Celtic’s financial performance for the six months to 31 December 2025 was inevitably down on the corresponding period a year earlier. The failure to overcome a very poor Kairat Almaty in Champions League qualification casts a shadow over the statement, with income down 29% to £59.4m.
Operational costs (what it costs the club to operate before transfer activity and exceptional items are considered) dipped slightly to £55.2m. The £4.2m surplus between income and operating expenses will marginally offset a larger deficit in the second half of the financial year.
Our old pal amortisation crept up by £800k to £7.1m, largely a consequence of prior years’ investment in the squad. Despite the downward trend, the bank balance was actually a tad higher than the previous year, at £67.4m; I assume reflecting transfer fee receipts. On that metric, monies due after more than one year from ‘trade and other receivables’ rose 50% to £29.9m. The corresponding ‘trade and other payables’ figure is £11.1m.
Without Champions League income Celtic cannot operate at current expenditure levels without a surplus income-generating transfer policy. This in itself is not beyond the club (it has consistently been achieved), so there is no immediate danger, however, it requires the front end of the club’s transfer policy to be acting consistent with earlier periods.
Transfer activity in summer 2024 (spend hugely without adding proportionate value) and summer 2025 (spent little and even then appear to have overpaid) is a road to ruin. The disfunction of this key metric across those periods continue to haunt the club. How the situation came about, and resolving the problem should be a key question for our board.
The current league title has three genuine contenders. I have been a strong advocate for the ways of Tony Bloom before and after his investment in Hearts. There are signs that Bloom’s star is on the wane (a discussion for another day). You and I first discussed Michael Lewis’ book Moneyball 17 years ago. Unlike the (very good) film, the message of the book is that if you want to outperform, you need to find metrics the others do not follow. It is not the often-characterised ‘buy low, sell high’, or simply ‘data-first’.
Bloom was a decade or so ahead of the pack. They have caught up. Celtic were edging towards that level of efficiency under Ange Postecoglou, but we effectively started from scratch last month and have an entire infrastructure to rebuild.
Newco are now owned by data-first investors who have some earlier experience in football. Like Bloom, they have discovered that following relatively-new but no longer distinct data models is not the game-changer it was a few years ago.
Building an effective player recruitment model is the golden prize in football. It’s not easy, but while you and I can worry about what happens on the field between now and May, getting this right must be the main focus of our board.
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MOM
The phoenix
Saint Stivs on 14th February 2026 7:51 pm
he 2026 Sunday Times Tax List has revealed that JK Rowling contributed £47.5 million to the UK exchequer last year, securing her position as the third-highest taxpayer in Scotland and 36th across the UK, she needs told that paying tax is for mugs, why hasn’t she invested it in a “harry potter theme park “, we already have enough ambulances, and the hospitals waste a lot of their monies.
*I’ve just finished reading Val McDermid’s latest book called Winter: The Story of a Season, now I’m a great fan of her books as I am of Ann Cleeves but only got intae them through Mrs TT who had read them.
Anyway this one is only about 160 pages and is NOT a crime story but non-fiction and takes us from the frosty streets of Edinburgh to the wind blown Scottish coast, from Bonfire Night and Christmas to Burns Night and Up Helly Aa, recalling memories from her own childhood, skating over frozen lakes and carving a “neep” for Halloween to being taken to see her first real Christmas tree in the Kirkcaldy town square.
She does though lean heavily on her dad and grandad’s socialist miner’s background of helping each other, now I have the same kind of dna as one of my great grandfathers was also a miner and a search of ancestry.com reveals West Lothian and Lanarkshire, Blantyre in particular, I wonder if the Blantyre Mining Disaster prompted the family to head out across the country to where I hail hail from, the Vale of Leven aka “Little Moscow”, where the discovery of minerals in the waters of Loch Lomond created the dyeing and printing of cloth industry which attracted all and sundry due to the Highland Clearances as well as the land beyond the sea as a result of the Potato Genocide.
