When the new Champions League format was announced some years ago, we wondered where it could move the income dial for Celtic. The answer for the year to 30 June 2025 turned out to be a 15% uplift on the previous term, to a staggering £143.6m. Despite this, year-end cash balance was almost unchanged, at £77.3m (up just £100k).
This reflects the largest investment in player acquisition in our history – £38.6m – as well as the major infrastructure investment at Barrowfield. After-tax profit was an eye-watering £33.9m, a figure which could remain a highpoint for a long time.
Operational expenses – the cost of running the club out-with player trading – was £117m. That is only £6.5m more than the previous year’s turnover, a season which included old-format Champions League revenue. This year, income will be lower than last year’s costs. Don’t misconstrue this, we are in a very comfortable position, but we are running hot. This level of expenditure is unsustainable without Champions League football.
In a change of tone from last week’s statement, chief executive Michael Nicholson wrote, “As a Board, we take responsibility for the failure to achieve [Champions League football] and commit to improving going forward.” This message should been front and centre of the earlier statement. A bit of contrition goes a long way.
All that cash is a burden to a football club which fails to use it. Fans buy tickets with an expectation their money will be spent (I was told that by a former chief exec). One of the board’s primary tasks is to fulfil this expectation, without destabilising finances when income is so dependent on qualifiers played in August.
Looking from the outside in, these things look straightforward. Whether that is the case or not, is immaterial to most fans. The frustration many will feel at reading such spectacularly successful financial results, just weeks after the Kairat defeat, is understandable. The positive is, we get to go again. Learn, switch-up and lean into that cash balance.
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St Stivs
My kid, MissGFTB took me to the Kairat game, like you she was raging about people who have seats but don’t turn up, and for the first time ever she was raging at the Green Brigade… they had their own agenda around the 70th minute that night … with their STB chant
Anyway on our way to Bellgrove station around 10.15pm as she waited on the team going round the park … she turns and says to me we might not have won tonight but I love our night 🍀🍀
She bought the tickets out of her weekend job £39 each … and her words “some of our fans don’t know how lucky they are to go all the time”
True story
TAURANGABHOY 11.00pm
Brilliant summation
Made me laugh mate 🍀🍀🍀🍀
Haha Gerry. Aff oot. Going for a beach walk to calm the soul too. Hail Hail.
Taurangabhoy
Enjoy your stroll 🍀
quadrophenian on 20th September 2025 1:34 pm
Watching the Merseyside derby and, sheez, Everton’s play is a heady mix of high punts and errant passes.
Only saving grace is their wee midfielder Idaye has great energy and fight.
I honestly think Dundee Utd could give them a game. Even with our alleged ‘troubles’ we’d take them.
Liverpool are a different level and matter.
————
I feel really bad pointing this out, but what makes you think we could take Everton.
We have just been put out of the CL by a team ranked 315th in Europe. We could not even score a goal against them.
This was a season defining game we had to win and the opposition could not have been more favourable.
The consequences of this defeat will be self evident.
I know we must move on, but it will take me a long time to forget this one.
HH.
COYBIG
Good Morning Celts – Grand Day To Beat The Jags…
Back to Basics – Glass Half Full @ 3:50 pm,
“Genuine metaphorical oasis in a desert of ignorance, stupidity and spite.”
Well, actually, you have been duped, well worth reading a well informed comment on TGM’s piece on SC…
:Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
September 20, 2025 9:14 pm
@The Gombeen Man (post at 9:52 am)
‘As pointed out in the previous Accounts – Operational Expenses were over 80% of Turnover during a bumper (CL) year. We were reaching capacity in terms of our FSR spend capacity.’
I’m afraid you are miles off it here.
Overview
UEFA’s FSR regulations (which I must admit, I have not had an opportunity to read in great detail yet) provide that a club’s squad cost ratio should not exceed 70% of football earnings (calculated as the difference between relevant income and relevant expenses (both defined terms under UEFA FSR) calculated in respect of a single reporting period).
Squad Cost
The ‘squad cost’ is calculated by taking the sum total of the following:
employee benefit expenses (wages etc) of all Relevant Persons (being all male football players at the club (or out on loan) and the ‘head coach’ (manager));amortisations/impairment costs of all Relevant Persons; andagent and intermediaries costs.
