Blackburn Rovers Financial Results 2024/25
A play-off near-miss, rising costs, and £140m of owner debt.
Blackburn Rovers spent a seventh consecutive season in the Championship in 2024/25, coming within two points of a play-off place — briefly sitting in the top six for nine minutes on the final day of the season before missing out. It was a positive follow-up to a difficult 2023/24 campaign that had ended in 19th place.
Head coach John Eustace, appointed in February 2024, oversaw a strong start to the season before a poor run of form — two wins in eleven games between late December and early February — preceded his abrupt departure to relegation-threatened Derby County on 13 February 2025. Academy manager David Lowe took interim charge before Valérien Ismaël was appointed on a three-and-a-half-year contract on 25 February, seeing out the campaign.
Ownership has remained with Venky's London Ltd, part of the Indian poultry conglomerate V H Group, since 2010 — a period in which the men's team has accumulated losses in excess of £200 million. The 2024/25 season took place against a backdrop of continued financial restrictions on the owners: Indian government guidance to reduce overseas investment has previously required Venky's to post a guarantee for every pound spent by the club, materially complicating and slowing their ability to fund the club.
Financial highlights:
A near-miss on the pitch, a swing back to loss off it. Blackburn finished 7th in the Championship, missing the play-offs by two points, while pre-tax loss swung to £10.4 million from a rare £3.3 million profit the year before.
Turnover grew by 11%, to £23.7 million from £21.4 million, driven mainly by higher broadcast income.
Staff costs rose in step with turnover. Total staff costs reached £30.6 million, or 129% of turnover — almost unchanged as a ratio from the year before, despite a near-11% rise in the wage bill. Staff costs ranked 18th in the Championships, suggesting their 7th place finish was significant overperformance
Player sales income fell sharply from an exceptional prior year. Profit on player sales was £13.0 million, down from £23.6 million in 2023/24 — a year dominated by the £20 million sale of academy graduate Adam Wharton to Crystal Palace.
Net assets deepened further into negative territory. Net liabilities widened to -£128.6 million, from -£118.1 million, continuing a decade-long pattern under Venky's ownership.
Owner debt continued to climb. Related-party loans rose to £138.8 million, from £133.9 million, taking total debt to more than six times turnover.
Interest costs more than doubled, to £2.0 million from £0.8 million, adding a further drag to the bottom line as the debt pile has grown.
Blackburn's 2024/25 accounts show a club operating on a tighter financial footing than several of its promotion-chasing Championship rivals. The pre-tax loss of £10.4 million sits comfortably within the Championship's individual-season loss cap under the EFL's Profitability and Sustainability rules. Summed across the three years to 2024/25 (a £20.9 million loss in 2022/23, a rare £3.3 million profit in 2023/24, and this year's £10.4 million loss), Blackburn's rolling three-year position also sits well within the permitted threshold.
The bigger story is the balance sheet rather than the P&L. Blackburn's losses over more than a decade of Venky's ownership have been funded through close to £200 million in related-party loans. Around £60 million has been converted to equity, leaving debt now at £138.8 million, against a turnover of under £24 million. Reported restrictions on the owners' ability to move money out of India have added a further layer of uncertainty to a financing model that already depends entirely on one family's continued willingness to lend.
Financial Outlook
On the pitch, 2025/26 has been considerably harder: Blackburn finished 20th, just five points above relegated Oxford United, having spent much of the campaign close to the drop zone. Head coach Valérien Ismaël was sacked in February 2026; interim replacement Michael O'Neill secured survival before turning down the permanent job to stay with Northern Ireland. Tony Mowbray took over on a long-term deal in June 2026, a second spell for a manager who previously won promotion with the club and re-established them in the Championship.
The financial picture looks set to worsen in step — Venky's put a further £4.8 million into the club over the 2025 close season, but the player-trading cushion that has repeatedly offset Blackburn's losses didn't continue, with only around £5 million in profit on sales expected for the year, down sharply from £13 million in 2024/25. Assuming a static cost base, that points to a wider pre-tax loss in 2025/26's.
