Blackburn CEO Waggott leaves after seven years

Steve Waggott had most recently worked at Coventry City when he arrived at Blackburn Rovers in late 2017

Blackburn Rovers chief executive Steve Waggott has left the Championship club after seven years in post.

The 70-year-old joined the club in December 2017 having previously been chief executive at Coventry City, Charlton Athletic and Gillingham.

Waggott arrived in the same season that Rovers won automatic promotion from League One to the Championship at the first attempt.

Since then Rovers have remained in the second tier and this season, despite a promising first half of the campaign, they ultimately missed out on a play-off place by two points.

"We would like to thank Steve for his work over the past seven years and we wish him well for his future endeavours," a club statement said.

The club have not yet made clear who will take over from Waggott or when an appointment will be made.

Waggott's exit from the club comes amid fan protests against his position and that of owners Venky's during this season.

In March, a collection of Blackburn Rovers supporters groups called upon Waggott as well as head of football operations Rudy Gestede and chief operating officer, and representative of the owners, Suhail Pasha to not attend their final eight league matches.

The groups believed the trio had become a target for frustrations at how the club was being run and argued that their absence could result in a more positive environment for the team to perform in.

In response, the club welcomed the call for unity, but insisted the senior leadership team would continue to attend matches.

After a dip in form under new boss Valerien Ismael during which they went almost two months without a win, Blackburn eventually rallied at the tail end of the season.

Despite a run of four wins and two draws to close out the season, however, they narrowly missed out on a top six place on the final day.

Meanwhile, Rovers confirmed on Tuesday its women's team would drop out of the second tier Women's Championship next season because owners Venky's are unwilling to meet the league's requirements on facilities, player welfare and staffing.

It was a decision which defender Rachel Dugdale said had left the club's players feeling "devalued" by the "lack of communication" shown.