Football finance expert Kieran Maguire believes Blackburn Rovers are 'under a lot of pressure' with Financial Fair Play after the accounts of Venky's London Limited (VLL) were released.
VLL is the parent company of Blackburn Rovers and they released their financial documentation up to March 31 2023 earlier this week. It showed the club made a loss of £20.8million for the accounting year.
Rovers made a profit of 2.7m this year before but that was down to the sale of Adam Armstrong and a loophole exploited by the owners to sell the Brockhall Senior Training Centre to themselves. The EFL has since removed the possibility of an owner selling property to themselves to book against FFP.
Had Rovers not sold the training ground, they'd have still lost around £10m, even with the sale of Armstrong, again highlighting how financially dependant the club are on their owners. Of course, the same could be said for most EFL clubs, who are allowed to lose £39m under the EFL's FFP guidelines.
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"The previous year, they got out of jail for free by selling the training ground because that was before the EFL changed the rules," Maguire told The Lancashire Telegraph.
"You can no longer sell property assets effectively to yourself and book the profit against FFP losses. They were forced to do that transaction and that bought them some space.
"If you look at turnover compared to wages, you wouldn't run a business like that, it is nuts. But it's what they have done every season since they acquired the club.
"They are not the worst. You have clubs with owners who know about money who are smart people and they're allowed to lose £20m a year.
"They will be under a lot of pressure now from an FFP view. The net transfer spend for the summer of 2023 was £20K. They are having to juggle."
The latest accounts delivered some interesting insight into the club's spending in 2023. Page 30 of the document includes details of events that have happened post-March 31, up until the publishing of the account.
That revealed Rovers spent £20K net in the summer transfer window. They signed two players permanently, Leopold Walhstedt and Semir Telalovic, whilst selling Thomas Kaminski and Ash Phillips for around £4.5m.
"If they hadn't supported the club and it had been left to its own devices, they wouldn't have been close to the play-offs last season," Maguire explained.
"They wouldn't have made the progress they had but it is concerning, £20m a year, every year. That appears to be their limit.
"I know people that have been on the board at Blackburn, they keep delivering in terms of the cheques and that is what they need. It's not obvious what the Venky's are getting from this but there has been a lot of support.
"It is noticeable they only put in £2m last season compared to what they had in previous years. The loans repaid were more than the money they put it so the club effectively had to break even.
"There has been no evidence of the owners putting any more money in from the post-balance events."
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