Venky’s v Indian Government (a) - 13/1/2025 - Re-Arranged Challenge Match

[DuffsLeftPeg]

1 minute ago, steved said:

Most effective thing, given the match is on TV, would be if nobody turned up at the ground to watch.  Can't see this happening though.

It won’t happen. And even if it did then it would counterproductive as our fans would be marked down as disloyal.

So those that care and are passionate enough, attend & protest at the game -  peacefully at this stage from the stands and if there is no acknowledgement from the club then it escalates at the next match, and so on. 

It’s clear to me now that there is only one way our club is going under the stewardship of Venkys & CEO Steve Waggot. Either we take action now or we stand feebly by and watch the club we all love crumble before our eyes.

Positive action is always better IMO

[Upside Down]

3 hours ago, glen9mullan said:

We all have differing opinions, some frustrate more than others.

Easier to just to respect it and move on

I don't have any respect for total brainless stupidity.

The facts are there for everyone to see. Ignorance is not an excuse.

[DuffsLeftPeg]

2 minutes ago, simongarnerisgod said:

tennis balls on the pitch,charlton fans threw plastic toy pigs on theirs☺️,best way is a mass pitch invasion,but i don`t condone that🤐😉

Eggs! 
Because what came first the chicken or the egg? 🐔 🍳 

[Riversider28]

4 minutes ago, simongarnerisgod said:

tennis balls on the pitch,charlton fans threw plastic toy pigs on theirs☺️,best way is a mass pitch invasion,but i don`t condone that🤐😉

Surely it has to be plastic chickens 🐓

[steved]

17 minutes ago, DuffsLeftPeg said:

It won’t happen. And even if it did then it would counterproductive as our fans would be marked down as disloyal.

So those that care and are passionate enough, attend & protest at the game -  peacefully at this stage from the stands and if there is no acknowledgement from the club then it escalates at the next match, and so on. 

It’s clear to me now that there is only one way our club is going under the stewardship of Venkys & CEO Steve Waggot. Either we take action now or we stand feebly by and watch the club we all love crumble before our eyes.

Positive action is always better IMO

Sady we've tried that before and it didn't work.  (anybody remember the chicken on the pitch?)  I think the only way forward now is administration.  Anything we can do to hasten this, such as significant media interest coupled with the threat of ever-worsening ticket sales, could help.  Boycotting doesn't sit well with me either, but the longer we as fans continue to tip over our hard earned cash to these clowns, the longer the agony will be prolonged.

[Mattyblue]

We had nearly 20,000 ST holders when they bought the club, in 2021/22 we didn’t even sell 7,000. They didn’t bat an eyelid.

So now zero fans turn up , why would these distant people, owners of a unwieldy conglomerate half way round the world give a feck about that?

These are not normal owners, ergo normal rules of lost revenue, no longer willing to throw in good money after bad, sick of the grief, shame, embarrassment pushing owners to just cut their losses and piss off don’t apply here as these 13 years of pain have shown.

Legal issues aside forcing control from them I still just don’t see them going for a long time. Club’s fucked.
 

Edited January 16 by Mattyblue

[Herbie6590]

We discussed the issues in this thread in a bit more detail...

https://www.brfcs.com/magazine/podcasts/the-round-table-show-venkys-and-hmrc-what-does-it-mean/43

[steved]

Best we can hope for is that the Indian judges don't agree to Venky's sending any more money then?  Which inevitably leads straight to administration when the bills can't be paid.

[martonrover]

53 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

We had nearly 20,000 ST holders when they bought the club, in 2021/22 we didn’t even sell 7,000. They didn’t bat an eyelid.

So now zero fans turn up , why would these distant people, owners of a unwieldy conglomerate half way round the world give a feck about that?

These are not normal owners, ergo normal rules of lost revenue, no longer willing to throw in good money after bad, sick of the grief, shame, embarrassment pushing owners to just cut their losses and piss off don’t apply here as these 13 years of pain have shown.

Legal issues aside forcing control from them I still just don’t see them going for a long time. Club’s fucked.
 

Unfortunately, I think you are largely right.

However, we also know that Venkys, (and particularly Balaji), do like showbiz, and they would be embarrassed by a protest in a televised game (Welsh tv, but widely available), against a club with Hollywood owners.

[Andy]

1 minute ago, steved said:

Best we can hope for is that the Indian judges don't agree to Venky's sending any more money then?  Which inevitably leads straight to administration when the bills can't be paid.

Going into administration is not guaranteed to be the saviour that some seemingly think.

If we do, there's a very real chance that we will fail to exist after a short, miserable period.

We are quite fucked whichever way at the moment, unless something unexpected happens.

[Mattyblue]

Maybe Bilaji would be embarrassed (if he even remembers that football club his family randomly bought 13 years ago) by a protest in front of Deadpool’s team, but the type of fan that will make up the 3/4,000 or so braving a night match in January won’t be unfurling many banners.

Edited January 16 by Mattyblue

[tomphil]

16 minutes ago, steved said:

Best we can hope for is that the Indian judges don't agree to Venky's sending any more money then?  Which inevitably leads straight to administration when the bills can't be paid.

No first and foremost it would lead to the club having to sell anything it could and get rid of who it could just to meet its creditors.

Then knowing that lot they'd suddenly stump some money up from somewhere and the charade would carry on with them and us in lge 1 with nothing but a youth team and mortgaged ground to our names.

