[Archived] Letter which exposes the history of the Blackburn crisis

[Steve Moss]

There was nothing in the letter we did not already know. The board, JW & TF ETC. were not happy with how venkys were running the club. So resigned. Just that it is a letter to the owners.

The letter re-categorized a lot of rumor as fact.

JA/SEM/Kentaro were running the club in January.

Board had nothing to do with Sam's sacking.

Somebody back doored Sam.

Kean (or someone working on his behalf) back doored JW.

Board marginalized and effectively forced out.

By keeping the board in the dark, the bank was kept in the dark, which may explain the rumored difficulties.

All in all, the letter is evidence that Venkys did not keep certain of their promises to the fans and the prior owners.

It was known but without hard evidence, this disproves comments by the deluded woman in Pune, that John Williams had fallen out of love with the job or words to that effect and hard evidence of conflict of interest, this is totally different now!

Yes. That letter was not written by a man not interested in the sport. It was written by a man who was being kept in the dark and fed manure. Mrs. D's credibility has taken yet another hit.

How I see things is that there are 3 players in this game now, all with different agendas:

1) Anderson/Kean/SEM - desperate to distant themselves from what happened in the early days of the takeover. Hence JA's Oscar-worthy performance on SSN and Kean's more defensive inerviews of late. I think they are fighting a losing battle, because you cannot hide the truth.

2) Venkys - IMO now know they have been screwed over by SEM. Will almost certainly regret listening to JA's advice and getting rid of John Williams, Finn etc and Big Sam. So far they have kept quiet. Probably want rid of Kean, but don't have anyone lined up to replace him. Unlikely to admit their mistakes in public in order to save face. In a difficult position because they now have no-one to turn to for advice.

3) The Ex Directors and other ITKs who have proof of the truth. This group hold all the aces (eg the leaked letter). IMO they were still have Rovers' interest at heart and were provoked with the JA interview into releasing the letter. The truth will out in the end, but maybe these people are giving Venkys a chance to right things first, or sell the club.

I think this sums it up pretty well. I would add a 4th group, the fans. As a group, the fans are focused on the best interests of the club. In normal circumstances they would be the owners best and most reliable allies. Unfortunately, Venkys has been intent on either setting fire to, or allowing to fall into disrepair, all bridges between them and the fans. A massive mistake.

Venkys could still make up a massive amount of ground, if they would open up their eyes and ears and engage.

[bigbrandjohn]

Keep up the fight Glen!

(Nice suit btw

Nice job Glen. Stayed on message, responded well to criticism, kept it simple and stuck to the facts.

I think the focus must remain on Venkys. Nobody wants Rovers to lose any games and so with the tide turning both in our fortunes hopefully, and the media interest in our ownership, that is where our efforts should be directed.

[Rover Down Under]

That "Are Blackburn Fans the worst?" tag was just plain retarded.

Heysel, Hillsborough. Two words that would have put the OTT reactions to our protests into context.

I'm looking forward to the day that we can demand an apology from the likes of the Beeb and Sky for their blatant anti-Rovers agenda and expose them for the pathetic, unprofessional and downright insulting attitude they have taken against us.

[Paul]

.. "been instructed by SEM to issue a mandate to a third party without any reference or approval from the board", "

This quote seems to me to indicate very strongly SEM / Kentaro were managing the club in some form last January. Whether or not they were working under Venkys instructions is irrelevant as it's hard to imagine harder evidence at this point than "been instructed to"

For the life of me I can't see how those words indicate anything other than SEM / Kentaro were managing aspects of the club. As a manager one makes requests of employees or in other words "instruct " them as to the actions they should take.

[Stuart]

The letter re-categorized a lot of rumor as fact.

Absolutely spot on.

Quite telling then that hardly any newspapers have run with it...

[gumboots]

Still carries the BBC logo and looks and feels like the BEEB. Their stance on this also matches that

of 'Home' BBC.

Actually it doesn't feel like the BBC - their presentation standards are far more professional even if their apparent stance is not much different. They would almost certainly not have run with that strap line and they would not have employed someone with no knowledge of the game as that blond clearly hadn't to front a show discussing sport. You may not agree with what the BBC say on many occasions, but they do know how to present and produce quality tv.