Now we are all long ago and far away and far more affluent from those times, but her novella reminded me of who we all really are and why our great club was founded, hopefully we will NEVER EVER forget that.
Happy St. Valentine & Administration Anniversary Day! Ave Ave
Petition:
One Celtic. Back our Board, Manager, Players and Charity.
https://c.org/kC24nkswRn
Szaboszli best player in that league
TT
If you’ve been brought up in working class Glasgow in 60s – 70s , I would hope you would remember the hardships that a lot of us went through.
My wife and I sold our business a few years ago when we were well into our 60s , we paid taxes and premium rates throughout our life and really grafted hard to give ourselves and family a decent livelihood
My wife visited her cousin a few years ago in Bournemouth, both her and her husband hadn’t worked since they were 36, they are now 66.
They have been provided with a car for the last 20 years and get numerous other benefits due to the fact that “ they have difficulty getting around… both of them smoke roll up cigarettes and have emphysema.
Yet in today’s society we are seen as the bad guys…pisses me off !!!
Tontine Tim on 14th February 2026 8:59 pm
£47.5 million straight onto the poker tables in ukrain
What isn’t a line item in the accounts is that the club had an elite-level football manager – and disenfranchised him. They courted him back by promising to back him in a big way; a way they hadn’t in a prior stint.
Despite his Euro achievements with us (as well as his new employment success) they doubted HIS wisdom – but backed their own genius insights – and brought in a Wilf in sheep’s clothing.
An unmitigated disaster of an executive appointment.
Any money fuggups cited in the books are not the ex-manager’s fault (one of his 11m assets now has a ticket price of 25m; despite not having attained his full potential yet).
As an aside, did you know Old McDonald had a word farm; AI, AI, OH !
CHAIRBHOY @ 1:02PM – Spot on! CQN is no place for a paywall. Behind a paywall exists nothing more than an echo chamber, absent of progressive thoughts and the exchange of different opinions, a place where participants will learn less and the community will fail to inspire or create.
THE BLOGGER @ 1:42PM – “cash is king?” – good breakdown of cash flow, and the activities underpinning the reported results, but… we are a business with c.£70M in cash reserves, no debt, and capable of reliably forecasting highly predictable profitable operations. We should not be concerned with short-term survival, but focused on the long-term health and aspirations of the club – it’s the P&L for me. Conventional financial analysis would support a non-partizan independent view that our business model is broken; we are underleveraged and in self-inflicted decline. Not being able to access bigger markets (CL instead of EL) is a consequence of under-investment and poor football operations strategy.
BOURNESOUPRECIPE @ 2:07PM – Good summary. You forgot to add that in desperation to make our squad a little closer to being “fit for purpose”, we had to make two significant free agent signings; Kelechi back in Septemeber, and then AOC in February.
AN TEARMAN @ 2:16PM – Yes. Askou would be excellent. I hope that we already considered him but left him where he was so that we could heal our self-inflicted wounds before tapping him up for next season. As for MON, it would be a blessing to have him in any capacity, and it would be interesting to know his appetite for the DOF role.
TURKEYBHOY @ 2:23PM – Nailed it. The visible decline started in January of 2024 but manifested itself much as you describe. The actual decline is the product of board decisions, and indecisions, stretching as far back as 2012, as we enjoyed a false sense of superiority, whilst Sevco wriggled around in our shadow.
MAESTRO @ 3:32PM – Indeed. Per previous comments, the footballing decline was visible post Bayern last year, but the evidence of under-investment is long-standing, as demonstrated in hard cold financial terms, as well as just to the eye – O’Reilly versus Engels. “We pay more in tax than we do for players” 🤣🤣🤣
Auldheid on 14th February 2026 10:42 pm
Maolmuire O Muirgheasa on 14th February 2026 12:00 pm
What some call “considered analysis” is, in truth, a feint, a way of drawing the conversation toward a predetermined conclusion.
