1993. Blackburn Rovers, a club in the English Premier League, is bought by British millionaire Jack Walker. Walker pumps in money, buys former Liverpool player and manager Kenny Dalglish to look after the club and also signs the then hottest thing in English football, a striker called Alan Shearer. Blackburn goes on to win the Premier League title in 1994-95. Till date, it remains one of only five clubs to have won the most cherished trophy in English football.
2010. Rovers, although never again reaching the dizzy heights of 1994-95, is still a top Premier League team. Indian company Venkateshwara Hatcheries, well-known as Venky's, takes over the club at a time when it has been in the top flight of English football for 10 consecutive seasons. Venky's chairperson, Anuradha Desai, along with her husband, Jitendra, and brothers Venkatesh and Balaji Rao, pay Rs 163 crore to buy Blackburn.
2013. The 137-year-old club languishes at the 19th place among 24 teams in The Championship, the second tier to which it was relegated in 2012 after finishing second from the bottom among 20 teams in the Premier League.
The Venky's saga at Blackburn has been a disaster. Within two months of the takeover, Sam Allardyce, a reputed manager, was sacked because Desai said Allardyce didn't fit in with "their vision of taking the club forward." The so-called vision has seen Desai hiring and firing four managers in the last three years. Steve Kean, Allardyce's replacement, lasted for two years, during which Blackburn were relegated from the Premier League. Kean's replacement was Henning Berg, a former Manchester United player, who lasted all of 57 days before getting the boot. In his place came Michael Appleton, who donned the managerial cap for 67 days before facing the ire of Desai and co.
"It has been a series of incomprehensible and ill-thought-out decisions that go back to the very start of the Venky's ownership," says a member of the Rovers Trust, the official fan club of Blackburn Rovers. "It is obvious to any experienced fan or football professional that to keep changing managers will only lead to yet more instability and uncertainty. It is also a costly exercise to keep paying off staff," adds Wayne Wild, co-chairman of the Rovers Trust. Hiring and firing managers has so far cost Desai about £4 million.
We tried reaching Desai and the Venky's management to talk about Blackburn's current plight, but all e-mails went unanswered. Apparently, Venky's hoped to piggyback on Blackburn's popularity to expand its brand abroad. But Desai did not understand football. To understand football, she hired Shebby Singh, a familiar face with football fans in Asia as a football "expert" with ESPN. Singh was appointed "global advisor," though anyone who had watched Singh as a TV expert would have known the decision would be a disaster. Singh ended up wasting ludicrous amounts on players no one had even heard of.
Foreign ownership in the Premier League is almost the norm these days. Manchester United is owned by American tycoon Malcolm Glazer and last year's champions, Manchester City, by one of the world's richest men, Sheikh Al Mansour. But these owners haven't tried to interfere too much and have the right people handling matters.
Desai's husband was hit by a snowball during a game at Ewood Park, Blackburn's stadium, one of the many signs that the fans have had enough. Blackburn sits four points away from slipping further to the third-tier of English football. "The owners have to face up to the fact they are entirely responsible for the situation we find ourselves in, with a second successive relegation a distinct possibility," says Wild.
2010. Rovers, although never again reaching the dizzy heights of 1994-95, is still a top Premier League team. Indian company Venkateshwara Hatcheries, well-known as Venky's, takes over the club at a time when it has been in the top flight of English football for 10 consecutive seasons. Venky's chairperson, Anuradha Desai, along with her husband, Jitendra, and brothers Venkatesh and Balaji Rao, pay Rs 163 crore to buy Blackburn.
2013. The 137-year-old club languishes at the 19th place among 24 teams in The Championship, the second tier to which it was relegated in 2012 after finishing second from the bottom among 20 teams in the Premier League.
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When she took over Blackburn Rovers, Desai, chairperson of the club, made tall claims about "finishing fourth or fifth in the league… or even better" and even tabled an offer of £20 million for Brazilian star Ronaldinho. Desai did sign on Ronaldinho finally- for an animated TV commercial.
The Venky's saga at Blackburn has been a disaster. Within two months of the takeover, Sam Allardyce, a reputed manager, was sacked because Desai said Allardyce didn't fit in with "their vision of taking the club forward." The so-called vision has seen Desai hiring and firing four managers in the last three years. Steve Kean, Allardyce's replacement, lasted for two years, during which Blackburn were relegated from the Premier League. Kean's replacement was Henning Berg, a former Manchester United player, who lasted all of 57 days before getting the boot. In his place came Michael Appleton, who donned the managerial cap for 67 days before facing the ire of Desai and co.
"It has been a series of incomprehensible and ill-thought-out decisions that go back to the very start of the Venky's ownership," says a member of the Rovers Trust, the official fan club of Blackburn Rovers. "It is obvious to any experienced fan or football professional that to keep changing managers will only lead to yet more instability and uncertainty. It is also a costly exercise to keep paying off staff," adds Wayne Wild, co-chairman of the Rovers Trust. Hiring and firing managers has so far cost Desai about £4 million.
We tried reaching Desai and the Venky's management to talk about Blackburn's current plight, but all e-mails went unanswered. Apparently, Venky's hoped to piggyback on Blackburn's popularity to expand its brand abroad. But Desai did not understand football. To understand football, she hired Shebby Singh, a familiar face with football fans in Asia as a football "expert" with ESPN. Singh was appointed "global advisor," though anyone who had watched Singh as a TV expert would have known the decision would be a disaster. Singh ended up wasting ludicrous amounts on players no one had even heard of.
Foreign ownership in the Premier League is almost the norm these days. Manchester United is owned by American tycoon Malcolm Glazer and last year's champions, Manchester City, by one of the world's richest men, Sheikh Al Mansour. But these owners haven't tried to interfere too much and have the right people handling matters.
Desai's husband was hit by a snowball during a game at Ewood Park, Blackburn's stadium, one of the many signs that the fans have had enough. Blackburn sits four points away from slipping further to the third-tier of English football. "The owners have to face up to the fact they are entirely responsible for the situation we find ourselves in, with a second successive relegation a distinct possibility," says Wild.