Bitter sweet accounts

Detail in our annual accounts for the year to 30 June 2014, released yesterday, are bitter sweet.  It was a good year financially but the successes were underpinned by qualification for the Champions League.  This season’s revenue will be lucky to rise much above £50m, from last season’s £64m.

I see lots of comment on Peter Lawwell’s £400k bonus.  The key figure to concentrate on executive pay is the basic (in this case £524k), not the bonus.  Celtic executive pay, including manager, chief exec and scouts, should heavily incentivise qualification for the Champions League.  If we’re in the Champions League, all other objectives become possible.  Failure to qualify brings a range of risks; so the execs should feel the pain of failure in the pocket.

Basic pay should be appropriate for the work (this goes for all staff at the club, of course), but there is ample room to incentivise everyone, from executives, to kiosk staff, to stewards, on club performance or service objectives, as appropriate.  Would doing so tackle many of the stewarding and service issues we see regularly? Would be interesting to find out.

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