Venky’s v Indian Government (a) - 25/3/2025 - Perennially Re-Arranged Challenge Match

[Old Codger]

A friend of mine darn sarf, who follows both Chelsea and Brentford, sent me this earlier on:

It looks like the kind of blood and guts, committed and energetic, crowd-pleasing and entertaining spectacle that is only a distant memory for those, like me, who used to enjoy the same at the likes of Ewood Park and grounds around the country. Fair play to Brentford for actually building something worth supporting, and adopting a model that doesn't actively disenfranchise the supporters at the base of the stakeholder pyramid. Football at the lower levels is dying on it's arse, partly due to the cavalier attitude of those at the top, and partly due to the unbelievably cretinous approach of owners in the lower levels (witness Blackburn Rovers' steady decline to become a club known to be 'troubled' since the arrival of the Venkys chicken robber barons in 2011). I'm chuffed for you that you have the choice of clubs to follow in your neck of the woods - we aren't lacking in choices here in the North West, but as you know, the club you claim as your own is not a rational choice!

I fear for the future of Blackburn Rovers, whose despicable pseudo owner's visible henchmen have previously claimed is being modelled on the Brentford / Brighton approach - my arse it is! I am coming to the view that the only way forward is to allow the club to decline into the third or fourth tier (or worse) so that the privileged and entitled brats who are nominally owners of the brand take a dislike to the medicine and bugger off. Perhaps then we will see a return to Arte et Labore (club motto) and the rebirth of the Rovers as a proper football club. Bring it on!

[tomphil]

40 minutes ago, Rogerb said:

One thing these Indian court cases do is shine a light on our outgoings. Page 38 this thread shows the submission that was approved by the judge.

Payroll liabilities salary and wages Oct to Dec 2023 £3834192

Payroll liabilities tax payable on salaries and wages Oct to Dec £3085000

Total for 3 months £6919192

That's projected to £27.67 million per annum.

Those figures  are at odds with the figure for wages and accounts in the June 22 accounts which show wages and salaries at 24 million.

No sign of a significant drop in salaries despite all the outgoings and cut backs!

The famous Rovers payrol yet again throwing up more questions than answers !

[Crimpshrine]

21 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

The thing I was wondering was, it seems to be widely reported that the Court approved £11m worth of funding last time.

What period did that cover and why are we having to go back only 3 months or so later? At the same rate that equates to £44m p.a. Worth of funding rather than the £20m its accepted they put in.

The figures never seem to add up to me.

We know that a winding up order was threatened in April was because they had missed Tax payments. I believe they were already on a 'plan' because of previous missed payments. Presumably, they have now caught up with HMRC payments for last year and it may have taken a fair proportion of the £11 million to do so ?

So maybe the reported £20 million per year has been masking the HMRC shortfalls?

What really annoys me is the arguments given for being allowed to make that £11 million payment - preserve investment and avoid damage to their reputation - nothing mentioned about preeserving a historical sporting institiution that is so important to the community.

Any investment they have made has already gone - simple as that. So the key factor to Venky's is their own reputation!

Here's hoping the judge does us all a favour this time around

 

[the original david brent]

Apologies if this has already been posted elsewhere on here. I’ve just been sent this from a fellow fan. I don’t know where he got it from. I don’t know if it is legit or not! But if it is, the club really is in trouble.

 

Edited January 21, 2024 by the original david brent

[blondie]

29 minutes ago, the original david brent said:

Apologies if this has already been posted elsewhere on here. I’ve just been sent this from a fellow fan. I don’t know where he got it from. I don’t know if it is legit or not! But if it is, the club really is in trouble.

 

 

[blondie]

Just waiting for the appeal for supporters to donate shirts.

[Polky]

40 minutes ago, the original david brent said:

Apologies if this has already been posted elsewhere on here. I’ve just been sent this from a fellow fan. I don’t know where he got it from. I don’t know if it is legit or not! But if it is, the club really is in trouble.

 

Should get the kids with signs to double down and make more.

Imagine Waggott’s face if they gave away a shirt 😂

Edited January 21, 2024 by Polky

[RevidgeBlue]

37 minutes ago, the original david brent said:

Apologies if this has already been posted elsewhere on here. I’ve just been sent this from a fellow fan. I don’t know where he got it from. I don’t know if it is legit or not! But if it is, the club really is in trouble.

 

That's nothing new, it's been the case for a season and a half at least as far as I'm aware. 

