Because a decent kit costs a few hundred quid. Sponsorship is harder to find these days. Plus a lot of expenditure goes on training facilities, equipment, referee fees, league membership fees etc. All reliant on money from parents, at a time when our own economy is in dire straits, employment is on the rise, and the local area is bearing the brunt of this more than most in the UK.

Believe me, his under 10's team would have really appreciated a rovers kit. Initiatives like this would create future generations of LOCAL Rovers fans, who would actually go to Ewood, as per my earlier post.

[John]

Agreed we need a Chief Exec and a better manager, no doubting that.

Yeah, just the small matter of that....