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Blackburn fan group issue open letter to owners and urge supporters to boycott home games

A Blackburn Rovers fan group issue an open letter to the owners, calling for the club to be sold, and urge supporters to boycott home games.

The Blackburn Rovers Supporters Coalition spoke of mismanagement, including botched transfers, forced exits of loyal staff, a decline in stadium infrastructure, a lack of executive leadership, and poor communication/accountability.

They want the club up for sale in order to find committed new owners. But in the meantime, call for a phased boycott of home games (no tickets, merchandise, food/drinks), starting with a full boycott planned for the Watford match on the 24th of January.

THE OPEN LETTER:

An Open Letter from the Blackburn Rovers Supporters Coalition

To the Rao Family, Owners of Blackburn Rovers Football Club (Venky’s London Ltd)

Dear Mrs Anuradha Jitendra Desai, Mr Banda Venkatesh Rao, and Mr Banda Balaji Rao.

We write to you as the Blackburn Rovers Supporters Coalition, representing the collective voice of loyal fans who have stood by this great club through every victory and every setback.

Blackburn Rovers is more than a football club. It is a 150-year-old community institution. woven into the identity of its town and its supporters. Under your ownership through Venky’s London Ltd, and during your 15-year stewardship, the club’s journey has been tumultuous, and the bond between supporters and custodians has weakened considerably.

During this period, fans have witnessed repeatedly botched transfer windows, often characterised by confusion, late deals, and missed opportunities. These failures have consistently undermined managers and squads. Long-serving. respected members of staff. people deeply connected to the fabric and values of the club have been forced out, leaving a strong perception that loyalty. experience. and institutional knowledge are no longer valued.

These issues, combined with visible stadium decline, fixtures abandoned due to infrastructure failures, shrinking matchday attendances. and the continued absence of stable executive leadership, have created deep frustration and embarrassment among supporters. Many feel taken for granted.

Equally damaging has been the absence of meaningful engagement or accountability. There has been no sustained effort to communicate with supporters, no transparency around decision-making, and no willingness to accept responsibility when things go wrong. Instead, fans are left with silence, half-explanations, and excuses fostering distrust and resentment.

This season should have been a moment of pride. The club’s 150th anniversary should have been a celebration of heritage, identity, and continuity. Instead, it has become a painful reminder of what Blackburn Rovers once were and how distant this current iteration feels from the club we recognise.

To be clear. supporters are not demanding Premier League football. We are not asking for reckless spending or unrealistic ambition. What we want is far more fundamental.

We want a club we can recognise again. A club we feel connected to. A club built on the values that once defined Blackburn Rovers skill, hard work, hones-ty, and pride.

At present. the club feels built on lies, excuses, and distance from its supporters. Ownership of a football club carries responsibility. Owners are custodians of heritage, not merely shareholders. That responsibility includes listening, communicating. and treating supporters with respect.

This brings us to the unavoidable central question:

Why do you continue to own Blackburn Rovers Football Club?

Blackburn Rovers is more than a vanity project. It is not a prestige asset or distant holding. It is a living, breathing institution rooted in its community, carried by supporters who have given their time, money, and loyalty through success and decline alike.

It is now evident that you do not retain a genuine long-term commitment to Blackburn Rovers Football Club. Over many years you have failed to invest adequately in the club’s infrastructure, failed to appoint stable and credible executive leadership, failed to engage openly or consistently with supporters, and failed to provide transparency or accountability when decisions have gone wrong. Repeatedly, supporters have been met with silence rather than answers, excuses rather than ownership, and distance rather than dialogue.

In light of this, the responsible course of action is to openly state that the club is for sale, allowing the market to determine whether new custodians are willing to step forward and provide the care, leadership, and ambition Blackburn Rovers requires.

Until such time as the club is openly put up for sale, we will be calling for a complete boycott of home matches. This is not a decision taken lightly, but one born of frustration, exhaustion, and a belief that supporters have been left with no other meaningful means of being heard. Not a penny more will be spent on tickets, food, drink, or merchandise while this situation continues.

