Celtic’s annual results for the year to 30 June 2021 were released this morning. This was an exceptional year as the stadium was closed to spectators for the entire season, although, as the figures demonstrate, season ticket sales, or the ‘Pass to Paradise’, made a crucial contribution to the club’s health.
Finances to the previous year, to 30 June 2020, was impacted by the curtailment of that season and millions of pounds of refunds, so our normal comparisons at this time are moot, it has been two full years since the club traded normally.
Income fell almost £10m to £60.8m. This is £23m less than the year to June 2019 but still significantly higher than the £52m in Ronny Deila’s last season, to June 2016. Operating expenses soared above income at £74.4m, leaving an operating loss of £11.5m. A year earlier, the club effectively broke even, having made a profit in each of the four prior years.
A straight £5m of Other Income was recorded during the year. I expect this will be HMRC Business Support, Covid-19 related.
The sales of Jeremie Frimpong and Patryk Klimala brought in a net £9.4m after sell-on payments, principally to Manchester City for Frimpong. Despite the disappointing season, £13.5m was spent on player acquisitions, with Vasilis Barkas and Albian Ajeti making up the bulk of that figure. The year-end cash figure, net of bank borrowings, was £16.6m, not much changed from the previous year’s £18.2m.
With all the bars and kiosks closed, Football and Stadium operations income fell the most, from £35.8m to £20.8m. The biggest surprise in any part of the figures was the rise in Merchandising sales, from £15.0m to £22.6m. Considering that in-person retailing was inhibited for much of the year, this is a stunning increase in what I assume was online sales. The commercial metaphorically department kicked every ball.
The club paid £630k to settle contract terminations, Neil Lennon’s severance will feature heavily here.
So much went wrong with last season it is remarkable that we are able to report losses of ‘only’ £11.5m and a positive cash balance, my early season expectations were that we would be in overdraft on 30 June.
With hospitality, Stadium Operations and ticket sales for European and cup games, income should push towards £80m this season.
We have talked here about Asset Management for 17 years. The post-year player sales indicate that despite horrible performances on the field, our player asset values were very high. With a different manager, who knows?
Player purchases in the summer were concentrated around the 26-year-old age group. There is less room for asset appreciation in this new squad as there was among players we sold this year, so either we sell our new stars very soon, or we accept they will leave later in their careers for nominal or no fees. That decision will fall to a new chief executive, I expect few would be bold enough to announce thier arrival with a sale of assets, so expect to keep our main talent for a while.
That is a problem for the business model, one we have not seen since Martin O’Neill’s great team died on its feet, with a huge wage bill and no resale value. Fortunately, this squad can address the problem by winning the league and delivering compensating income from the Champions league, so no pressure now. Strategically, we need to get back to maximising Asset Management potential as soon as possible. Failure to do so always ends in clubs having to pull back eventually.
As a community, Pass to Paradise subscribers, staff and executives, we navigated the club through a year of genuine systemic threat in good shape.
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hi
Afternoon valebhoy
I think the figures are ok I will be interested in what the rotten mobs are !
Ola
@Bob will we ever see them….True figures i mean????
Figure not too bad. Could have been worse!
Paul67
Bad day at black rock when Celtic pandemic finances aren’t as bad as the team
Reading between the lines, and they are very narrow lines, seems to me that Dom was to blame for the non-Asset Management in recruitment as expected by DD and the board, so an “old hand “, at this way, has come into restart that process, am I wrong PAUL67? por cierto
@DRAMBOWIECELT
I don’t expect the truth but the headline figures in comparison to ours will be interesting I predict a 20 million loss for them !
@Bob aye and still they get bankrolled by the sleekits…..
The 13.5 mill laid oot for two Haddies certainly puts a dampener on our Report…
H.H
I don’t easily read lots of this account stuff but can anyone tell me are we still owed any income IE staged payments to us for players sold or is all that included .
The reason I ask is our overall position is maybe better
Because we are owed money!
Figures seem not too bad . If we’re looking for comparisons in terms of operating costs , Sevvies are the only home club of similar size but since they exist on magic beans and £1000 notes they find down the back of sofas , we’ll learn nothing there .
Any CEO coming in and attempting to sell off our Kyogos and MacGregors hastily is liable to find out exactly what fan anger means .
Good info, but dunno about this one Paulo: ‘Player purchases in the summer were concentrated around the 26-year-old age group. There is less room for asset appreciation in this new squad…’
Most stepping-stone players hang around us for an average of what 2.5yrs (Ajer, Eddy, Frimpers, Moussa etc)?
So any 25/26yrs doing the same should still make them good ‘finished products’ for a middling EPL or Euro club at 28/29 yrs – if we improve, we get more cash, if we mismanage them, they become Olli’s and Barkys.
Compo earnings from the Champs League eh? You have a wicked sense of humour indeed Paul ;)
Cheers Pablo.
From briefest scan of your leader I’ve surmised
Virtual season ticket levels very strong.
