You want to know the value of Celtic winning the league last season? We went to Ibrox in April needing a point to stay in the race. The point came and Philippe Clement celebrated. The fool. He followed that with defeat at Dingwall and a draw at Dundee. The man alliterated his club into a crisis as Celtic won the league.
The rest of this article is a consequence of Celtic winning that title.
A £17m loss is never good, but context is important. The context Newco published that figure yesterday is truly awful. The best that can be said for them, is that the season in question is behind them. What’s more important, is the present and future. That is where we go from the awful to a familiar precipice.
Operating loss for the year to 30 June 2024 was £8m, this is before player trading, interest and exceptional items. Amortisation was running at £11m, it should be higher this season, as they spent £16m on players over the summer, but let’s assume a constant £11m. If you are keeping a tally: £8m operating loss (from continuing operations), plus £11m, puts us at £19m.
Then there’s interest, which doubled to just shy of £4m. I’ll use the same figure again, to push our tally for this season to £23m. Last season they made the Champions League playoff round, which between the bonus fee and matchday revenue earned in excess of £5m. That cash did not materialise this season, so we need to claw that money back. So far, we are looking at a £28m deficit for this season.
Record income for the club was achieved by reaching two cup finals (winning one), topping their Europa League group and progressing to the last 16 of that tournament. That’s a whole lot of prize money they might not earn this season, but let’s assume they reach both domestic finals again.
They have the same number of European tournament-proper games guaranteed (four) and I expect them to progress in the Europa, so add £2m income from that source, pushing our deficit tally to £26m. However, I’m going to claw that back for Hampden costs (though I expect they were higher), so back to £28m.
This season, they have sold players for close to £1m (tally: £27m). Some high earners left the building (Goldson, Lundstram) but those £16m new arrivals are not in town for the weather, so I expect little variance in basic wages.
We made several assumptions above. They will not reach two and win one cup final. They may not progress out of the Europa, but they may reach another final(!). Notwithstanding vagaries in fortune, Newco are looking at a deficit of £27m this season, minus any sales income they generate in January, or drop in player wages.
They are a club already operating under Uefa supervision and subject to the same Financial Stability Regulations. Remember, Uefa banned both Milan and Juventus from European competition in the last five years. FSR regulations have teeth. Irrespective of Uefa regs, they still have to finance their operations.
Season ticket money arrives in May and June, so football clubs’ bank balance reported at 30 June is close to their high point. To a great extent, clubs have to live off that money until season ticket cash arrives the following year. Newco’s bank balance at 30 June was £1.7m (Celtic: £77m), which on average equates to six days spend for the club last season. No wonder John Bennett slipped out of the building.
There is a way forward. Sell everyone earning over £8k per week. Compete for players with Aberdeen and Hearts for five years and ask the fans to buy season tickets anyway. Be smaller, pay bills out of income and they get to survive. The cost is watch Celtic win pretty much all the time, but honestly, they are watching that anyway, so what’s the difference?
It will take one of them to have the hard conversation with the fans. Something like, “We’re broke, we cannot compete at elite level in Scotland, but we will stay in business if we spend a lot less.” There is no sign of that happening. Telling football fans their club needs to live within its means is a thankless task, ususally met with agressive opposition. Better this, than insolvency, though.
This stuff affects people. You and I get to celebrate a successful team, get to win more trophies than anyone else in world football. It is a gift modern Celtic gives us and we sure appreciate it. Others carry an enormous cost for the actions of various directors and fan agitators of Oldco and Newco combined. If ‘Rangers supporters’ really cared about their club, their next banner would read, ‘Live within your means and we will still be here’.
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Just landed in the office.
Something has to give………….
‘mon the hoops!
Beyoncé
“ Gers show litigation the red card “
pah pah pah pah pah pah pah pah pah pah pah pah pah pah pah ———————paaaaaahhhhhh 👍
Threesie
Aff oot CSC
Game day – CTV on the laptop for Dundee game and Paramount+ for Dons vs Huns on the telly, then oot for a lovely meal with Mrs Tex to celebrate our Silver Anniversary.
If Carlsberg made Wednesdays….
Aberdeen are a decent side but there players will need to watch how they tackle Sevcos players this evening if I was Jimmy the dons coach I would have Shinnie on the subs bench he is prone to make harsh tackles which will prompt Beaton and VAR to give him a straight Red card anyway 3 points for the bhoys this evening is what matters
That’s surely a real clarion call of an article for the currants. P67.
The lurking buns on here should pay heed.
Thankfully they have a devotee who can sound the clarion for them;
He’s the boozy-woozy, bugle Billy boy of clumpany B.
Paul
You have painted lipstick on the pig.