We also call upon Suhail Pasha Sheik, as the owners’ representative and senior executive at the club, to ensure this open letter is read in full by the Rao family and treated with the seriousness it deserves. Respect for supporters must be shown not through statements, but through a direct response addressing the concerns raised and answering the questions posed.

Blackburn Rovers will endure beyond any ownership group. The supporters will remain long after current custodians have gone.

All we ask is honesty, respect, and clarity about the future of the club we love. Yours sincerely, Blackburn Rovers Supporters Coalition (Blackburn Rovers Action Group, WATR, BRFCS, EMPWC, Blackburn Rovers Independent Disabled Supporters Club, Proud Rovers, TheRovers, All Rovers)

– STATEMENT ENDS –

At the weekend, Portsmouth come from behind to beat Blackburn 2-1, leaving Valerien Ismael’s side 20th in the Championship with 22 points from 20 games and are 3 points above the drop zone.

He himself is calling on Blackburn to act quickly to add new signings in the January transfer window.

“We spoke already with the board, as I said, as quickly as possible. Because the longer we are waiting, the more problems we will get. Every game counts in January.

“We need a new face. We need to refresh. We need to adjust the squad to adapt to the shape we play.”

“lus the new issue with Ryan (Alebiosu to AFCON). It adds a little bit more pressure on everything. But we have to be really good, really fast.

“The earlier the players come in, the better it will be for us.”

“Yes, we have already got the list identified. So now it’s not out of my control. We did our job now,” he added.

“For sure, it’s clear that we need players. We will get some players and the best is to get them ideally on the 1st of January.

“I know that it’s always difficult. But I would say the week after is the game against Hull City in the FA Cup. I think we can use that game to integrate all the new players.

“Listen, at some point, it’s all about the performance. It’s all about the squad. It’s about the discipline we see on the pitch,” he added.

“As I said in our assessment, we have to be ruthless now and then to make sure that we know that we can perform. We know that we need all our players.

“And at some point, we have to make some decisions. If something is not right and we are not happy, then we have to make a change.

“We have to be ruthless with the squad as well to assess in January to make our decision when we have to act on the decision.”

Valerien Ismael left ‘angry’ after Portsmouth come from behind to beat Blackburn

This is how social media users reacted as the Blackburn fan group issue an open letter to owners and urge supporters to boycott home games…

@dano1311: Good luck guys, hope you get your club back.

@finn_wawaw1234: This worked wonders for us, was one of the final straws that broke our dictators back… good luck

@Dannyh1996200: All the best. Get your club back. Boycotts and no spending in ground worked for us

@swfc_noah: Good luck, bad owners ruin football 🤝

@Chris_Alfred: Entirely in support of this. I’ve not spent ÂŁ1 on the club this season. Respect others’ right to choose different routes. But for me, now is the time to try something different 👊🌹

@j_marsh98: If people wanna boycott, that’s fine. If people don’t wanna boycott, that’s also fine. What we can all agree on is that we want what is the absolute best for Blackburn Rovers football club. #Rovers

@Charlie01471698: Why are some of our fans blind to the truth. Great idea if people want the venkys to go then we need to do something not just sit and wait

@malstar79: They’ll be some opposition to this. We have many fans who think it’s acceptable for the owners to basically ignore supporters for 13 years. I’m already not going due to an injury but it has really surprised me how much the kids and I have not missed going to Ewood. Sad really.

@standerino: Our battle has just ended, but is fresh in the memory. Good luck Rovers fans. 🦉

@StevieG0v0: Worked for us. We starved Chansiri of cash, and we forced him out. Back the campaign. See it through and reclaim your club 🦉 🌹

@mark_flemdog: As a Wednesdayite I wish you all the best with this and hope you rid yourselves of terrible ownership. You won’t get any help from the EFL, thats for sure

@adamswfc: Good luck guys. You can force change. Stay together achieves more

@MattWake: Good luck lads! We know this only too well and this approach was the straw that broke the camels back for us! @SWFCTrust can we get behind this for our rearranged visit?

@AntonyJBrown: All the best, from an Owls fan. Keep going and you’ll have them out 👍👍👍

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