You and I have been discussing football finances here since 2004. In our early years Celtic lost several million pounds each year, CQN’s call was ‘we must breakeven over any business cycle’, an incredibly controversial view in those times of indulgent bling.
By 2004 Celtic hadn’t added a player who held down a sustained first team place for three years (since John Hartson in 2001). We also lost a talisman that summer. The pressure was on to spend, from the stands and the dug-out, but Brian Quinn, our chairman, had concerns about running at a permanent loss. In the face of considerable criticism from the bling-brigade he stood firm.
Celtic won three of the next four league titles while reaching new territory in the Champions League as others continued to spent beyond their means and exploit unconventional taxation policies, which ultimately saw them liquidated, but while the end game was predictable, most didn’t predict it. This resulted in strife at our club.
Finance was a focus of CQN in the early years when we produced granular analysis of accounts and budgetary forecasting. As we became less of a basket-case the time spent debating money reduced.
We can all talk about strikers and defending, policing and political influences, good corporate governance and the SFA, but if you scratch below the surface of those with many years of CQN behind them, I suspect you’ll find people who can’t resist a football club’s cost and revenue breakdown spreadsheet….
The document which appeared on the internet yesterday on a former football club [let’s call them ExCo] was a joy. To me, anyway. It provided many small details which add up to one or two enormous conclusions.
ExCo forecast current year spend for 2011-12 on cleaning costs to be £380k, electricity at £455k, insurance at £374k, postage and carriage at £146k, IT at £261k, professional fees at £613k and telephone costs at £149k. Stewarding was £593k, policing, £343k, match day ambulance, £89k. They spent £160k on finance salaries and £176 on press office salaries while ticket operation salaries cost £268k. The list is exhaustive, 10 pages of costs detailed.
Operating costs, before items like our old friend, amortisation, and tax (don’t laugh), were predicted to come in just shy of £37m, but the key message in all of this detail, is that if you want to operate a football club which can accommodate circa 40,000 spectators you need an infrastructure which costs around £20m.
The police, building maintenance, insurances, grass seed and everything else has to be budgeted for before you can look at player wages, not to mention transfer fees. £268k might sound like a lot to pay for ticket office staff but if you need to issue tens of thousands of tickets you need fulfilment staff. All those assets: enormous properties, thousands of fans, blanket media attention, can feel like liabilities to the guy with the responsibility to pay for them.
On reading this the overwhelming memory I had was of former Rangers director, Paul Murray, who a year ago told the world that Newco Rangers would not be viable, and he was hoping a Newco would have SPL football back then. New clubs cannot qualify in European competition until after they have completed three years trading (a minimum of four years without Europe).
With no European revenue for four years, Newco would be unable to pay all those ‘fixed’ costs and put a competitive team on the field. A big club can’t survive trapped in a small league with no European revenue.
This is reality. Scotland has one healthy large club and has a dozen or more potentially healthy small ones, but nothing will ever be the same again.
Thanks to everyone who has bought Willie Wallace autobiography. Orders in from Belfast, Blackpool, Bonnybridge, Burntisland and Blackrock. If you order now you will receive a copy signed by the man himself….
Email me if you have an article for CQN Magazine inside of you waiting to get out; celticquicknews@gmail.com.
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cracking GIF of the GEF from Skip Donahue on CM
http://i.imgur.com/dGdyPNU.gif
The prospect of more bad news for the bad guys makes it easier to pour that next drink.
Celebrate good times, c’mon !
Pogmathonyahun aka Laird of the Smiles
00:06 on 18 May, 2013
Uh Well-a well-a well-a huh
http://i.imgur.com/dGdyPNU.gif
——————
Had to log in to say, that is genuinely laugh out loud brilliance :))) Most things are amusing – but that made me chuckle, especially the groin thrusts :))
Back in from being oot.
Crap game of football, but it had everything.
In the bar were about a hundred royal fans, half a dozen Athletico fans, and me and mi amigo, supporting the non establishment team, must admit, learnt many more Spanish sweary words tonight,quality banter so it was.
Back in the fantasy world, Lotte is spilling again I see, all well and good, but unless the MSM take it on board………………
OG reasure me they will take this seriously, this is a scandal of proportions never seen before, it has everything, even the porn king ffs, and I’m sure Joanna won’t be the only one involved >}
Stringer Bell, 00:21
I know it to be true. It’s a multi-layered story and there is a lot to unravel, but unravel it will (and if this story wasn’t enough, there’s going to be even more shame heaped upon them at a later point as well).
Haven’t they been punished enough????
THE EXILED TIM 00:27
I think they are going to have to
o.g.rafferty
you betcha.!! hehe. to share a similar but no where near as “nuclear” info..i have in the past been given info on a forthcoming event or a celtic signing and maybe informed those close to me or those hunnish to me about said info..in a give us a clue kind a way..knowing full well if this goes breesties up i’l need to move to mars lol..its serious pressure but what relief an satisfaction to behold..in your case o.g. nearly like the bonus ball coming in..enjoy my friend go easy on the cigars..keep a couple for our double..keep the faith h.h
Just listening to a re-run of tonight’s SSB….Jim Delahun ask’s an orc,
“how would you feel if the independant commision that’s been appointed to look into all of this comes out next week and says,everything is hunky dory,lets press on,everything is o.k.?”
gimme strength.
ulysses mcghee, 00:24
You are right to be cautious but sometimes things are as they appear
Well played, O.G.