Using our financial results to June 2024 as an example:
group staff costs were £65.5m. If I was to be generous, I could give you £40m of that going towards Relevant Persons;amortisation of intangible assets were £11.5m – but note the caveat below regarding this figure; andagent and intermediaries costs – this one is somewhat up in the air. However, based upon PL’s condescending Chairman statement for the 2025 annual results, we know that we had £42.6m invested in player acquisitions, including agent fees and that the results confirmed separately that we had acquisition of player registrations of £38.6m (i.e. agent fees are roughly 10% of what we spend on acquiring players).With that in mind and using 2024 figure for acquisition of player registrations, we can estimate agent fees of £1.6m
So a rough estimate here lands us at c£53m (though happy for you to haggle a little over the Relevant Person wages, as I don’t think it materially improves your position in any event).
Football Earnings
Football Earnings in this context encompasses:
adjusted operating revenue;net profit/loss on disposal of Relevant Persons’ registration; andother non-operating income (e.g. interest on cash).
Interestingly, certain items are not included in the calculation of Football Earnings:
profit/loss on disposal of tangible assets;
profit/loss on disposal and/or amortisation of intangible assets other than player registrations and other personnel’s release costs; and
Tax income/expense.
Using figures to June 2024 as an example:
we had revenue of c£124.5m; andnet profit/loss on disposal of Relevant Persons’ registration and other non-operating income – I not sure what the approximate figure is here and would have to look into it further, though as noted above, our tax liability is excluded from the calculation.
Given uncertainty over the second limb above, I’m just going to stick with our revenue figure as equivalent to our Football Earnings (which I think is a decent enough approximation), meaning we had a Squad Cost ratio of around 43%.
We are miles within our comfort zone here.
Hail Hail
Also what The Gombeen Man said…
“Meanwhile Brendan will jet-out leaving another proverbial dog’s dinner in his wake.Do you remember the dogs dinner Brendan Rodgers left the last time?”
Brendan Rodgers Mk 1…
Record revenues, record profits, record squad values.
BR&CO had won seven trophies on the bounce – when he left Lenny & Co would go on to win the next five trophies.
The HVPs that were part of Brendan’s team.
Moussa Dembele
Keiran Tierney
Odsonne Edouard
Kristopher Ajer
75 mn brought in.
Remember what Celtic were like before BR&CO- Ronny Delia
Remember what Celtic were like after BR&CO – Lenny, Big Pedro ten in a row.
So
Don’t~Believe~The~Hype
Hail Hail
Really looking forward to a game of football today.
Firhill for Thrills is is…
COYBIG
Hail Hail
beat that chairbhoy
https://www.oldglasgowpubs.co.uk/firhilltavern.html
Greenpinata on 21st September 2025 1:14 am
quadrophenian on 20th September 2025 1:34 pm
Watching the Merseyside derby and, sheez, Everton’s play is a heady mix of high punts and errant passes.
Only saving grace is their wee midfielder Idaye has great energy and fight.
I honestly think Dundee Utd could give them a game. Even with our alleged ‘troubles’ we’d take them.
————
‘I feel really bad pointing this out, but what makes you think we could take Everton.’
GREENPINATA – Everton looked to me like a side without formation or imagination; stuffy, slow and impotent upfront; I’d hate to have to watch that for bits or most of any season. On the basis of watching their first 45 v the Reds, I mentioned tongue-partly-in-cheek that we – even in our stuttering form – would be too good for them. I like to be optimistic about my Celtic; we’re a better footballing side on our day than the turgid Toffees imo.
HH
Mixed day for Celtics Europa opponents yesterday with more games to come today.
Red Star maintained their excellent form aside from 1 game v Pafos winning the derby 2-1 v Partizan.
Sturm Graz had another really good away win at RB Salzburg 2-0.
Midtjyland won 2-0 continuing their strong domestic start
Bologna beat Genoa 2-1 and are well placed in Italy.
Braga drew again 1-1 at Victoria after going ahead and by their standards are faltering a bit.
Utrecht lost at Fortuna Sittard which they would be disappointed with after their good start.