If people cannot see this, and instead direct their ire at those who point it out, it merely confirms that their opinions were never worth entertaining to begin with.
=================
Is in truth?
Really?
Do you not mean “in my opinion”.
Stating that considered analysis is “in truth” etc is to point away from the considered analysis or were you not aware that you are doing what you accuse others of?
The boilerplate response of every exposed manipulator.
eratic on 14th February 2026 9:27 pm
TT
lf you’ve been brought up in working class Glasgow in 60s – 70s , I would hope you would remember the hardships that a lot of us went through.
—–
Far too many university educated supporters on this blog to relate to the traditional working class Celtic supporter
HH
GREENPINATA @ 10:54 – probably very unfair. Born in the late 60’s I was the first in my family to go to university, and I’d like to think that the benefit of that education has helped me better understand my own family’s working class background.
So now you can’t be a real Celtic fan if you went to Uni?
Or came from a working class family and worked to put yourself thru Uni ??
They’ll be excluding thon clever heidmaisters of Marist schools next.
What utter bollox.
Paul 67
I did a bit of considered analysis about 6 weeks ago as a result of FSR being called bullshit and a red herring on a podcast.
I used AI to try and unravel the bundled info in the Celtic accounts and the end result was this piece that sounds remarkably like where Celtic now stand as a result of loss of CL money and less successful player trading at a profit as mentioned in the interims.
The fall in CL income is an obvious reason for the downturn but the role of player trading is almost as telling as profitable trading adds to Celtic’s football earnings under FSR Squad Cost Ratio (SCR) and helps sustain wage levels.
This information does not mean Celtic (or Rangers) are in breach of SCR but when planning ahead Celtic have to be aware of any potential breach in order to take corrective action.
It might help to think of SCR as the brakes that were missing in the Thelma and Louise limo but not Celtic’s. Thus today we celebrate the 13th anniversary of the Rangers limo going over the cliff whilst Celtic drive with more care.
Too much care is another discussion but for anyone interested in the REAL life factors that govern Celtic’s sustainable spend policy they can read the full narrative at
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r2kdyDetsnPlCzJtHYePQnmwUde0b8ZE/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=107947982974245186134&rtpof=true&sd=true
Those who prefer to make up their own blame factors are of course free to do so and live out their own version of limo reality, just mind where the accelerator and brakes are and the tank needs to be hold enough gas to get to the next season.
As for me? The nature of rain is the same, it causes thorns when it falls on the arid land and flowers in the garden.
Quadraphenian
Those who gave us Celtic had more common sense than anything attained at Uni imo.
No qualifications needed to follow their team,the need to meet,catch up,get news from home(ireland),job starts as well as Celtic:-))
Result the morra buddy for the Celts God willin:-)
HH
DO WE WANT
HEARTS TO WIN
THE HUNS TO WIN
A FOOKING DRAW???
assuming we win (AND WE ARE ASSUMING WE WIN)
As far as I can see
Hearts win
– we go 2 points above the hun with a game in hand
– we are 6 points behind hearts with a game in hand
Huns win
– we are 1 point behind the huns with a game in hand
– we are 4 points behind hearts with a game in hand
A fecking draw
– we are 1 point in front of the huns with a game in hand
– we are 4 points behind hearts with a game in hand
Is that about right????????????????????
AT and Kevj
If you both have the testicular fortitude
I will film this from start to finish, and edit it up into a nice video
Would be great viewing!!! (from both sides)
————-
Make this happen
Celtic Song
https://youtu.be/UIcLo7WHoZo?si=X5dYGBC_dr-aKnvb
Ave Ave
Tenacious D – Tribute (live at no one cares about your Petition, we all hate the board 12″)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suXpucoTWNY&list=RDMM&start_radio=1
The greatest non fascist petition in the world…..
