Rovers Trust have called on owners Venky’s to ‘alleviate fears’ surrounding the club’s future after a ‘gradual but confusing decline’ during their decade-long reign.

An open letter has been sent to the owners in Pune, and also directors at Ewood Park, calling for more engagement to ensure fans ‘are not turned off their club’.

The Trust point to a lack of transparency and strategy, the owners not attending a home fixture in six years, slowness of decision-making as well as the proposed merging of the Brockhall training bases as areas of concern and needing to be addressed.

The letter, sent to the Lancashire Telegraph, states: “The aim of raising all this in an open letter is not to protest but to promote moves to ensure that Rovers fans are not turned off their club, and instead feel not only engaged at a local level but also have their fears alleviated of a sudden crisis caused by V H Group decisions.”

The Trust enlisted Ewood Park as an asset of community value, but were denied in their attempts to do the same with the Brockhall training bases.

Rovers announced in February their plans to merge their two centres at Brockhall, with the Senior Training Centre to be demolished and sold for housing to fund the project, but following a public consultation, those proposals were scrapped the next month.

The Trust says it will fully support a fan-led review of the way the game is governed, fairer financial distribution throughout the pyramid and a national adoption of the '50+1' ownership model.

November marked 10 years of Venky’s ownership of Rovers, with the club having since suffered two relegations, finishing the 2020/21 season 15th in the Championship.

Next year will mark a decade out of the Premier League for the club who haven’t finished higher than eighth in the second tier since seeing an 11-year stay in the top flight come to an end.

The letter adds: “The last 10 years has seen a gradual but confusing decline in the fortunes of BRFC, despite large infusions of money from Venky’s London Limited, mainly from the Desai family and VH Group.

“To get promoted back to the Premier League, successful clubs are always well-run, professionally managed and co-ordinated from top to bottom.

“Once again, this season has ended in disappointment with the team severely underachieving on the field. Since our relegation we have never made the top six, and on one embarrassing occasion were relegated to the third tier – a scenario that was unthinkable prior to your takeover.

“We would be grateful for your observations on the contents of this letter and early opportunities to meet in a suitably safe location.”

Blackburn Rovers were asked for comment.