Feyenoord play at Alkmaar today and are in good form
Roma also have the derby at Lazio today.
Our Glasgow rivals opponents not covered above also had a mixed bag of results and early form :
Porto won 3-0 at Rio
Brann won 3-0 v Sandjfiord
Ludogorets drew 0-0 v Levski
Genk host ‘on form’ Union SG today before coming to Glasgow this week.
Unlike last season when we could not have picked an easier group of teams to play this season is relatively tricky. Some form teams when they are ‘in form’ and some team who are really wanting to make a mark in this competition also.
It will be a really good effort for BR and Celtic to get through, a very strong performance to get to last 16 and a massive achievement were we to get top 8 like rangers did last season. Even more so with some fans talking of not wanting to support the team in the home games.
Sadly, unlike last year, our Glasgow rivals has a far easier group of teams with a couple of good very win opportunities IF they get their act together. Hopefully yesterday’s win does not re-engage their ‘moronic protesting element’ and encourage them to buy more Europa League packages. Their pain is always our gain.
Jackiemac @ 7:43 am,
Excellent… looks like an awesome pub…
Used to be a lot of guys from Maryhill in High Wycombe – what characters.
Hail Hail
Would anyone know if the Irvine Celtic club would have the game on today ?
B78 Thanks for this. V informative. Sounds like a number of really tough challenges for us. Hopefully the team manager and club management team will each focus upon winning games rather than PR battles, uniting the club for a very tricky autumn.
I am not worried about how the tribute act will perform. I am astonished at how awful their recruitment has been. If I had been given 20 odd million and told to recruit players for them as an act of sabotage I don’t think I could have done better. All power to the Govan vegan.
Cheered me up seeeing the SPL table this morning, let’s hope it stays that way
kingLUBO
Yes the game will be shown in the Irvine no1 today.
“Red Star have won nine league titles in a row and look on course for a tenth after picking up their seventh straight league win to start this season.”
Thursday will be a serious test for us, a draw would be a decent result.
Welcome to the EL.
Thank you MICKTHEMICK
HH
Good afternoon CQN
Sun is shining.
Celtic play today.
What’s not to like?
It’s Wednesday?
Chairbhoy earlier – cheers.
Duped? 🙂 Maybe, maybe not.
Quality post by TGM and decent response from you.
His content was set out clearly, interpretation and viewpoints informed by data.
Same as you in fact.
Just a different interpretation & viewpoint.
Hence my use of “insightful”
IMHO – much healthier and ultimately more productive to have robust discussion around the data.
… as opposed to imply calling people ‘pricks’ because they dont agree with you
(Goes to my reference to ‘spite’)
2014 the last time I was in Firhill, ole EuroChamps67 had grabbed two tickets for the Main Stand, 5-1 we clinched the league, we walked back down Maryhill Rd, happy as Sandbhoys.
Brendan Rodgers has the perfect opportunity to re-ignite Celtic’s spark, in a testy Cup tie against our oldest Glasgow rivals. Celts for change may be everywhere including the team, where the current three Nygren, CalMac, Hatate look tired after a handful of games, – should be room for McCowan Engels and Bernardo in midfield?. Donovan Murray Scales and Saracchi in the League Cup, also ideal for next season’s No 1 Sinasalo? no pressure on the attack prolific goalscoring left the building a long time ago.
You never forget your first thrill in Firhill, Frank Haffey was in goal, I can still see him in the brightest of yellow jerseys, the memory is a very powerful thing just like the floodlights at Firhill.
RIP EC67
Back to Basics – Glass Half Full @ 12:17 pm,
Quite…
TGM is a top guy really, smart an’ awe…
Just has an agenda…
Up with big Pedro
Down with Brendan Rodgers
Sometimes we disagree:))))
Still, what we are talking about is material facts – so it’s not an opinion piece.
The FSR is not a percentage of the revenues and operation expenses.
And someone as smart in the financials as The GM knows that.
So the 80% is wrong, not an opinion, not a view point, no – whatever way you look at it, it is wrong.
Take Bayern Munich for example
2024, Turnover 765 mn
2024, Expenses 703 mn
There percentage the way TGM presented it would be around 90%.