(such a hard spelling for this time of an evening is – The greatest non fascist petition in the world)
am still not sure if I doth spelled it right…
Maolmuire O Muirgheasa on 14th February 2026 10:53 pm
The boilerplate response of every exposed manipulator.
=============
Is that your term for riveting reading?
Very good
It’s his response for being a cnut
More of an apology than a response tbf
I’ve posted on here since day 1….2004 I think…
It was like your local boozer then…it was like you knew everyone…you made your point/statement/thought and it was debated one way or another…it didn’t really matter…it was all about having your say…right or wrong…it was never a big deal…
As the years went past it was more like walking into a pub you had frequented once or twice…you looked around and found a table of Tim’s….you could make your point..debate it and not have to worry about arseholes lingering about because they weren’t in the company you were comfortable in….
Now however…. It’s like walking into a pub…set in the middle of nowhere….where you’re sometimes challenged to “meet up” because you’ve said something someone doesn’t like…you’re forever looking over your shoulder and waiting for the eejit who wants to take offence to whatever you’re saying or you’re verbally abused by someone who has no idea what you’re about…or have to listen to absolute codswallop just because they insist on rocking the boat….this place is now full of drunks, know it alls and board plants….basically the very people you’d avoid in any pub…it’s such a shame…
I expect Sevco to win against Hearts .
I really have no confidence in predicting the result in our match at Killie.
Our form has not been good ,but we are are led by a wise and lucky general.
TT
Is Engels fit ?
TT
the rangers anniversary dinner.
…I should have added…the reason I still post my opinions on here is there are still more decent people on here than there are disrupters…..
31003 on 15th February 2026 1:25 am
…I should have added…the reason I still post my opinions on here is there are still more decent people on here than there are disrupters…..
*aye me tae and I’ve been on here since 2007, we had been gubbed 0-3 with nine, aye nine players, booked at the bigot dome while they had the token 2 in the final minutes, I had then logged off not wanting to read anymore, wandered onto news now a couple of days later and found this site, on reading it I was amazed to find out that we hudnae been gubbed but beat up by a former minister, and the 1872 players that were injured which precipitated our bookings were leaping about like 2 years olds when they scored and the final whistle went, it was also then that I found out this site was full of supporters with at least the proverbial half a brain and some interesting chat went on, oh Paul had decided that anyone could post regardless of colour creed or nationality as long as they obeyed his rules, nae swearing as weans read it and nae personal abuse, he didnae want this to be a Tim version of follow follow, we even had a Hibee for a while, a bluenose with the moniker edward ursus aka teddy bear and a Polish lad who made many friends on here with some of them visiting over there, as I said it was great site and still has the potential to be one, I’ll leave that to others to decide how we can get back to that.
AULDHEID @ 11:23PM – I was originally going to pick up your thread from the last article, as it deserves to live in this current one. I think that you are shortchanging your audience.
Your comments are always well informed and even when brief, convey the key facts for easy consumption. Granted UEFA FSR is a potentially more complex subject, so I do appreciate you providing those with an interest your googledoc to enjoy. You and I would likely arrive at the same numbers, so I’m not seeking to correct or challenge your analysis, and I’m largely in agreement with your conclusions. However, I’m specifically uncomfortable with this.
“FSR is not a public relations shield — it is a mathematical constraint.
Ignoring it doesn’t increase ambition; it increases the risk of repeating past mistakes.”
I’m not understanding the need to position FSR SCR as a hurdle for Celtic’s ambition as opposed to a guide for our strategy. I’m left feeling that you object to the “Not Another Penny” campaign because it conflicts with your views, and consequently you have a natural bias which your comments reflect. I’m not suggesting they are without merit, just simply that I don’t accept the premise, which I would characterize as justifying the club’s ultra-conservative approach, without proper foundation.
