Blackburn Rovers Football Club

• Nickname:Rovers
• Founded:1875
• Manager:Michael Appleton

• Ground:Ewood Park
• Capacity:31367

Rovers announce losses

19 Feb 2008 - 10:02:38

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Blackburn Rovers chairman John Williams remains confident about the future even after the club incurred an operating loss, before player trading, of £3.3million in the last financial year.

Blackburn's wage bill rose by ten per cent to almost £37million to bring the club's wages to revenue ratio up to 85 per cent.

However, Williams insists: "The twin objective of being able to produce a cash neutral result, and a break-even position at operating level, has been our mantra for the last few years and we've managed to achieve that.

"This time, however, we've departed from that with an operating loss, but that was really as a result of acquiring a substantial number of new players in the two windows that made up the last financial year.

"We actually brought in ten players because we took the strategic view that it would be a much more expensive exercise 12 months later, once the new TV deal kicked in, and that's proved to be the case.

"So, although we don't enjoy running with losses, because in the long run that would be unsustainable, we believe in this instance incurring a loss was an acceptable exercise.

"We're trying to be in the top half of the league and, to do that, we believe you need to pay top-half wages, because there's a clear correlation between the wage table and the league table."