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Newco finances writ large, an echo from a decade ago

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By on CQN BLOG & Comments

Celtic’s accounts were later than usual last year, doubtlessly due to world events, but I expect them to be out this month.  The year to 30 June 2021 will make grim reading, although the notes will record monies received and pledged for the subsequent sales of Kristofer Ajer, Odsonne Edouard and Ryan Christie.  Celtic will recover from a remarkably difficult period solvent and in competitive shape.

As you don’t need me to remind you, this season’s title brings automatic entry to the Champions League group stage, with riches that can significantly influence domestic competitiveness.  Last season’s title was about history, this season’s is about the future.

Solvent and competitive shape is a condition Newco also aspire to.  Their last published accounts, to 30 June 2020, noted an eye-watering loss £17m.  We will hear what their title win cost at some point this autumn, it is unlikely to be an improvement.

When they lost to Malmo, discrete comments were made that they needed to sell players, a feat that proved beyond them in the transfer window.  Their recent pubic share issue was undersubscribed, although it will go some way towards repaying borrowings from former chairman, Dave King, due next month.

With season ticket money expired, they were forced to issue shares on 10 separate occasions between November last year and June.  The club’s appetite to burn cash has not abated since.  Uefa intend to tweak Financial Fair Play regulations, but they will remain and may become more onerous.

Clubs cannot lose money indefinitely, they eventually need to live within their means or face an insolvency event.

It does not matter how bare the bank account is, I suspect Newco will find the money to keep the lights on between now and their visit to Celtic Park on 2 January.  They currently have a three-point advantage and will hope they can build a firm advantage in the title chase by then.  If they do, they will find the money for another 10 share issues if necessary, in order to win the Champions League bounty.

If they leave Celtic Park with their league chances looking grim, how easy will it be to fund an enterprise that will forever lose money?  We are approaching the 10th anniversary of when Rangers went into administration (14 February 2012).  The weeks and months running up to that date were characterised by a circling of the wagons and firm denials of the problems ahead.

We covered Rangers finances on these pages at the time.  We could not be sure how events would play out, but the facts were writ large, as they are now with Newco. It’s like an Ibrox echo.

What’s more important, a title for history or a title for the future?  Right now it feels like history, but by the spring that will change.

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  5. Wishaw tim on

    Been on many holidays over the years, very lucky! Never ever met a Irish, Welsh , English! sorry nat n groupies !!that I haven’t liked, Some scotts howevva !! and not just hunz !! keep texting lads

  7. Art of War on

    I heard the term ‘souptaker” today, it made me lookup the term, it is as follows from Wikipedia.

     

     

    One example of souperism was the Reverend Edward Nangle who established the Achill Mission Colony in the 1830s. In the Famine years, he took the decision to provide food for the children in the Colony’s scriptural schools which led to a rise in demand for places in those schools. This, in turn, led to charges that Edward Nangle was a ‘buyer of souls’.[8] However, souperism was rarely that simple, and not all non-Catholics made being subject to proselytisation a condition of food aid. Several Anglicans, including the Anglican Archbishop of Dublin, Richard Whately, decried the practice; many Anglicans set up soup kitchens that did no proselytising; and the Quakers, whose soup kitchens were concerned solely with charitable work, were never associated with the practice (which causes them to be held in high regard in Ireland even today, with many Irish remembering the Quakers with the remark “They fed us in the famine.”).[clarification needed][1][9][10]

     

     

    Souperist practices, reported at the time, included serving meat soups on Fridays – which Catholics were forbidden by their faith from consuming.[11]

     

     

    Soupers were frequently ostracised by their own community, and were strongly denounced from the pulpit by the Catholic priesthood. On occasion, soupers had to be protected by British soldiers from other Catholics.[11]

     

     

    It’s obviously a term not to be used lightly.

     

     

    To hear this today in relation to an ex-Celt caused me consternation. Real trials of life and the Faith being brought down to a football level.

     

     

    I hope this term is removed from the lexicon of football chat.

  11. Greenpinata on

    ART OF WAR on 4TH SEPTEMBER 2021 12:08 AM.

     

     

    Good to see you posting. And you are so right.

     

     

    HH.

  13. hairlikespaghetti on

    Hot Smoked, thanks for the BBC Complaints link. I logged this just now, will update you when I get a reply. Apologies in advance to any grammar police or those criticising my prose…

     

     

    Deliberate misreporting of a police incident in Glasgow. For several days, anonymous news articles on the BBC Scotland news pages have reported on the arrests of football fans charged with singing racist songs on Sunday. For some reason, the articles and headlines wrongly report ‘sectarian’ singing, when the arrests are for racism, not sectarianism. This may seem to be an exercise in semantics, however language, it’s use and it’s impact are important.

     

    The articles quote the police as making arrests for racism, so whose decision was it to misrepresent this as sectarianism? Whether we like it or not, there is an unconscious bias in the west of Scotland to wrongly pigeonhole sectarianism as a largely football-related phenomenon and as such, many readers may unconsciously downsize this as of lesser importance. It is not. On Sunday, a crowd marched unfettered through Glasgow singing RACIST anti-Irish songs. If they had sung about Muslims or Hindus, English or Israelis, would the BBC still have unilaterally decided to mis-report those crimes as ‘sectarian’, rather than racist? So why wrongly report anti-Irish racism?

     

    I look forward to you reply and expect a full correction to be published on the BBC Scotland news pages

     

    Thanks

  15. Sionnaigh on

    HAIRLIKESPAGHETTI, the BBC will allude to the fact racism was mentioned in the report but sectarianism was at the hand/heart of the matter (more Irish Catholics died at the hands of the English Anglicans than Scot/Irish Presbyterians did during An Gorta Mor). If they admit to anything different the BBC wouldn’t have a lens cap to put on or take off whenever they want.

  16. hairlikespaghetti on

    The articles correctly report that the arrests were made for racist offences. My question to the BBC is who decided to change the reporting of the charges from racist to sectarian.

     

    Will share the reply when I get it

  19. 31003 on

    SIONNAIGH

     

     

    🎶 and that jukebox over in the corner

     

    blastin out my favourite song

     

    the nights are gettin longer it won’t be long

     

    won’t be long til summer comes

     

    now that the boys are here again🎶

  20. Sionnaigh on

    Prepare yourself for a convoluted well exercised excuse. The BBC’s bread is buttered both sides by lawyers of equal UK Unionist measure.

  22. 31003 on

    When the original huns were going down the tubes our favourite on the jukebox was “That’s Life” by Ol Blue Eyes

  25. Sionnaigh on

    Replying to AnthonyRJoseph 30AUG21

     

    The same “Rangers” Football Club that has Follow Follow (Heart and Hand), a renowned cesspit of anti Irish racism and anti Catholic sectarianism, as an Official Media Partner? Call It Out or else @dailyrecord

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