No certainty they will get to 2 finals.
No certainty they will qualify in Europe.
A million of 3rd domestically.
A fall in match day revenue.
Paying offf another manager.
Another refresh of staff.
Oh and a dilapidated stadium to fix.
A liklihood of 3rd domestically in league ….. bloody text.
meanwhile.
the copland stand renovation works are still not completed.
the bearz complain of dust, rubbish, walkways cluttered with materials and debris, toilet blocks not opened, kiosk not serving anything hot,
several posters on their forums observe from the club deck that is is half empty, none of the other stands are full, and yet on sunday they claimed there was 48,500 in attendance.
if there was that is still 2,000 empty seats, well done on wasting the money on that expansion project.
note also, they have done nothing about the away section segregation, they are not goign to make that happen or doing any capacity increases for broomloan or the govan stands.
attendnaces at europa games are less that 42000.
their blogs live in perpetual fear of celtic overtaking the made up trophy count, terrified of it, they cant afford to replace the “worlds most succesful club” branding shit.
and trust me on this, they hate the thought of trying to catch up with aberdeen, beind third is nowhere, being less than aberdeen finally sees many of them pack it in.
infamy and apathy make for strange bedfellows.
i know some say they are not insolvent, because they keeping paying there bills, but they are actually late with all the suppliers.
its happening again isnt it.
great time for us to put out our annual report.
Congrats on the anniversary, Tex.
I shouted Mrs Quad a surprise lunch today – just cos she deserves it.
as a ps.
family member was at a youth match murray park last week.
without being partisan, they told me the place was an actual unclean coup and in a disgusting way,
so it is not only the badgers hovel that is stinking.
happy anniversary, you have been married longer than rangers have been alive.
TexasTim re: Anniversary
Enjoy! Big goofy hugs to the lovely lady as well.
Also, what SAINT STIVS said!
They are not solvent.
You seem to be ignoring the fact that there’s whisky tycoons and American Billionaires ready to get the teddy bears roaring again. The Daily Record says so.
Aberdeen have nothing to fear tonight, they normally raise their game to maximum effort against the huns anyway. Meanwhile I’d like to see us up two or three goals by HT then get Kyogo off. Maeda can take over through the middle with Palma and Kuhn either side of him.
5-0 to the good guys with Luke bagging a double.
Next up for feelgood lie,
Adidas want Rangers.Big increase in income
The Hun board actually asking the Hordes to willingly accept full Espanyolification (they are there already surely) is not in their DNA and long may that continue.
On a much more sobering note, just up the road from Denia in Valencia the death toll from yesterday’s flash floods is now up to 62 and rising. Absolutely terrifying how quickly things can change with one day of torrential rain.
https://youtu.be/gxfU0GwSp_M?si=VGAWJRmVaw_RuYgF
A braw article.
He’ll scud it into them.
I see zero likelihood of that club living within it’s means . Those running the club may see the sense in it but the Klanbase would not countenance it . There is an extremely dangerous and deranged element within that support who would never except that they are not ‘the peepul’, bound by the same rights and restrictions as everyone else .
There will be no saving them . Get the ice cream scoops and jelly moulds ready!
Deniabhoy
Seen effects of flooding in Valencia on news.
Truly terrifying.
Afternoon all.
Timbhoy163 on 30th October 2024 12:13 pm
Aberdeen are a decent side but there players will need to watch how they tackle Sevcos players this evening if I was Jimmy the dons coach I would have Shinnie on the subs bench he is prone to make harsh tackles which will prompt Beaton and VAR to give him a straight Red card anyway 3 points for the bhoys this evening is what matters
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I agree, if the Aberdeen Centre mid puts in tackles in the manner that he did in our recent game, he will not make it to half time. He will find out that you are refereed differently when you play against us (free to kick as much as you like) as apposed to that mob (don’t blow on them the wrong way or your carded/off).
HH
celtic40me on 30th October 2024 11:43 am
DARWIN on 30TH OCTOBER 2024 11:06 AM
It looks like they’re trying to do things differently but it’s too little too late to get near us anytime soon.
If they stick with their manager and stick to a plan they might make it to sustainability, but it will need a decent executive which they show no signs of finding anytime soon
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Agree again – there’s nothing really to add HH
Paul,
you’re at your best with this stuff…..
However, as a retired CPA, I remain unsure of the potential role of UEFA. It seems that ‘owners’ can cover losses of up to 60m over 3 years. If that’s the case, then even sevco could (with a bit of effort) keep their losses to 20m per year.
Weeron
The image of the human bugler, standing in front of a mirror practicing, is something I cant get out of my head……
BelmontBrian on 30th October 2024 12:53 pm….
