THE ROVERS Trust fear Blackburn Rovers could lose more than £40m this year.

The Trust also believe the club could continue to slide down the Football League after conducting a study into the finances at Ewood Park.

The Trust, who want to secure a meaningful stake in the club, used financial experts to make their own analysis of the club’s current situation.

Their final report not only expressed fears that Rovers could potentially face losses of more than £40m when the financial year ends on June 30, but also that the Ewood Park outfit could follow Portsmouth cascading fall down the Football League’ – even if owners Venky’s decide against ‘fire sales’.

Rovers opted not to make any official response to the Trust’s report, although managing director Derek Shaw admitted last week that the club are currently losing ‘a lot of money’.

Shaw insisted that owners Venky’s were still supporting that loss, but warned that the club must cut their wage bill to fall in line with new Football League financial fair play regulations concerning acceptable annual losses.

“Our observations for 2013 are not happy reading,” said the Trust’s finance officer Dan Grabko, a Rovers fan and American finance expert who is based in Sweden.

“With the huge gulf in revenues between the Championship and the Premier League, albeit managed somewhat through parachute payments, and the owners’ decision to maintain a Premier League spending policy to try to achieve an immediate return, we expect huge losses for the club.”

The Trust studied Rovers’ annual accounts for the years between 2000 and 2012 as well as other information already in the public domain before making their forecast. The Trust acknowledge that some details will only become completely clear when the club publish their 2013 accounts later this year.

Concerns were expressed in the report that Rovers are now completely dependent on the owners continuing to cover the club’s losses.

Shaw was reluctant to comment last week about previous suggestions that Rovers were losing £2m a month.

Rovers were relegated from the Premier League last year, and the £4.3m pre-tax profit posted in last year’s accounts was due to a host of player sales.

But the Trust fear a drop in revenue of around £30m following relegation from the top flight because of a £20m decline in television money and a potential £5m drop in both matchday income and commercial revenue.

The club went a significant proportion of last season without a shirt sponsor, while the Trust anticipate a figure of between £2m and £4.25m to be included in the 2013 accounts as a result of compensation payments for staff – most notably ex-managers.

They estimate a decrease in cash outflow of between £30m and £35m, rising to £43.5m after player trading – including the purchases of Jordan Rhodes and Leon Best.

Richard Speak, a corporate finance expert who helped to conduct the Trust’s study, said: “We have to ask therefore, how will this be funded?

“The two options open to the club and the owners it would seem are player sales or further parent company support.

“If Premier League promotion remains the ambition of the owners, then we do not believe that any ‘fire sale’ of players would occur. However, if the owners have decided that they are not willing to continue to fund this ambition, then we would likely see a high number of player sales now the 2012/13 season has ended with further reductions in playing staff as contracts are not renewed.

“On the other hand, the owners may decide to ‘double down’ and fund the club for another year of heavy losses.

“This could result in a very precarious financial future for Rovers with the possibility that failure to return to the Premier League will see us follow the likes of Portsmouth down the path of administration and a cascading fall down the Football League.”

Rovers have always denied the possibility of administration.

The Trust, which has a membership of more than 1,000 since forming last year, wrote to Venky’s in March offering to help the owners and asking for a stake in the club. Venky’s requested more information, which the Trust sent, but since then they have heard nothing.

Speak added: “One positive from the 2012 accounts is the switch of financing from Barclays to the Indian banks of the owners, releasing the club’s assets from any and all security arrangements.

“Should this continue, it would mean that individual assets of the club could not be taken over by the banks, rather the entire club would change hands via a transfer of the owners’ shares.”

That, however, would potentially give Venky’s the capability to privatise the club and do whatever they see fit without any permission required from the banks.

“That is the case,” Grabko said. “Theoretically Venky’s could sell the club tomorrow or liquidate it.”

Grabko added: “Given the historical lack of communication directly from the owners regarding their intentions and the behaviour of those charged by the owners with managing the club, it is a matter of continuing to monitor the situation as diligently as possible.

“The Rovers Trust was founded for just this purpose, and it will continue to probe and question to get the answers for our members.”

The Trust now have access to shareholders’ meetings after a small stake in the club was recently donated to them by supporter Stephen Halstead.

That stake, however, is dwarfed by the shareholding of Venky’s, who own 99.9954 per cent of the club.