By Nick Harris
SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year
30 January 2012
Blackburn Rovers’ Indian owners have made a ‘goodwill’ payment believed to be around £2m to their bankers Barclays, Sportingintelligence has learned.
This money was in response to a demand from the bank that Venky’s pay £10m by 31 December 2011 to ease concerns about their overdraft situation.
No money was paid before the 31 December deadline but following Rovers’ win at Old Trafford on New Year’s Eve, the owners reassessed the situation and decided they would make a small amount of capital available to the bank. This sum, of around £2m, has now been paid.
As this website reported on 2 January, the owners’ plan for the January transfer window was to make net sales, ideally of Junior Hoilett first, while offloading some others to reduce the wage bill.
With one day of the window remaining, that plan remains unfulfilled and it remains uncertain whether there will be more ins and outs during the transfer window.
The background to the financial situation was set out in detail in December (see that story here).
It is understood that without any net player income from January, and without any further cash injection from Venky’s, the financial situation at Ewood Park ‘could begin to get tight around March’s wages’.
Sources in India insist that the matriarch of the Rao family, Anuradha Desai, will never allow the club to be in a position where it cannot pay staff wages, and that should cash be needed, it will be forthcoming.
Senior officials from the club and Barclays are in ongoing dialogue about what will be required in the coming months.
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