[Mattyblue]

Apart from Match of the Day, of course.

[gumboots]

Apart from Match of the Day, of course.

Even there you might not like the content, but the presenters know how to present. They may be boring, the editing of highlights may miss some of the stuff you and I think should be included but the actual quality of the programme, whether you agree with their policies on selecting matches etc etc is much higher than what we saw with Glenn yesterday. He was invited as a guest but could have turned up and said anything he wanted because they blatantly didn't hear a word he said.

[Mattyblue]

Gary Lineker doesn't fit the bill, cliched pap and the general smugness of old pros on a golfing holiday doesn't make a good programme.

MOTD 2 on the other hand is a good watch.

[dave birch]

Even there you might not like the content, but the presenters know how to present. They may be boring, the editing of highlights may miss some of the stuff you and I think should be included but the actual quality of the programme, whether you agree with their policies on selecting matches etc etc is much higher than what we saw with Glenn yesterday. He was invited as a guest but could have turned up and said anything he wanted because they blatantly didn't hear a word he said.

Now, isn't that the world of journalism, when you want to put your opinion across?

[m1st]

Gary Lineker doesn't fit the bill, cliched pap and the general smugness of old pros on a golfing holiday doesn't make a good programme.

MOTD 2 on the other hand is a good watch.

MotD is totally anodyne; mind you, what would you expect from a pundit whose idea of celebrating is [certainly used to be!] creosoting a fence?!

I wish we could get the RTÉ equivalent; whenever I've seen it on visits to Ireland, it seems much more incisive and relevant to today.

And it's on earlier in the evening, which means that old fogeys like me are less likely to fall asleep before Rovers occupy our almost traditional last spot on the programme!

[John]

Just reading the letter again – nothing we did not already know but the lack of respect shown to the club since day one is completely out of order - the language used throughout the letter is quite stern.

The 3rd last paragraph for example, referring to Barclays bank, "this is unacceptable and not in the best interests of the club".

[Kendalrover]

maple leaf mention robert coar. im wondering why he is still here when the rest left

Don't know if anyone has answered this post but Rob Coar has very senior positions at the FA, he is a member of the Professional Game Board and a member of the FA Council. It is my understanding the basic reason he gets these posts is because of his links, he is on the 'Board', with the Rovers. I doubt if he has any intention of rocking the boat.

[Mercer]

Don't know if anyone has answered this post but Rob Coar has very senior positions at the FA, he is a member of the Professional Game Board and a member of the FA Council. It is my understanding the basic reason he gets these posts is because of his links, he is on the 'Board', with the Rovers. I doubt if he has any intention of rocking the boat.

Raised this twice earlier in the thread and included an article from Daily Mail to such effect.

A puzzling one given that nearly all the old regime has gone - you can only draw your own conclusions.

[philipl]

Returning to the letter, its publication has one extremely serious consequence for Venky's.

Until it came out, administration (and I must not be the only person who was alerted to the rumoured possibility, nay fact as it appeared in the text I received, that we might enter administration as early as this month) could have been seen as an easy low cost option for the Venky's clan.

After all, in cash flow terms, they are going to need to find between something up to £30m of their own resources to sustain the club until the next PL central payment arrives if Barclays want £10m back and there is no new banking source AND the transfer window is as active in the second half of the window as it has been in the first ie none in, none out. There is zero sign of the high wage earning ageing pariahs being shifted as far as I am aware and Mrs D seems to have achieved the unique status of a Premier League owner that even agents will think seriously about whether they want to do business with.

I hear that Mrs Desai put at least some of Balaji's Bollywood venture into administration when that got wound up from active trading even though a non-trading Bollywood vehicle is still within the VH Group. If this is the case, (can anyone confirm or deny?), it would indicate track record of Mrs D breaking Balaji's toys and would point to Rovers' likely fate.

However, an administration now looks to be an awful option for Venky's following that letter entering the public domain:

- anyone, but particularly somebody like Jack Straw, could demand a Department of Industry investigation into the circumstances of Rovers entering administration as there is prima facie evidence the DoI could hardly ignore.

