BLACKBURN Rovers have told their 'official' disabled supporters’ club to stop using their name.

The football club told members it was disassociating itself from the 50 strong group and said it could no-longer use the Blackburn Rovers name in its title.

Disabled supporters' club spokesman Jim Wareing said members were 'disappointed' at the decision which came out of the blue.

He added they were in the dark as to the reasons for the decision.

A Rovers spokesman confirmed the break in relations and said the club did not want other organisations using their brand.

However he promised that the club would continue to provide all the support and assistance it could to disabled fans.

The Disabled Supporters’ Club was originally founded in 1992 and organised away match transport and disabled fans parking at Ewood Park, both of which are now provided by the club itself.

It was refounded in October last year with a new committee after a short break caused by a fall in membership.

A relaunch party was held at Ewood Park's Blues Bar in March, and it also ran its 'Player of the Year' awards in April.

Mr Wareing said: "We had 51 members and the club was on a sound footing.

"We were called to a meeting to discuss our accounts and were told that Blackburn Rovers no longer wanted to be associated with us and we could no longer use the club name.

"We are surprised. It came out of the blue and the officials there were very vague about the reasons for it.

"We are disappointed. We are there to provide an independent voice for disabled fans.

"At the meeting were officer for the disabled Christine Peacock, finance director Mike Cheston and fans' liaison manager Linsey Talbot.

"We still don't know why they did it.

"The club had said the annual Christmas Party and its Player of the Year award were successful.

"We had only officially been going for nine months and things were going well.

"Now we will continue as 'The Blues Disabled Supporters' Club', without Blackburn Rovers, as a social club working with other organisations such as 'Sliding Doors'.

"There is no animosity.

"All the committee members who are Rovers' fans have renewed their Ewood Park season ticket.

"We did have a couple of outstanding issues with the club over the cleanliness and hygiene of the wheelchair accessible toilets and wide disabled parking berths for wheelchairs but that doesn't seem an adequate reason for this."

Mr Cheston said: "We asked them to stop using the Blackburn Rovers name as the club does a great deal for our disabled supporters and we did not want to confuse the brand.

"It did not make administrative sense to have the club's name used by the group and we also looked at the the time and effort taken up in responding to their queries.

"It was just taking up too much time when we have our own disabled officer.

"They are not banned from using Blackburn Rovers facilities for events and we will continue to support our disabled fans in every way we can.

"We just did not feel that having a separate disabled supporters club using the Blackburn Rovers name made sense.

"We explained this to them at the meeting and said we would continue to run the Christmas Party for disabled fans and the disabled fans Player of the Year awards ourselves."

He added: "This will enable our staff to deal with all disabled supporters instead of concentrating resources on a single group.

“I think there may have been confusion among some supporters as to whether they contact the club direct or this group over some matters.

“Our staff are available and willing to assist in whatever ways they can so supporters, whatever their difficulties, have the best experience supporting Rovers.”

Mr Wareing said: "We do not think we took up administrative time with lots of queries and feel disabled fans sill need an independent voice."

Ewood councillor and Rovers fan Maureen Bateson said: "It seems disappointing.

"I know the club and Christine Peacock do a lot for its disabled supporters and I shall look into this with her to find out what has happened."

Rovers said 145 of its season ticket holders were disabled, and said an average of six match day tickets were sold to disabled fans last season. It places no restriction on the number that can be sold.