Supporter sentiment toward the ownership remains largely hostile, a constant across Venky's fifteen years in charge rather than a response to any single season. Fans have organised petitions calling for scrutiny of the ownership, and the club's official supporters' trust continues to publish its own critical analysis of the annual accounts. Venky's have repeatedly said they have no plans to sell.
Turnover
Revenue is generated from three primary streams: matchday income (ticket sales), broadcast distributions from the EFL, and commercial activities including sponsorship, merchandising and other business operations.
Blackburn's turnover rose to £23.7 million in 2024/25, up 11% from £21.4 million the year before.
Blackburn's total revenue ranked 21st in the Championship.
Matchday Revenue
Blackburn have played at Ewood Park, a 31,367-capacity stadium on the banks of the River Darwen, since 1890 — among the oldest and largest grounds outside the Premier League's top tier.
Average attendance rose to 16,141, from 15,579 the year before (+3.6%), lifting stadium occupancy to 51.5% of Ewood Park's 31,367 capacity, from 49.6%. Despite the attendance increase, matchday income fell to £4.5 million from £4.9 million, a decline of 10% — revenue per fan fell to £11.37 from £12.20, suggesting a smaller cup-fixture contribution or pricing mix effect outweighed the larger average crowd.
Spending on facilities was minimal in 2024/25, at £0.4 million, continuing a pattern of very limited infrastructure investment in recent seasons, consistent with an ownership model focused on funding day-to-day football costs rather than capital projects.
Broadcast Revenue
Broadcast income rose 21% to £11.5 million, from £9.5 million, comfortably the largest driver of the year's overall turnover growth and consistent with the EFL's central distributions continuing to rise across the Championship.
Commercial Revenue
Commercial income rose modestly to £7.2 million from £6.9 million (+3.5%). Blackburn's kit supplier for 2024/25 was Macron, with local East Lancashire law firm Watson Ramsbottom Solicitors moving from back-of-shirt to front-of-shirt sponsor for the season — extending a partnership with the club dating back to 2018 — as part of celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of Blackburn's 1994/95 Premier League title win.
Staff Costs
Staff costs comprise salaries and wages, the amortisation of transfer fees (spreading a player's acquisition cost over the length of their contract), and any impairment charges.
Salaries and wages rose 11% to £28.2 million, from £25.4 million. Player amortisation rose slightly to £2.4 million from £2.3 million. Total staff costs reached £30.6 million, or 129% of turnover — essentially unchanged from 130% the year before, since wages grew at almost the same rate as turnover itself.
Blackburn's total staff costs ranked 18th in the Championships, suggesting their 7th place finish was significant overperformance against the wages budget.
Profit on Player Sales
Profit on player sales fell to £13.0 million in 2024/25, from an exceptional £23.6 million the year before. The 2023/24 figure was dominated by the £20 million sale of academy graduate Adam Wharton to Crystal Palace, alongside seven-figure fees for Ash Phillips and Thomas Kaminski — a rare windfall that pushed the club to a full-year pre-tax profit.
The 2024/25 figure was driven primarily by the £9 million sale of top scorer Sammie Szmodics to Ipswich Town, who had scored 27 Championship goals the previous season, together with Sam Gallagher's £1.5 million move to Stoke City and smaller disclosed fees including Leopold Wahlstedt's £847,000 departure to Aarhus. As with Wharton the year before, Szmodics's near-total profit margin reflects a largely amortised or academy-developed asset — Blackburn's recruitment model leans heavily on developing and selling players rather than retaining them at peak value.
Profit and Loss
Blackburn reported a pre-tax loss of £10.4 million in 2024/25, swinging from a rare pre-tax profit of £3.3 million the year before. The underlying operating picture actually worsened only modestly — operating loss widened to £21.4 million from £19.5 million — with the swing to an overall loss driven mainly by the much smaller player sales contribution and a near-2.5x increase in interest costs, to £2.0 million from £0.8 million.