Online merchandising sales through the roof
If so, then very good point made by someone on previous thread ….
…. An unbelievably huge thank you to the supporters from the board is in order
(Not just two lines repeated throughout the accounts)
Fans dug deep. Not reflected in this statement, a few insincere and condescending platitudes aside.
For all our apparent business acumen it seems we can’t afford to compete with the new club re building a team of mature players. Instead the strategy should be to resume life as a nursery club. For the EPL.
Surely it’S possible to balance the team with seasoned pros, along with a project or two? Even better, develop our own players and sell them on for decent money. I can see the likes of Montgomery making a good contribution for a few years and then being sold on for a good fee.
Anything has got to be better than the lazy conveyor belt Dudu Duhan duffers and Lawwell’s £2M punts, most of whom have proven to be dross.
Live within your means doesn’t mean the Lawwell way is the only way.
A pivotal campaign ahead. Win it and we go forward with strength. Lose it and our ability to strengthen the squad is hampered while our main opponents are handed a significant boost.
Fairly good numbers, considering all the madness.
We should be well placed for a sufficiently robust rebuild over the coming few seasons.
No holding back now
SAINT STIVS on 21ST SEPTEMBER 2021 12:59 PM
GREENPINATA on 21ST SEPTEMBER 2021 10:40 AM
Saint Stivs,
Is this the same Brendan O’Hara who claimed circa quarter of a million GBP on expenses.?
One of the big 3 on the gravy train. ; for claiming expenses from the taxpayer that is.
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So, 1 minute search on the old internet, brings me to the most excellent and transparent
MPS EXPENSES website.
https://www.mpsexpenses.info/#!/all
Scroll down the list, interesting reading, further on IPSA website there is really good information on what can be claimed, and up to what cost (budget).
Budgets
6.10 For London Area MPs, the annual office costs budget is £30,400.
6.11 For non-London Area MPs, the annual office costs budget is £27,470.
Budgets
7.12 For London Area MPs, the annual staffing budget is £190,750.
7.13 For non-London Area MPs, the annual staffing budget is £179,330.
7.14 In order to respond to a rise in constituency workload as a result of the coronavirus pandemic,
a supplement is made to staffing budget for 2021-22, in addition to the amounts set out in
7.12 and 7.13 above, as follows:
a. For London Area MPs, £27,680.
b. For non-London Area MPs, £24,970
So in the year in question, Mr O’Hara claimed £220,000, 90% of his costs being STAFF and office.
Just like, Ian Paisley (£250k) and David Mundell (£245k)
Not difficult to research. Or Interpret.
So, not excessive , within the rules, all applied fairly and transparently.
Just think, 59 or so MPs from Scotland constituents, lets say at £200k in expenses only, go independent, there is a £12m saving to the tax payer, that would put a few ambulances on the road.
So yir man is not excessive or on a gravy train at all.
” Anything has got to be better than the lazy conveyor belt Dudu Duhan duffers and Lawwell’s £2M punts, most of whom have proven to be dross. ”
yeah much better to double up the fee and get the Starfelts
Not entirely swayed by the asset management pitch?
(Need to go and engage grey matter)
Instinctively though (IMHO) we have two players who (right now) could command 8-figure transfer fees in either of next two windows.
McGregor, Kyogo.
I also see value growth opportunities in Giakoumakis and Juranovic.
Possibly Abada too given his age although we paid full price for him.
We don’t want a full team of highly coveted players who could treble their wages.
Balance required.
A couple of targeted, focused transfer windows in 2022 should largely fix this?
Celtic40me – I took figures from SwissRamble but other reports suggest around £84m for 2019.
Adjusting for the pandemic, I’d imagine our figures would look similar for 2020 (we qualified for EL last 32 both seasons) – possibly a bit higher with 9 in a row and quadruple treble merchandising.
I’d say it would have dropped down to around £70-75m for 2021 (limited EL money as we won only one game and didn’t make knock out stages). I’d suggest probably around the lower end as I expect fewer people would have gone week in week out last season and merchandising would have been down.
What the figures do indicate is that (1) the fans/supporters/customers deliver a lot through season ticket sales and “commercial revenue” and (2) Europe makes a big difference to our revenues. An EL last 32 run brings in c£10m; CL qualification and rock bottom brings in £20m, and CL qualification finishing 3rd and getting EL last 32 brings in £25m.
We’re basically a £75m business that just about breaks even without Europe.
Rodger’s “success” in increasing revenue was both getting bums on seats after the Ronny years and qualification for CL twice and EL last 32 when we didn’t make the CL. In short, making us good grew the income (who’d have thunk it).
From last THREAD…
JHB on 21ST SEPTEMBER 2021 8:48 AM
As the rest of the UK gears-up to get back to some GP normality – indeed NHS England has ordered GPs to start to increase face to face consultations rapidly. We in Scotland under the Scottish NHS have much to be fearful about.
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Scots have been warned to “think twice” before seeking help from GPs and were told they may never regain the right to face-to-face appointments with family doctors.