Fans supporting the various boycotts are doing so because they want the club to match their own ambitions, and they believe this is the most effective way to break the intransigence of the current board, forcing them to properly engage. The “Not Another Penny” campaign will affect finances, but much like the chants from the stand and the boycotts, it is more a display of dissatisfaction. It should be considered a reminder, that the fans are the club. I cannot accept that their actions or choices make them bad fans, they are just exercising their freedom to protest at the way they perceive the club they ultimately finance, is being so poorly operated.
Per your googledoc, the club went into this season with a projected spend of approximately £50M on the playing squad as compared to the maximum allowed under FSR SCR of £111.3M based on 70% of the qualifying revenue. Incredibly conservative, and inconsistent with even the board’s stated objective “to be a world-class football club through our strategy and business model for growth and football success …/… to succeed in Scotland and to compete in the Champions League”.
I cannot reasonably bridge the gap between the £50M and £111M figures, and at the same time take seriously a board unable to accept full responsibility for the catastrophic strategic failures which have manifested over the last 12-months. I’m not solely addressing the footballing failure, as although they are also responsible for that too, it is only the product of the strategic failure. Fundamentally, executive management is responsible for running the club and effecting strategy as defined by the board. That clearly includes the management team they hire, the recruitment structure they put in place, and all aspects of how the club budgets for and executes on football operations.
It is a fallacy that we have any material risk of breaching the FSR SCR. The club’s recent historical revenues have been £119.9M (2023), £124.6M (2024), £143.6M (2025), and I would predict c.£110M (2026). You offer several scenarios, the worst of which pegs our revenue at £103M given a season with no UEFA football and no player trading revenue. I think it could be lower, but even at this level the allowable spend on the football squad (and related), is £72M – this would still be 44% higher than where we started the current season.
It seems unnecessary to even make this point, and I would not advocate pushing limits unnecessarily, but for perspective: in your worst revenue scenario of £103M, it would take an SCR ratio of 90% to even trigger a breach! In other words, a football budget expense of more than £90M! As for a club with no history of breach, that is the threshold at which penalties are triggered for a “significant breach”.
UEFA apparently recognize that the intrinsic potential of progress is sometimes held back by caution. We are the poster child for a club which should be more ambitious, and they have ironically created the forum in which we could succeed, as opposed to the one where our domestic domination condemns us to stagnate. UEFA operate a true meritocracy and it is there waiting for us if we want to fully participate.
You propose reframing the fans’ mistrust of the board and prefer to recognize the board’s approach as consistent with long-term stewardship. I believe in this principle, and in balance with ambition it feels right. However, I think that it conflicts with your subsequent point that some “supporters only live for the day”. I feel like you have this backwards. Sustaining the current model is the very essence of short-term thinking and not believing in or planning for something bigger tomorrow. Those who ask if we are not happy with 13 of 14 domestic titles, do not see what is possible, and it appears that their number includes the board. This demonstrable lack of ambition is the very reason for the fan dissent, and the extraordinary caution is actively leading to missed opportunities, shrinking revenues and the inevitable subsequent downsizing.
I’ve said on here before that a company with overweight cash reserves is signaling that they are either, A) lazy, B) out of ideas or C) in decline.
A- We are not working hard enough on the right things; fan engagement, recruitment models, and revenue diversification.
B- No innovation to grow the brand, or lack of capability to execute: the failure to deliver on the hotel, museum, and retail complex.
C- In revenue terms last year represented our high-water mark: the conservative approach to business reflects a lack of ambition which is felt by the supporters, but it equally appears to reflect a lack of interest amongst the investors.
Until the board does something to demonstrate cohesive strategic vision, then the cash reserve is an idle “rainy day” fund, and nothing more. Suggesting that it is a buffer against financial hard times is a failure to understand our inherent potential, ability to trade our way through an adverse operating climate, and our capacity to generate revenues in a pan-European football economy that has never been more dynamic or more wealthy.
@AULDHEID – in case I was not clear, I enjoy your contributions on here and beyond, and you should know that it is a privilege to disagree with you ;-)
Football stuff;
Killy 1 – 3 Celtic
Sevco 2 – 2 Jambos
Too much ridiculous officiating going on now to try and predict results.
