Blackburn Rovers ownership: A look at Venky's source of wealth + net worth | OneFootball

Blackburn Rovers sat comfortably in mid-table in the Premier League when Venkys became owners of the club.

The deal that saw the Indian company take control of the Ewood Park outfit came in November 2010.

At the time, it was reported that Venkys paid £23million, as well as taking on £20million worth of debt, to take over the club.

That saw them purchase a controlling stake in the Lancashire outfit from the Walker Trust, run by the family of Blackburn Rovers' Premier League title winning owner, the late Jack Walker.

Since then, it has been a turbulent period at Ewood Park for the club under their new owners. In the first full season over the takeover, Rovers were relegated from the Premier League in 2012.

The drop into the Championship came amid a raft of protests against the owners, and a manager they themselves had appointed, after sacking Sam Allardyce shortly after taking over the club.

Under Venkys, Blackburn would then drop even further in 2017, when they were relegated to League One.

Although they would bounce back at the first time of asking, the owners have again found themselves under scrutiny this season.

Limits in the budget due to pressure placed on Venkys by the Indian government made it difficult for Blackburn to properly strengthen their squad. That contributed to the club being dragged into a battle to avoid relegation from the Championship that they only escaped on the final day.

So, with that again putting the spotlight on Venkys, we have once more taken a look at the Blackburn Rovers owners, right here.

Venkys' source of income

The Venkys are an Indian company controlled by the Rao family, with the company currently chaired by Anduradha Desai.

She is the daughter of Dr Banda Vasudev Rao, who was the original founder of Venkys, back in 1971.

Also on the company's board are Desai's brothers, Balaji and Venkatesh Rao. The pair are charged with overseeing final decisions at Blackburn Rovers, and were present at some games several years ago.

As many will know from the much publicised protests that have previously been made against Venkys by fans of the club, the company originally made its money in chicken farming.

That has allowed the business to open up its own chain of fast food restaurants, Venkys Xprs, the first of which was opened in the city in India where the company is based, Pune, in 2010.

Venkys have since expanded into an international market as well, and now operate offices and production plants in a range of locations across Europe, Asia and America.

Venkys' sizeable net worth

Although Blackburn Rovers have found themselves working on a limited budget in recent seasons compared to some other Championship clubs, Venkys are seemingly not short on funds.

According to a report from The Sunderland Echo published in 2023 that analysed the net worth of the owners of the 24 Championship clubs, Venkys are valued at £1.66billion.

That placed Venkys as the ninth-richest owners in the second-tier of English football at that time.

There is, therefore, seemingly money available that could be invested into the club if circumstances were to allow for it.