Blackburn Rovers: The Venkys' net worth compared to the richest Premier League owners | OneFootball

Could the Lancashire club's owners compete financially with those in the Premier League?

It is now well over ten years since Venkys completed their takeover of Blackburn Rovers.

Since that deal was confirmed and announced back in November 2010, there has been plenty of controversy and publicity around the company's involvement with the club.

The decision to sack manager Sam Allardyce just months after their arrival at the club backfired badly, with Rovers relegated from the Premier League in the first full season after the takeover.

That came amid a raft of protests from fans against the owners, and Blackburn have never played in the top-flight of English football since then.

More recently, restrictions placed on what Venkys over what they can invest in the club by the government in their native India, have also put scrutiny on their ownership of the Lancashire side.

It has led to some for Rovers in the transfer window at a time when the squad has needed strengthening, although many feel those at Ewood Park navigated the situation well this summer.

Meanwhile, Venkys must currently seek approval from the courts in India - in hearings that have been delayed several times - whenever they want to put money into Blackburn.

That will of course be frustrating for fans of the club, not least when they may feel as though the owners do have the means to invest significantly, should they want to do so.

Venkys have a sizable net worth

As has become well known since their takeover of the Ewood Park club, Venkys originally made their money in chicken farming.

That has seen them establish companies focused around both food and healthcare products, and after originating in India, now has bases all over the world.

More recent years have also seen the company open their own fast food chain, bringing in more avenues of revenue to the Venkys.

As a result, it has previously been reported that the Rao family who run the company, and by that extent own Blackburn Rovers, are worth around £2billion.

That is a significant amount compared to the owners of many other Championship clubs, but how does that net worth match-up with that of owners of clubs currently in the Premier League?

Blackburn owners are richer than some in the Premier League

Earlier this summer, Give Me Sport published a report analysing the net worth of all 20 owners of the clubs who will play in the Premier League during the 2024/25 season.

When comparing those figures with that £2billion the Rao family are said to be worth with those in the report, the Blackburn owners look to be worth more than those of five current top-flight clubs.

Those are Bournemouth owner Will Foley (£1.24b), Brighton's Tony Bloom and Southampton's Sport Republic (£1b), Nottingham Forest's Evangelos Marinakis (£479m) and Brentford's Matthew Benham (£216.3million).

As a result, while they would obviously not be expected to blow the division away if Blackburn were to be promoted, Venkys may arguably have the finances to compete at the lower end of the table.

Rovers have made a strong start to the current campaign, and sit third in the early standings, with 11 points from five league games so far.

Even so, those at the club will know it is far too early to start thinking about how much they might be able to spend, if they were to win promotion to the Premier League this season.

Indeed, when you consider how things have gone recently in terms of the issues Venkys have had to deal while looking to invest in the club, there may be questions about how much they could put in even should promotion happen.

If those problems were to remain leading to a relative lack of investment, there could be a case to be made that it could lead to a rather challenging return to the Premier League for Blackburn Rovers, if they were to achieve such success in the Championship.