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2nd July 2024
02:48pm BST
Blackburn Rovers are going to pay their women's players the UK minimum wage of just £9,000 a year, Mail Sport have revealed.
The Women's Championship club has a player budget of a tiny £100,000, meaning the minimum wage of £11.44 for those aged 21 and over will be paid.
The players will have contracts of just 16 hours per week, not accounting for away fixture travel and potential overnight stays.
Ten players departed upon the expiration of their contracts last week amidst a situation which is far from ideal or acceptable.
Kathryn Batte, a football reporter at Mail Sport tweeted on X:
"The Women’s Championship licence has not yet been approved for the 2024-2025 campaign, but there are a number of proposed changes. This includes increased contact hours and a minimum number of contracted players per club, but this does not constitute as a full-time set-up.
"16-hour contracts understood not to include things like travel for away games or overnight stays for fixtures further afield. With players training Wednesday-Saturday, with games on Sunday, that does not leave much time for part-time work to supplement their football salary."
Additionally, it was only four months ago when Blackburn Rovers were criticised across LinkedIN for advertising five 'voluntary' work placements, where the club requested people to work full-time for free.
The club requested 'required skills' for different positions, such as for an academy coach and an u21's performance analyst.
Blackburn Rovers are currently owned by the Venky's, who have also been under investigation in India over a tax dispute for the past year.
Only last summer did they request Delhi's high court to enable them to send £26m to Venky's London Limited, in order to pay the football club's tax bill amongst other things.
Ellie Leek has also taken to X to show her disgust at the horrendous decisions made by the club with a story:
"When I was at Blackburn, the club captain, the vice captain and I had a meeting with Steve Waggott.
"We wanted to discuss the conditions we played in, which included sharing two portable toilets with the entire boys' academy.
"He told us we needed to be grateful for that £100k."