‘ If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,… ‘
—- ‘ And,.. which is more, you’ll be a man, my son.’
FFM,
How you doing bud,
no nightshift tonight then?
howling may follow?
Who are these people?
Alistair and Walter there when they are fully exposed is too much to ask shirley.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLeUXApLGbk
OG, does CO get his too?
Thanks not due to me but to Ms Fakeover and the internet for allowing this stuff to get out
Is it possible to put the Trololo man on hun media?Me thinks they might need cheering up.
Song for Sevconia,
Once upon a time you dressed so fine
You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn’t you?
People’d call, say, “Beware doll, you’re bound to fall”
You thought they were all kiddin’ you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hangin’ out
Now you don’t talk so loud
Now you don’t seem so proud
About having to be scrounging for your next meal.
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
You’ve gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it
And nobody has ever taught you how to live on the street
And now you find out you’re gonna have to get used to it
You said you’d never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but know you realize
He’s not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And say do you want to make a deal?
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns
When they all come down and did tricks for you
You never understood that it ain’t no good
You shouldn’t let other people get your kicks for you
You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat
Ain’t it hard when you discover that
He really wasn’t where it’s at
After he took from you everything he could steal.
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
Princess on the steeple and all the pretty people
They’re drinkin’, thinkin’ that they got it made
Exchanging all kinds of precious gifts and things
But you’d better lift your diamond ring, you’d better pawn it babe
You used to be so amused
At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used
Go to him now, he calls you, you can’t refuse
When you ain’t got nothing, you got nothing to lose
You’re invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal.
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
OG
What I can’t get my head around is the lack of interest from the msm.
This story has everything, it has corruption, it has banking fraud, it has corporate fraud, it has institutional fraud, it has political fraud, it has judicial fraud, it has police fraud….a cover up and scam from the ourset.
Jeezo, how I wish I were a young fella starting out on life, I would fancy masel as a would be junro.
This could set someone up for life this could.
Go for it son.
HH
zimmerman
Am good, thanks, kindly amigo.
Took a look out the blinds there. No sign of the moon in the clear sky – so no howling tonight for me. Unless it appears on the laptop screen at some random moment :)) Hope you’re well yourself. Are you working tonight, or is this a busman’s trip? :))
OG
All things flow to the sea, eventually.
And no bad thing goes unpunished… generationally.
I hope you know I find it hard to keep faith in your posts, but, also know, I keep faith in your posts.
U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvtrWuLXuzQ
FFM,
dayshift this week,so perfect for some howling,
there must be a full moon somewhere. :)))
Off into the cave now.
Had more than an ample suffincey, if that’s a word.
Take care and god bless Timland.
HH
KTF
THE EXILED TIM, 00:40
I know they have been asking questions already. That will grow.
ulysses mcghee 00:41
No, I didn’t know. But thanks
OG
And not before time.
Thanks, keep it lit
HH
I just heard on SSB that these are the darkest days in scottish football.
Pink Floyd – The Dark Side Of The Moon
Of course, the story was not of your telling.
But, it was yourself who assured us that it was about to break.
You could have ‘flounced’ when you were doubted. You did not.
Hence the Kipling.
OG Rafferty
Well played, amigo. I’m proud of you.
zimmerman
:)) You got me squinting my eyes through the blinds – but can’t see nothing. And this is when it’s dangerous. I could take a peak in two hours, and all of a sudden, there it is, it hits me….and I become violently blood-thirsty (and, of course, self-indulgent). Then next day you have all kinds of high horse condemnation about how the tone of the blog was lowered by moonhowlers. Moonhowlers? Personally, I’d ban ra lot of them :)) Hang on, just got a glimpse of blue light through the blinds the…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB_cBQ4nWa8
Meanwhile on R***ers Media they are discussing:
Dressing room pranks and banter!
and
Disappointed with the lack of baby stuff on the website
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2Iq-ZXYl0s
•-:¦:-•** -:¦:- sparkleghirl :¦:-.•**• -:¦:-•
00:49
They are. And that’s why no one in green and white, in Glasgow or Edinburgh, can stop laughing.
An absolute tragedy, so it is.
Hope all is well with you.
Did you say you were in Chile now? If so, I hope it’s all you hoped it would be.
zimmerman, smashing stuff. See if you like this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPL3O7NmgpI
For Craig, our hero:-)
Oh Davy Man, that’a like you’ve done a Tommy Squeeker under covers like…
Celtic_First, yes, I’m in Chile and it’s flippin’ freezing :)
But yes, all is well, thanks.
•-:¦:-•** -:¦:- sparkleghirl :¦:-.•**• -:¦:-•
Freezin in Chile :)
How’s the cold guiness though? If it’s spicey, I’d recommend drinking it as a rare speciality :))
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qgn1Rc0YJ4
Hector, bo selecta?
HMRC is still around haunting Ibrokes.
Kilbowie Kelt, 00:50
And his exceedingly good cakes