BLACKBURN Rovers reduced their pre-tax loss by almost £16m, but club debts still stand at more than £106m after the latest club accounts were published.

Rovers reduced pre-tax loss to £1.5m in the financial year to June 2016, a reduction of £15.8m from the 2015 figure of £17.3m, but net current liabilities are still £106,393,974.

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Much of the reduction in losses can be attributed to the player sales of Jordan Rhodes, Rudy Gestede and Josh King, with profit on those departures totalling £16.4m, compared to £3.5m of player sale profit for the previous 12 months.

Rovers’ initial operating loss figure stood at just over £14m for the year, a reduction of £2.2m from the previous year.

The club have now almost halved their wage and salaries outlay since relegation from the top flight in the 2011/12 season. Then the wage bill stood at just over £50m, while last year wages were cut by £1.7m to £25.3m.

Turnover has reduced to £22m from £22.4m while matchday income has fallen by £0.6m. In 2015 this stood at £22.4m, but up until June 2016 it was £22m.

However, the wage to turnover figure stands at 115 per cent - a slight reduction in the 2015 figure of 120.5 per cent.

The average attendance saw little change, falling to 14,129 as Rovers finished 15th in the Championship, compared with 14,930 as they finished ninth in the same division in 2014/15.

The number of times Rovers were screened live on television fell to three, from five the previous season.

Rovers’ overdraft, currently with the State Bank of India, is up for renewal in March, with the club directors confident it will be renewed.

The accounts say “forecasts indicate that the company will require significant funding in addition to the current facilities available to the company”.

However, it is confirmed in the accounts that the club’s ‘ultimate parent company’ Venkateshwara Hatcheries Pvt. Ltd ‘has suffi-cient funds and is willing to provide such additional fina-ncing as may be required to fund the company’ for the foreseeable future.