I don’t think that even a man of John Beaton’s stature could save them.
Weeron
Today’s nonsense is,an EPL team is going to buy Hagi for mega millions,…..yep same guy who’s been sitting on his arse doing nothing for 18 months, and available for transfer….
this is about people attending celtic matches, do not read it it if you are not interested in helping get celtic fans the opportunity to actually attend games.
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I am genuinely intested as to what the actual attendnaces will be for our next few home games/
Remarcably for a midweek fixture , the dundee match tonight is sold out. The public sale areas in the south east sections will be packed , but there will be unoccupied seats in the “season book” areas, i understand how much more difficult it is to get here from ebngland and ireland on a working day,
I am guessing we will see around 57,500 as the reported attendnace.
Back in the turn of the century, when we had the completed new celtic park, several times a season we would break the 60,000 marker, the record attendnace being 60,440 who watched tommy johnston score the winner against st mirren to clinch martins first league.
We did have a world class henrik then, the need to be at the game to see him was on a mass hypnosis affect for the support.
Our liepzig game is also sold out.
I know we have seats not for sale behind the goals reducing the capacity by some 600 or so.
Bourne out by the record attendnace of 59,759, when liverpool came to town for a 1-1 draw.
Several times around the early 2000’s we had attendnaces around 59,600,.
Nowadays though a sell out sees on average 57000 for a european game, why is this ? what factors have changed ? lesser sized away supports ? more uefa/sponsors freebies ? pricing too high for the weans to attend ? seat blockers just not bothered about the hassle of passing on a ticket, well we will see next week,
atendance watch predictor 57,500, that will be 2000 empty seats in a sold out stadium by the way.
and there will be celtic supporters watching it on tv, who wont be able to source a ticket.
the ticket office doesnt work hard enough or be innovative enough to actually meet their objectives.
i suppose being cash rich makes them less bothered .
lets see.
!!Bada Bing!! on 30th October 2024 1:03 pm
me too, i keep bursting into some pa pa pas, then snigger a bit,
Paul 67 et al,
I do not believe that Aberdeen will do a Leicester City.
Our major rivals are a financial basket case.
Our dominance on and off the park given our stability should and will continue.
Subsequently, it is European football that is the real prize and goal. Everything should be focused on our aspiration in that arena.
HH.
ST Stivs
I was in a bar last Friday in Bergamo awaiting flight home.
I was talking to various hoops fans that traveled up from Carlisle and North of Engurland.
They said they loved Sunday games and maybe midweek as they got tkts from a club in Norn Ireland
who cant get ferries back and send season tkts over to them.
So that was one club who because of travel issue take maybe 300 or was it 500 tkts out in one fail swoop.
I dont think issue is if tkts are\aren’t used
but why Celtic dont have a scheme to enable other fans to use them.
“newco” accounts on the day of a game (or any other day for that matter)? Oh dear…..
I would maybe make two changes. Kuhn for Forrest. I’d also bring in Engels for Maeda. I’d like to see him given a go in a Jota-type role and this would be the perfect kind of game to try it.
Saint Stivs on 30th October 2024 1:09 pm
Wall to wall TV can also affect actual attendance.
Numerous streams mean most can watch any game .
Transport to and from Celtic Park is decades out of date.
Generally we are a ” softer” support. We are more used to home comforts and do not need to attend games in horrible weather to see the game.
Etc, etc.
PS : Lots of tickets on offer for tonight on Celtic spares. ( Twittering X and the Facing book )
DeniaBhoy: terrible destruction north of where you are. Lots of rain down here in Fuengirola but causing no damage thankfully. A few more days of rain to come yet. Stay safe.
Saint Stivs on 30th October 2024 12:22 pm
great time for us to put out our annual report.
Saint Stivs, great idea and what a great example of ‘timing’ that would be. Just like yesterday, when the bad news came out in public, it was a racing certainty that some form of ‘good news’ would appear. Low and behold yet another billionaire (this time not from Motherwell) was suddenly announced as being a possible investor. Thus the revolting bears would be less revolting (really?) while chewing over the potential mullions heading towards their klub, at some indeterminate time in the future.
Now, IF we put out our financials, and there they were in black and white (and certainly not red), even the deluded deludamol-quafers would be pig sick. Not likely to happen but, to quote Bourne, “what larks!”
Ave Ave
https://twitter.com/i/status/1851613713624609195
Paul67 et al
My only surprise in the coverage of the RIFC Annual Report is that the SMSM failed to highlight the upside of the £17.2 mill loss, that being the avoidance (and not evasion) of having to pay levies on corporate profits.
“We don’t need no stinking Taxes….”