EBITDA improved slightly to -£18.0 million from -£16.2 million on a like-for-like operating basis before amortisation, in line with the broadly flat cost-to-turnover ratios described above.
Net Assets
Net assets represent the difference between total assets and total liabilities, and correspond to a club's net equity position.
Blackburn's net liabilities widened to -£128.6 million in 2024/25, from -£118.1 million the year before, continuing a pattern that has persisted throughout Venky's ownership. Share capital has remained unchanged at £198.2 million across recent seasons — a legacy balance from earlier debt-to-equity conversions rather than fresh investment — while retained losses have continued to accumulate, reaching an incredible -£328.1 million.
Blackburn's own stadium, Ewood Park, remains an asset on the club's balance sheet. The training ground at Brockhall does not: Venky's separated it from the football club in 2021, buying the freehold through a separate company for £17.5 million, with Blackburn now leasing it back. The one-off £13.0 million gain in the 2020/21 accounts (see Profit and Loss) is consistent with this related-party sale-and-leaseback, and Fixed Assets step down noticeably from that season onward.
Player Trading
Blackburn spent £5.1 million on player acquisitions in 2024/25, against £13.0 million recovered in sales — a net trading income of £7.9 million, continuing the club's position as a net seller for a sixth consecutive season, albeit a smaller net sale than the exceptional £22.4 million recorded in 2023/24.
Summer 2024 incomings were built almost entirely around free transfers and modest fees: forward Yuki Ohashi arrived for an undisclosed fee (reported around £1.1 million) from Sanfrecce Hiroshima in Japan, Makhtar Gueye joined for £1.5 million from Belgian side RWD Molenbeek, and Andreas Weimann and Danny Batth both arrived on free transfers from Bristol City and Norwich City respectively. As detailed above, the year's outgoing business was dominated by Sammie Szmodics's £9 million move to Ipswich Town.
Squad Cost and Net Book Value
A squad's net book value (NBV) represents the acquisition cost of its players, less accumulated amortisation. Blackburn's squad NBV rose to £4.7 million from £3.2 million, reflecting the summer's incoming fees against a squad still working from a relatively low asset base following successive years of player sales.
Football Net Debt
Blackburn's total loans rose to £151.6 million at the end of 2024/25, up from £147.3 million the year before — almost entirely related-party debt owed to Venky's, which increased to £138.8 million from £133.9 million. Third-party loans fell slightly, to £12.8 million from £13.3 million.
Net debt reached £151.3 million, up from £146.7 million. Relative to turnover, that equates to roughly 627% of revenue, modestly improved from 640% the year before, as turnover growth slightly outpaced the rise in debt. Interest payments more than doubled, to £2.0 million from £0.8 million, adding a further cost as the debt balance has grown.
Cash Flow
Cash flows are reported in three categories: cash from operations (revenue less day-to-day running costs), cash from investing activity (player and infrastructure spending, net of sales), and cash from financing (new loans or equity raised, less repayments).
Blackburn recorded a £20.2 million operating cash outflow in 2024/25, worse than the £13.5 million outflow the year before. Investing activity was a net inflow of £15.7 million, driven by £19.1 million received from player sales (including the Szmodics transfer) against £3.1 million spent on acquisitions and a negligible £0.3 million on fixed assets.
Financing activity saw £4.6 million drawn down in owner loans, down from £7.6 million the year before — a smaller top-up than in recent seasons, with the player-sales cash inflow doing more of the work of covering the year's operating shortfall. The club's overall cash position — reported net of banking facilities — closed the year at -£12.6 million, broadly unchanged from -£12.6 million the year before.
The five-year picture tells the funding story clearly, with £85 million in operating losses plus £20 million invested in the squad, funding came from a combination of player sales, of £46 million and an additional £62 million from the owners.
Reporting Entity
This analysis is based on the entity Blackburn Rovers Football and Athletic Club plc, for the period 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025. The company is a subsidiary of Venky's London Ltd, part of the Indian poultry conglomerate V H Group.
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