Medics’ leaders yesterday claimed that the profession was united in opposition to plans to restart default face-to-face GP consultations in Scotland – and instead suggested receptionists would be handed more influence in deciding which patients were seen face-to-face.
……………….
More utter Bollocks from you to try and score political points.
Do you care to explain WHY it is that I have had TWO Recent Face to Face Consolations with my GP in Her surgery, that were arranged by HER…NOT some Clerical worker ( as you claimed) ?
I also have REGULAR Face to Face consolations with various Nurses in relation to various issues with my health…in the very SAME Health Centre where my GP is sited…at the NURSES Requests…again…NOT from any clerical worker ?
I have also had FIVE very recent Face to Face appointments in THREE separate Glasgow hospitals with Doctors and Nurses, that were arranged by my GP.
The NHS in Scotland is doing its very best to look after ME….and WHY are you always so concerned about ALL things Scottish…when you live in England ?
Dont bother to answer that last question as it was rhetorical.
Your just another Tory Unionist CHUMP of the highest order.
SPIDEY101 on 21ST SEPTEMBER 2021 12:32 PM
“Celtic40me – I took figures from SwissRamble but other reports suggest around £84m for 2019.”
Swiss Ramble has 2019 as 83m. I took the figures from our Annual accounts – £83.4
“Adjusting for the pandemic, I’d imagine our figures would look similar for 2020 (we qualified for EL last 32 both seasons) – possibly a bit higher with 9 in a row and quadruple treble merchandising.
I’d say it would have dropped down to around £70-75m for 2021”
According to Uefa the difference in prize money between our performance in 2018/2019 and 2020/2021 is £2m. Ticket sales on top dont take it to more than 4m
Our merchandising figures were 7m better last year than in 2018/2019. Adjusted for Covid would mean an even higher difference.
The fact that we made a loss means that we can utilize the government support in Covid grants and the Furlough scheme, legally without fear of retribution. There is a shit storm coming the way of all the businesses that used the HMRC schemes illegally. HMRC will be coming after lots of people from small one-man setups to huge multimillion pound corporations!
SPIDEY101 on 21ST SEPTEMBER 2021 1:07 PM
Read the article – player trading is an essential part of Celtic’s business model and of any club our size that wants to remain solvent.
“this squad can win the league and get us into CL”.
Not as it stands it won’t.
HARUMPH
Paul67.As a community, Pass to Paradise subscribers, staff and executives, we navigated the club through a year of genuine systemic threat in good shape.
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Are you Bankier in disguise ? Seriously, staff and executives? I don’t think so.
The support navigated the club through a year of genuine systematic threat. The support donated the season ticket money, the support bought the merchandise.
The support did not recruit Ajeti and Barkas, the support did not slaughter the players after Ferencvaros, the support did not head to Dubai, the support did not have any involvement in the Howe fiasco. Or recruit a 72 day CEO.
Paul67,
I can only assume we are saving a fortune by having such a barren infrastructure to support Ange – coaches, scientists, head of football, DoF, etc etc….
We all seem very excited to be beating the Huns to the fiscal prudence cup but our lack of investment in the broader football department remains clear for us all to see. It’s being played out, not on the spreadsheet but on the pitch.
HH
What did the execs ever do for us?
would the world end if we put ccv up front for the last 20 mins of livi?
would the world end if someone told MJ to beat one person and then pass the ball?
Bankier trolling us now,the sooner he gets emptied the better
Interesting seeing the merchandise figures which Paul 67 highlighted, especially since the GB and Celtic trust called for a boycott.
HH.
The report tells us what we already knew:
1. The fans dug deep to support the Club and the cause by purchasing season tickets for matches they’d never attend and good looking Adidas kit.
2. Their efforts and example contrast shamefully with those in the track/sharp suits.
HH jg
“The club paid £630k to settle contract terminations, Neil Lennon’s severance will feature heavily here.”
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Severance? Is that like what you get when the company terminates YOUR contract? We were told by our honest board that Neil Lennon resigned!
Big Jimmy @ 1.08…
Forget it big man, you’ll get no response from him.
I would bet, that even when an exec employee resigns, there will be clauses that something has to be paid.
Why else did it take so long ?
Celtic 40me – thanks. Not sure where your £7m increase merchandise figure came from – the accounts show £18.1m in 2019 and £22.6m in 2021 (a difference of £4.5m).
It’s a great unknown, but I think there’s probably a relationship between increased merchandise revenue and decreased stadium operations revenue. When folk aren’t paying to travel to games, food, etc on the stadium, they’re probably more likely to buy the second (or first) strip, that 9 on a row DVD/t-shirt, etc.
The commercial figures seem to be where you find the UEFA money – £36.5m in 2017, £40.3m in 2018; £22.1m in 2019; £19.3m in 2020 and £17.4m in 2021. The 2019 accounts attribute the drop from £40.3m to £22.1m almost exclusively to playing in EL instead of CL. Basically we double commercial income qualifying for CL instead of EL!