Blackburn Rovers fans will be involved with key planning descisions with the club as part of a new official "memorandum of understanding".

Rovers’ pre-season schedule will come to its conclusion when Spanish side Girona visit Ewood Park this weekend.

The match is sponsored by The Blackburn Rovers Supporters Trust now known as "We Are The Rovers".

This will be the first time the supporters group has ever sponsored a men’s first team fixture.

A key objective for "We Are The Rovers" is to improve fan experience and encourage new supporters to attend matches and start following the club.

During the half time interval against Girona, CEO Steve Waggott will sign a Memorandum of Understanding with We Are The Rovers, giving the supporters group the platform to be involved with key strategic planning and encouraging them to bring their own ideas forwards. 

Mr Waggott said: “Since arriving at the club nearly six years ago I’ve tried to make myself as accessible as possible to as many of our fanbases and groups.

“I have and still do attend the Fans Forum, General Supporters Consultation meetings plus hold one to one meetings on matchdays for fans to come in and discuss the club plus I also have met regularly with the Chair of the Supporters’ Trust / We Are The Rovers plus attended some of their meetings.

“With the release of the fan-led review and the imminent publication of a White Paper regarding the future sustainability of football we are now taken a very important step to establish a more formal relationship with We Are The Rovers through a Memorandum of Understanding. 

“Future meetings between both the club and We Are The Rovers will be at a strategic level with the current Fans Forums still having a vital role around the operations of the club, what happens on a matchday, retail and other relevant matters.

“To promote this closer working relationship we’ve handed over to the fans certain elements of the Girona game.

"Those elements will cover the pre-match activities, half-time presentations and post-match music, which will all be driven by We Are The Rovers.

“The club will still carry out all the health and safety to enable supporters to arrive, watch the game and get home safely, but the fan base will be taking over the game and doing a multitude of different things.

“We hope to drive the attendance for this pre-season friendly against Girona on Saturday, 3pm kick off in excess of 5,000 attendance.”

Lancashire Telegraph:

We Are The Rovers chair John Murray said: “We are committed to working with the club.

"We are determined to improve on the match day experience and make Blackburn Rovers the go to club in Lancashire again.

“We are to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Club CEO Steve Waggott and his colleagues on the pitch at half-time.

"This will formalise our relationship with the Rovers Management Board and give us a platform to engage on future key strategic issues within the club. 

“It is a very welcome move albeit we recognise it is two-way and we need to bring forward ideas in a professional manner.”  

Tickets for this weekend’s game are still on sale now, starting at just £2.50 per ticket.