BLACKBURN Rovers' chief executive John Williams today said the board must plough all its energy into increasing the existing fan base at Ewood in a bid to ensure the club remains competitive in the Premier League.

A report into football finance conducted by Deloitte showed that Rovers are operating at 'alert level', in terms of the money they spend on wages compared to the size of the turnover.

While the report showed that Rovers' wage bill actually fell by 12 per cent in 2003-04, the second biggest drop of any Premiership club, the actual amount spent on wages compared to turnover was the second highest in the league behind Chelsea.

In the period 2003-04, Rovers actually spent £31.3 million on wages (the 11th highest wage bill in the league), which equated to roughly 75 per cent of turnover.

Analysts have described that ratio as 'alert level' and they recommend it should be nearer to 65 per cent.

However, with Rovers facing a constant battle to attract more fans through the gate at Ewood, Williams and his board of directors are having to 'gamble' by ploughing a higher proportion of the club's turnover into wages to make up for the shortfall in revenue.

Williams said: "What is food and drink to supporters might just be poision to Jack's shareholders and bankers.

"What I mean by that is there's a table which shows that circa 75 per cent of our turnover is going on wages, which puts us 19th out of 20 in the Premier League, with the highest ratio being Chelsea.

"Now I think in the report Deloitte refer to the level we're at as the 'alert level', or the red amber level, if you like.

"We've not gone into broad red but we're in the alert level and that is the risk - or the ambition - the board continues to take.

"We're favouring the supporters' interpretation (of how the club should be run) rather than the bankers' view because, as Deloitte suggest in their report, 60-65 per cent is a much more comfortable level."

The bottom line is it's not so much the size of the wage bill that's the problem for Rovers, it's more the size of their turnover compared to the rest of the Premier League.

In the last couple of years, the average 'gate' has fallen quite dramatically at Ewood and Williams admits the club must do everything in its power to attract more fans to home games.

"Our difficulty is our turnover doesn't sustain the sort of wage bill we are continuing to gamble with, but nevertheless we continue to gamble at what is considered to be the alert level," said Williams.

"I can never criticise our loyal fans, who give us tremendous backing, but somehow or other we have got to get more people to home games."

In the meantime, clubs in England's top flight appear to have turned the tide on players' wages.

According to Deloitte's annual review of football finance, Barclays Premiership champions Chelsea are the biggest spenders on wages in the world, having splashed out £115million, some £38m higher than the second-placed club Manchester United, during 2003/2004.

However, the report reveals across 19 of the 20 Premier League teams, the total wage bill was 1% lower than the previous year.

Even with Chelsea - backed by the funds of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich - included, the total Premiership wage bill went up only 7% from £761m to £811m.

That figure is the lowest growth rate since the formation of the Premier League in 1992, and well below the staggering average annual rate of 23% over the previous decade.