We are in an impossible situation because even if they decided to sell they wouldn't put anymore or very little money in again like the Walker Trust so we'd still see more cutbacks and a firesale and turbulent times whilst we waited for a saviour.

[JHRover]

25 minutes ago, steved said:

Best we can hope for is that the Indian judges don't agree to Venky's sending any more money then?  Which inevitably leads straight to administration when the bills can't be paid.

I'm not even confident in either of those things happening.

I think it is highly unlikely a Judge in India would reach that decision, if he did it would probably be appealed and would certainly go against precedent.

But even if it did that assumes Venkys are unwilling or unable to fund the club in a different way to stop it going into admin. I'm pretty sure that their lawyers and accounts people, if faced with an ultimatum of 'find a way' or 'club goes bust/into admin' they'd manage to find a way to do it, even if it was more expensive or inconvenient than the way they are used to.

My hope is that these hurdles are putting them under a lot of aggravation and they eventually get fed up with the cost and hassle of going to court to do this and eventually they listen to advice in India and just give it up as a bad job not worth bothering with any more. 

Or alternatively that the Indian authorities start getting close to the smoking gun that could bring the whole thing crashing down and discovery of that or risk of discovery of that causes them to drop the club and leave.

Then and only then is there a route to recovery. It might not be a quick or smooth one, but it is a route nonetheless. As it stands there is no route to anything but further misery because we are being dragged backwards and down by their presence.

[glen9mullan]

Was thinking about possibility of directors putting Rovers into administration.

Prior to September we had 4, however 1 is non executive therefore its likely he don't get a vote. Which left three, Cheston and Waggott UK based and Babu Indian based.

The suspicious person in me, thinks the appointment of the 4th also Indian based. Was to prevent Waggott and Cheston passing the motion of administration as they'd not have a majority vote.

This is me just thinking and certainly not substantiated , 

Thoughts?

[bazza]

That Wrexham fan warned against being a fan-owned club. I believe him/her.

[bazza]

Is Waggott a director? I thought he was an employee with the title of CEO.

[glen9mullan]

2 minutes ago, bazza said:

Is Waggott a director? I thought he was an employee with the title of CEO.

Director at companies House 

[47er]

38 minutes ago, Andy said:

Going into administration is not guaranteed to be the saviour that some seemingly think.

If we do, there's a very real chance that we will fail to exist after a short, miserable period.

We are quite fucked whichever way at the moment, unless something unexpected happens.

Entirely possible that we could be a "phoenix club" starting all over again in the lower leagues.

Surely there are enough stalwarts to ensure we don't die completely?

Bolton have survived without anything dramatic and are getting the crowd back now.

The number of former League clubs that have entirely ceased to exist is very small.

 

[DuffsLeftPeg]

37 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

Maybe Bilaji would be embarrassed (if he even remembers that football club his family randomly bought 13 years ago) by a protest in front of Deadpool’s team, but the type of fan that will make up the 3/4,000 or so braving a night match in January won’t be unfurling many banners.

I’ll be unfurling a banner, sat in the JW Lower (Blackburn End Side) so in full sight of the TV Cameras & players when they come out to start the game, who is joining me? 🪧 

Hollywood v Bollywood at the soon to be Deadwood if we don’t take a stand 

 

[wilsdenrover]

15 minutes ago, glen9mullan said:

Was thinking about possibility of directors putting Rovers into administration.

Prior to September we had 4, however 1 is non executive therefore its likely he don't get a vote. Which left three, Cheston and Waggott UK based and Babu Indian based.

The suspicious person in me, thinks the appointment of the 4th also Indian based. Was to prevent Waggott and Cheston passing the motion of administration as they'd not have a majority vote.

This is me just thinking and certainly not substantiated , 

Thoughts?

1. Who would have the casting vote? (See attachment)

2. Wouldn’t Venkys just remove them as Directors if they were going against what  they wanted?

 

[glen9mullan]

Even the threat of protests would have SWAG and co having sleepless nights.

The policing bill alone would not be in the budget and it went into the millions the last time protests were the norm.

Anything that creates a cost, be that fines. Additional police, stewarding etc would accelerate D-Day if they ain't cashed in players in January to help fund the additional cost.

The club right now are totally defenseless to a supporter revolt

[glen9mullan]

6 minutes ago, wilsdenrover said:

1. Who would have the casting vote? (See attachment)

2. Wouldn’t Venkys just remove them as Directors if they were going against what  they wanted?

 

Venkys are the majority shareholders so if the directors pulled the plug/attempted today they would be defenceless I think , unless the 4th director now prevents that motion

Also under FA and EFL rules there has to be a certain amount of directors 

In terms of voting rights it depends what's in their memorandum 

Edited January 16 by glen9mullan

[Mattyblue]

Sounds great, but there won’t be any ‘revolt’ as far more fans have the mindset of that ‘Proud Rovers’ statement than that of those down at Reading currently.

[glen9mullan]

1 minute ago, Mattyblue said:

Sounds great, but there won’t be any ‘revolt’ as far more fans have the mindset of that ‘Proud Rovers’ statement than that of those down at Reading currently.

Seen a lot of posts around social media,  and the club do have their spotters and have to risk assess the possibility. So prevention will become a consideration 

[Norbert Rassragr]

Too many happy clappers thinking our level is bottom half of this division. The kind of mentality that is happy with getting less every year.