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Ominous for Newco as Celtic cards refuse to collapse

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By on CQN BLOG & Comments

“Money in: £101, money out: £99, happiness.  Money in: £100, money out: £101, distress.”  Of the millions of words left on Celtic Quick News over 19 years, a few regularly come back to mind, including this one from Kojo, circa 2006.

Money determines long-term success in football, and CQN started by explaining our finances, in particular, our position in relation to our then-rivals, Rangers.  Documenting the last 8 years of their journey around the plughole was educational.  People refuse to believe the patently obvious until the final moment.  There is no helping them.

A new era and a Newco is jostling with Celtic for the prizes in Scottish football.  Who generates and spends money wisely will again determine long-term outcomes in our game.

Newco released their accounts for the year to 30 June 2023 yesterday, a year in which they matched Celtic’s operational spend (Newco: £95.2m, Celtic, £95.4m) in an attempt to bring down our dominance, “like a pack of cards”.  You already know that despite achieving Champions League qualification for the first time, those cards proved remarkably durable.

Newco turnover was down £3m to £83.7m, a whopping £36.2m less than Celtic generated during the same period.  That chasm reflects our higher earnings from the Champions League, domestic prize money from winning a treble, higher ticket sales and, importantly, more lucrative commercial deals.

Newco made a loss for the year of £4.1m, Celtic’s profit was £33.3m, that is despite Newco making a profit on the sale of players of £23.6m, and Celtic ‘only’ reporting a £14.4m corresponding figure.  Year-end cash at Newco was £5.3m, compared to £72.3m at Celtic.

Post year-end, Michael Beale and others were sacked, resulting in a £13.1m hit to this year’s figures.  The accounts note, “Our thanks go to Michael Beale and his staff for their efforts during their time at Rangers (sic.)”.  I think we can all echo that.

Barring an exceptional run in the Europa League, Newco’s income will drop significantly this year.  Their playing squad was overhauled in the summer, so wages will vary, quite possibly going down from the £64m of last season, a figure which eclipsed the treble winning champions’ £60.8m bill.

Both clubs are subject to the vagaries of Champions League qualification, but Celtic can afford to carry an operational cost of £95m, without needing to massively adjust if they only reach the Europa League, Newco cannot.  They are trading miles above safe levels, with enormous risks which should worry fans who lived through earlier times, and have a modicum of perspective.

Administrators for Elite Sports Group have a £9.5m action raised against the club.  Newco signed a kit contract with Elite and Hummel, but after an action by Sports Direct, a court ordered the club could not “wear any Official Rangers Technical Products designed by, supplied by, gifted by or manufactured by Elite or Hummel, or bearing the Hummel brand.”

The £9.5m figure is what Elite’s administrators estimate the company lost due, they have asked the court to force Newco to reveal sales of Castore kit, to allow them to prepare a detailed claim.  Newco are confident the contract they signed with Elite is nothing to worry about.  Good luck with that, they have an admirable track record in legal matters.

In September last year Uefa placed Newco on their financial monitoring list.  Uefa requires club who participate in their competitions to meet break-even criteria.  A £4.1m loss will not move the dial much either way, but the storm clouds are gathering.

No Champions League football this season, no player sales to speak of, the spectre of Elite lurking in the background, and still dependent on financial support for day-to-day operations, all add up to an acute scenario.  Uefa sanctions are a risk.

We’ve been here before, you know how this plays out.  This club needs to significantly downsize to give it its best chance of avoiding punitive repercussions.  Let the voices of worried fans be heard loud and clear today.  If they are not, there will be no sympathy when we hear “we were hard done by” claims, when the bell finally tolls.

The direction of travel could not be clearer, memories from 2012 are still fresh, and yet there are still news outlets today writing “profit” headlines accompanying these results, who do they think they are helping?

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  2. Turkeybhoy on

    On our transfer spending for this season.If we had spent say,£10 million on Palma,£6 million on Yang,would anyone be thinking at the moment it was not money well spent?.In today’s market?.If we had forked out a bargain price of £15 million for our 2 CHs,one of which is now Swedish full International,the other who was very impressive before injury,would that not look like good business?Holm,with his talent and reputation in Norway,plus age and great future prospects,,not be seen as a great investment at £5 million?.

     

    Bernardo,clever loan to buy punt,jury undecided.

     

    That”Poor” transfer window,many have gone on about,at the moment looking fine,and money well spent.

     

    Of course the emergence of Scales,who’s superb form is now keeping out our buys,is just a bonus for the team.

     

    4 first team ready CHs ,never been heard of.Saving us spending our”Mullions”so many desperate to see.

  5. Ron Bacardi on

    I am trying to trace my mum’s side of the family. Many of her family died young in the 20’sand 30’s, and I never saw or knew my grandparents. All I have is distant memory of visiting a farm near Derry in the middle 50’s. The family name is Kilkey, and they possibly lived between Claudy and Slaughtmanus.

     

     

    Does any of your grand knowledge base help me out?

  9. Chairbhoy on

    The ancestry thing is fascinating.

     

     

    My eldest son does it, traced my Great, Great. Grandad back to Moville.

