Blackburn Rovers have posted an annual pre-tax loss of £36.5m after relegation from the Premier League in 2012. This compares with a £4.3m profit a year earlier.
Their accounts reveal a £27.3m drop in turnover and a worrying 136.1 per cent wages-to-turnover ratio for the year ending 2013, with wages totalling £36.6m. There was an operating loss of £24.3m before player trading.
Blackburn Rovers have posted an annual pre-tax loss of £36.5m after relegation from the Premier League in 2012. This compares with a £4.3m profit a year earlier.
Their accounts reveal a £27.3m drop in turnover and a worrying 136.1 per cent wages-to-turnover ratio for the year ending 2013, with wages totalling £36.6m. There was an operating loss of £24.3m before player trading.
They also show that the club’s net debt has risen from £24.5m to £54.5m. While most of the loss in turnover was due to the disappearance of Premier League payments, £1.1m was down to a sharp drop in average attendances from 22,591 to 14,997.
Chief executive Derek Show commented, ‘We can’t keep these type of losses up. It is very, very difficult.’ No doubt this is the case, but the way forward is far from clear.