Celtic interims report turnover up

Celtic published a decent set of interim results this afternoon for the 6 months to 31 December 2015 but chairman, Ian Bankier’s address gets down to business with, “One the park, it has been a frustrating season”.

The sale of Virgil van Dijk contributed to a £12.6m income for player trading, balanced by £6.1m spent on the acquisition of Jozo Simunovic, Scott Allan, Saidy Janko Ryan Christie and Nadir Ciftci. This brought pre-tax profit to £11.7m, with cash in the bank at £7.7m (up from £5.3m a year earlier).

Turnover was up by an inch to £31.4m as the club traded at an operating profit for the period of £1.564m (before player trading). The second half of the year is devoid of European football income, not that the Europa League is that much of a game changer.

I know financial stability isn’t an end in itself, but it’s important nonetheless.