- that letter is prima facie evidence of maladministration by by Mrs Desai and could immediately invite a ban on holding Directorships etc in the UK.

- the directors are clearly stating they were ignored, undermined and rendered incapable of undertaking their appointed tasks and duties leading to their eventual resignation. Are KPMG aware of this and do they wish to revisit their audit opinion for the accounts dated 30 June 2011 in respect of the corporate governance statements? What would be the position of KPMG in the event of administration? And a Department of Industry investigation? Questions would be bound to be asked given KPMG are brand new appointees. There must be internal discussions going on within KPMG with respect to what will be said at the AGM tomorrow in the light of that letter seeing the light of day- they will be aware that there is every prospect of more revelations to follow so they are dealing with some tricky knowns (add in Barclays Bank's reported concerns) and a highly problematic unknown.

- did the owners and current management representation letters to the auditors disclose the sorts of bombs waiting to explode? Did KPMG first see that letter from the three former directors (who were in post for the majority of the period KPMG audited) to Mrs Desai when it appeared on the Sporting Intelligence website?- it will be a massive betrayal of trust between them and their auditors if that is indeed the case.

- in the event of administration, the question of shadow directors arises. The letter clearly points to SEM having acquired shadow director status. It would also be extremely difficult for the Rao siblings to avoid being deemed to be shadow directors.

- a wrap of the knuckles in the form of bans by the DoI would seem to be highly likely and that in turn would be used by the sporting authorities in the UK to take action which, Fabio Briartore- style, could easily lead to a global ban from all sporting activity for the Raos, not least because Mrs D still has the criminal charges relating to Lavasa in India still hanging over her as far as I know.

[pg]

ROFL its 'Flavio'..not Fabio

[SharrockDownSouth]

Hope that someone does take some action and lances the boils that seem to be covering our Rovers at the moment... it'll be messy, but better than dying a slow death!

[Give 'Em the Axe]

Very interesting revelations. It is nice to have confirmation of at least some of the rumours that have been flying about here for over a year. I wonder will anything grow from this or is it just the likes of us who'll be paying attention?

For what it's worth,Mr. Mullen,you came across great on that awful,awful show. Fair play to you,well done.

[philipl]

ROFL its 'Flavio'..not Fabio

Forgot as he has rather dropped off the radar since being forced to dispose of his QPR interest!

[PAFELL]

If venkys continue to remain silent in the light of this letter. I wonder what revelations need to come out that will force them to speak.

Also I am wondering what time scales are we looking at for the powers that be to act.

[technoprisoners]

Just received this reply to an email sent to Jack Straw last week about the Venky's, Anderson fiasco. The leaked letter provide's some ammunition.

Many thanks for your email about the situation at Blackburn Rovers Football Club.

It will be no comfort, but I feel almost exactly as you do.

I appreciate that I am one of the most prominent Rovers’ supporters, and that my job is to represent the interests and people of the area. But I also feel frustrated as do you – since my own efforts, and those of many other influential supporters, has so far fallen on stony ground.

I will of course keep trying.

However, a fantastic result on Saturday!

Best wishes

Jack Straw

[den]

Great opportunity for the LT to get back at JA, after their solicitors letter. They should shout loud and clear about this. Make sure that at least all the rovers fans know what's been going on. [and in my mind, probably still is].

Wonder if they will?

[47er]

Great opportunity for the LT to get back at JA, after their solicitors letter. They should shout loud and clear about this. Make sure that at least all the rovers fans know what's been going on. [and in my mind, probably still is].

Wonder if they will?

Not exactly rushing are they? Spooked by Anderson's lawyers I suppose.

[yoda]

I managed to get a comment on here

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11095/7435575/

about the letter and the Anderson interview,

get stuck in boys and girls

[Wild Irish Rover]

What I would like to see, in addition to the letter from the Directors to Mrs Desai, would be her written response (if any such thing ever materialised).

Now, that would make for interesting reading.

If I was an investigative journalist (which I'm not), I would certainly be beating a path to John Williams, Tom Finn and Martin Goodman's doors...