However, it doesn’t mean they are non-compliant because that 90% means little in an FSR context.
Yoy can roughly work out their true FSR percentage from here…
https://swissramble.substack.com/p/bayern-munich-finances-202324
Sure, his opinion on BR and the dogs dinner is an opinion but the FSR…
No…
Do the math…
Hail Hail
dissembling.
jackiemac
Steady on, believe me when I say I have not looked in to FSR and don’t really know how it works in practise. The 70% of revenue thing is just something I’ve picked up from reading around. As far as I can tell the math is very easy, it’s the definitions of the numerator and denominator that’s difficult and getting your hands on reliable/accurate data (you’d think all clubs would be compelled to disclose it publicly and show their workings!).
I’m trying to talk myself in to doing a deep dive in to Celtic’s financials over the past 5 years to see for myself.
Cheers Chairbhoy.
What GM said at 1:05pm.
I can count a little bit, and I’ve had a wee look round.
That’s as far as my intellectual deployment towards FSR goes.
As for the other guy’s motives?
Happy to take your word for it.
Tin hat time – I think it’s healthy for there to be an up with Pedro movement (as you call it) in Celtic cyberspace.
Although, from what I can see, it has 3 members … so resourcing any steering group shouldn’t be a problem.
https://x.com/Stephen4_2/status/1969451262975381736?t=CWkJpZV4QfQKZNyIGTFAxQ&s=19
Cold water Seamill I got them all I think
Cmon the Hoops
https://x.com/Stephen4_2/status/1969451262975381736?t=CWkJpZV4QfQKZNyIGTFAxQ&s=19
Cold water Seamill I got them all I think
Cmon the Hoops
https://x.com/Stephen4_2/status/1969451262975381736?t=CWkJpZV4QfQKZNyIGTFAxQ&s=19
Cold water Seamill I got them all I think
Cmon the Hoops
Must have issue CQN Mr PB
My posts were doubling but now trebling.
Back to Basics – Glass Half Full @ 1:16 pm,
Well exactly:))))
When you think about it, Club’s can make losses (capped) and still be compliant.
Let’s hope The Blogger FKA GM will take that deep dive and let us know.
Our full accounts can’t be that far away…
Hail Hail
Any bar in Strathaven to watch the game today?
Shortie quick out the blocks today – start off with Ian McCall talking up Thistle then over to Bonner to talk Celtic down.
Plus ca change.
Concerned Citizen
@BGatesIsaPyscho
🚨 “Turns out all the crazy cranks & conspiracy theorists who were concerned about Weather Modification & Chemtrails were right after all”
“Here we are in Capital Hill”.
It’s taken a few years – but every person who knew those lines in the sky weren’t natural, haven’t always been there & that Climate Engineering on a Global Scale was happening have now been proven correct.
You were right, you were always right, you always knew you were right & finally we’re all being vindicated, as the subject is now being discussed throughout Washington.
https://x.com/BGatesIsaPyscho/status/1968989435787125076#mMarjorie Marjorie Taylor Greene for President of USA….then Humanity will be free.
PS, Sack The Board by season ticket renewal, lowering the share price = the PLC project has failed and must be removed and replaced.
12th minute delayed entry is you demonstrating to the board that you are utterly toothless with no balls.
Any supporter who went along with,[by renewing season tickets since Sevco’s promotion in 2016], the PLC’s same club lie £49 old firm ticket scam to cover up the Sevco are Rangers hoax, those supporters cannot, and must not, be trusted.
Phil I would get a taxi to MOCHARA in East Kilbride for live music and the match.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DOx2VLTAhyY/?igsh=MWMzaWVpanV2amo5cQ==
CELTIC: Sinisalo, Donovan, Carter-Vickers, Scales, Tierney, McGregor, Hatate, Nygren, Yang, Iheanacho, Tounekti.
Subs: Schmeichel, Balkwisha, McCowan, Engels, Bernardo, Saracchi, Maeda, Murray, Forrest
“The Blogger Formerly Known As GM on 21st September 2025 2:08 pm
Shortie quick out the blocks today – start off with Ian McCall talking up Thistle then over to Bonner to talk Celtic down.”
Similar to many on CQN, then :-)