We don't order enough stock

[martonrover]

42 minutes ago, the original david brent said:

Apologies if this has already been posted elsewhere on here. I’ve just been sent this from a fellow fan. I don’t know where he got it from. I don’t know if it is legit or not! But if it is, the club really is in trouble.

 

Suhail, the real CEO.

[Mattyblue]

Mascots having to turn up in their own kit, the first team can’t swap shirts.

Back to the mid 80s… Billionaire Owners Edition. 

[jim mk2]

Maggott penny pinching on club kit so his £300,000 plus salary plus bonuses is secure and safe. Of course he would 

[simongarnerisgod]

**** it,everybody back to training at pleasington,count the balls at the end,apprentices clearing the pitch of dog**** and all back on the minibus for a pie from levers,sack the laundry women as well,they cost to much and turn the floodlights on at 2.30 pm,should save us a couple of quid and enable us to spend  the money on a striker from the non league,hav`nt we been here before??sure it`s the 1980`s😀

[levi]

1 hour ago, the original david brent said:

Apologies if this has already been posted elsewhere on here. I’ve just been sent this from a fellow fan. I don’t know where he got it from. I don’t know if it is legit or not! But if it is, the club really is in trouble.

 

£12 on dhgate....job done

[RoverDom]

1 hour ago, the original david brent said:

Apologies if this has already been posted elsewhere on here. I’ve just been sent this from a fellow fan. I don’t know where he got it from. I don’t know if it is legit or not! But if it is, the club really is in trouble.

 

Note that it was done on a whiteboard so they didn't have to waste a sheet of paper. 

[JHRover]

Pound shop operation.

Wonder what players think of such nonsense in this day and age.

[tomphil]

But they still get to travel on the best bus in world football.

[Ossydave]

2 hours ago, the original david brent said:

Apologies if this has already been posted elsewhere on here. I’ve just been sent this from a fellow fan. I don’t know where he got it from. I don’t know if it is legit or not! But if it is, the club really is in trouble.

 

Been like that for a while, surprised they don't scrub it off when people are on the ground tours. Thinking about it, that must probably be where we're supposed to draw the tactics for defending a corner, no wonder we're so fucking awful at it 🤣

[lraC]

2 hours ago, blondie said:

 

We are playing in our skins V Wrexham. 

[Upside Down]

1 hour ago, simongarnerisgod said:

**** it,everybody back to training at pleasington,count the balls at the end,apprentices clearing the pitch of dog**** and all back on the minibus for a pie from levers,sack the laundry women as well,they cost to much and turn the floodlights on at 2.30 pm,should save us a couple of quid and enable us to spend  the money on a striker from the non league,hav`nt we been here before??sure it`s the 1980`s😀

Absolutely nothing like the 80s.

Back in the 80s the club had ambition to be more that just about surviving. It was just in a struggling position.

Now the club is deliberately in this position and looking to deliberately go down to the next league so it can be run even cheaper.

[simongarnerisgod]

17 minutes ago, Upside Down said:

Absolutely nothing like the 80s.

Back in the 80s the club had ambition to be more that just about surviving. It was just in a struggling position.

Now the club is deliberately in this position and looking to deliberately go down to the next league so it can be run even cheaper.

you are right,rovers was run very well,while pne,bolton and burnley were languishing in the bottom division,we were more often than not  in the top half of the 2nd division on buttons,i certainly enjoyed it more then than i have done for the last 13 years

[martonrover]

36 minutes ago, Upside Down said:

Absolutely nothing like the 80s.

Back in the 80s the club had ambition to be more that just about surviving. It was just in a struggling position.

Now the club is deliberately in this position and looking to deliberately go down to the next league so it can be run even cheaper.

Ambition and, crucially, owned and run by people who cared about the club.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Yep,not a pot to piss in but studious and attentative day to day management of Club finances by people who deeply cared and most of them invested lifelong supporters.

Thank you Bancroft et al.

[Eddie]

22 hours ago, wilsdenrover said:

What situation do you think would achieve that without it involving administration?

I think there is a possibility that Venkys are either forced to sell (by government order or by circumstance) or simply decide that their involvement in football is now causing far more trouble than it is worth. 

[wilsdenrover]

3 minutes ago, Eddie said:

I think there is a possibility that Venkys are either forced to sell (by government order or by circumstance) or simply decide that their involvement in football is now causing far more trouble than it is worth. 

I can’t see any of those scenarios happening but I’d be delighted for you to be proven right. 

[Mattyblue]

First one, maybe, who knows what legal shenanigans could take place.

Second one, 13+ years and they don’t seem any closer to getting to that conclusion off their own back than the day they joined.