The only thing I can predict is that there will be more of it today.
Just hope we can find a way to win again and overcome whatever they try to do.
An Tearmann on 14th February 2026 11:46 pm
Quadraphenian
Those who gave us Celtic had more common sense than anything attained at Uni imo….
———-
AN T – the community/spiritual mission of a quasi-academic was key to the club formation. We’re an inclusive club; one open to all and largely against prejudice or snobbery – traditional or inverted. Who’d doubt Jim Craig (one of they Yooni types) got Celtic as much as anyone who’d taken a trade or other career path ?
And yes, rooting for a routing in todays match. HH
The one thing we are guaranteed today is more terrible officiating by the mib. Be prepared and ready as they are trying there hardest they no longer hide it and have relatives socials to prove what they are.
https://x.com/i/status/2022797214825771121
TinyTim on 15th February 2026 1:17 am
Is Engels fit ?
———-
Unsure.
But I do know that AOC and Russel Martins’ partners are. 👀
Gedinte @ 10:26 pm, 4:17 am,
Excellent posts and lots of thoughtful insights.
On the paywall – if you put it in the context, that Celtic are going through a crisis, the scale of which, not seen at the Club in thirty years, then the vast majority of posters are more than reasonable in putting forward their views.
There is also the point that the leads have often been highly critical of Celtic staff and hasn’t held back on belittling views that are at odds with the CQN narrative.
So an open forum and an airing of different opinions is much more preferable to the echo chamber.
Great analysis of Auldheid’s presentation of FSR and the consequences for Celtic.
My broad brushstroke view is this…
FSR was a much needed framework, Celtic had for many years, operated within their own financial guidelines, stricter than FSR or FFP before that.
FSR was introduced at 90%, then fell to 80% before the cap went to the ongoing 70% this season.
That tells us that in UEFA’s view, a club working within their framwork spending 70% of footballing revenues ensures financial stability in general terms.
Implemented through our club monitoring process, the regulations set a framework for participation in UEFA men’s club competitions and are built on three pillars:
○ Solvency
○ Stability
○ Cost control
Each is tracked throughout the season to ensure that clubs are financially sustainable and keep their costs under control.
https://www.uefa.com/running-competitions/integrity/financial-sustainability/
To my mind it follows that rather than treat the 70% in similar fashion to the UK’s 70 mph speed limit that you should never breach, and depending on road conditions, be driving well within the limits.
It should be a budget cap that allows us to be as competitive as possible in UEFA’s relative meritocracy.
If Celtic really are striving to be a world class club, with UCL ambitions, then realistically we need to be spending 70% of football income as allowed by the regulations.
Looking forward to the game today – no doubts we will be up against all the vagaries of the Scottish game at Rugby Park – yet, I’m confident we will take the three points, we now have real options from the bench.
Hail Hail
Quadrophenian @ 10:16 pm,
Yes, great post…
Hail Hail
Auldheid
Thank you for posting information that comes from knowledge of the club’s finances and the football economic environment.
I note that those who disagree with you (Gedinte and Chairboy being well-informed and well-mannered exceptions) do so with almost no alternative detailed knowledge, and usually with discourtesy that lapses into complete rudeness. Best ignored.
I think it was Hot Smoked who said yesterday that the least well informed often have the strongest views (the latter presumably intended to compensate for the former – we see this on the daft blogs run by people who probably couldn’t fill in a tax return never mind run a plc.)
I sense a lot of people with a nuanced position somewhere between Auldheid’s and Gedinte’s are reluctant to post due to the vitriol from the ill-informed. But please keep posting. Informed and rational discussion about Celtic is needed and enjoyable.
To those who will no doubt attack this modest call for courtesy, if supporting Celtic and of fellow Celtic fans who haven’t fully signed up to the revolution (whatever it is) makes you so angry, maybe find something in life that doesn’t.