     

     

    He moved to Derry, had a family, then during the famine all moved to Glasgow.

     

     

    Hail Hail

  12. Ron Bacardi on

    SAINTSTIV

     

     

    Thanks v much.

     

     

    I have some birth marriage and death certificates but they do not go beyond Glagow for some reason. No reference to Irish records as they would have been in Ireland, not Northern Ireland. I think a search of church records near Derry would be the place to go. Am plann8ng on a trip over there to search local records.

  13. Moderator1888 on

    RON

     

     

    Bruv in law just researched family thru the first world war including burials etc – will ask how/what he used to do that

  14. Saint Stivs on

    Ron,

     

     

    do ancestry.co.uk,

     

     

    start a tree with what you know,

     

     

    lots of Irish Parish records have been put on line and this will lead you to them.

     

     

    we searched for years and years, we knew the family started in coalisland tyrone, and edward higgins, a taylor , and catherine o’neill had been married around stewartown in the 1860s.

     

     

    uncle pat went over many times to search, this during the troubles mind, and was a great friend of the lennons who had a port glasgow branch, a cousin known as cowboy lennon.

     

     

     

    we found nothing.

     

     

    then just last year via ancestry i got a hint for a record in the st marys and saint joseph parish records.

     

     

    a marriage, Edward Higgans and Catherine O’Niel, noting the misspelling and sure enough it was them.

     

     

    what did bother me, all the records are written in english, but those married soke and wrote gaelic.

     

     

    but they are forced to mark an x, and decalre cant read or write english,

     

     

    go try that before you travel over.

  16. CamusBhoy on

    Ron, if you end up down the DNA route Ancestry is probably one of the cheapest and you can download your results file and upload to other sites to get a broader view.

     

     

    FTDNA is quite expensive but does seem to be more accurate on origins than Ancestry, it also has some fun reports on famous people that you share ancestors with, my best is Muhammad Ali as he has Clare Ancestry

  18. Ron Bacardi on

    Thanks for your help Lhads. Interesting about X for some signatures as some of those are on the certificates I have.

     

     

    Anyway I will have a t least a week of discovering churches and villages east of Derry.

  19. Greenpinata on

    The official male line is totally flawed.

     

    Think about it and ponder on the treatment of many innocent females.

     

     

    Research the female line associated with DNA for factual results

     

     

    HH.

  21. tonyrome on

    RON BACARDI on 14TH NOVEMBER 2023 8:45 PM

     

     

    Thanks for your help Lhads. Interesting about X for some signatures as some of those are on the certificates I have.

     

     

    Anyway I will have a t least a week of discovering churches and villages east of Derry.

     

     

    ———————————————————————————-

     

     

    Hi Ron

     

     

    Try here as well this is how I traced mine you can email them to. They are very helpful and replied pretty quickly to.

     

     

     

    The General Register Office is the central repository for records relating to births, stillbirths, adoptions, marriages, civil partnerships and deaths in Ireland. It is also possible to attend in person at the Research Room, Werburgh Street, Dublin 2.

     

     

    KEEP THE FAITH

  25. Moderator1888 on

    and the depths,,,,

     

     

    If my friend broke a window every week when you invited me out to see the sunset??

     

     

    And you refused to not bring him

     

     

    And when you brought him, you couldn’t stop him breaking the windows?

     

     

    And it cost you 250k to fix the windows??

     

     

    Would you be surprised if you and your friend never got invited back???

     

     

    You coulnd’t be

     

     

    Get them binned

     

     

    Or have them back and understand that this is not there land???

     

     

    Cos it aint there land

  26. Moderator1888 on

    However

     

     

    I heard

     

     

    From a solid source

     

     

    Remember when the huns had weapons stashed in ibrokes???

     

     

    Fight breaks out, just outside the security door

     

     

    Cops get called and can’t see the peoples

     

     

    And they go around the stadium

     

     

    And no one can be found

     

     

    Except they can hear shouting IN the stadium

     

     

    And proceed into the satium, through the secure lock

     

     

    Chase them through the subtunnels of ibrokes

     

     

    And lose them around the security room

     

     

    Which is supposedly padlocked

     

     

    And you need clearance to be in that there place

     

     

    That’s where they found the weapons that were hidden in ibrokes before we played there

     

     

    Shurely not???

     

     

    Are the police looking for organsied crime (i.e. drug dealig within ibrokes – apparrently security personnel are directing the dealers to cause a “scene” so the attention is distracted

     

     

     

    Same security peoples who forgot to lock the door……

  29. Tontine Tim on

    RON BACARDI on 14TH NOVEMBER 2023 7:55 PM

     

    SAINTSTIV

     

     

    I have some birth marriage and death certificates but they do not go beyond Glasgow for some reason. No reference to Irish records as they would have been in Ireland, not Northern Ireland. I think a search of church records near Derry would be the place to go. Am plann8ng on a trip over there to search local records.

     

     

    *when I applied for Irish citizenship, almost 40 year ago, I went through my Connemara born granny but nae luck there as seemingly a lot of weans from there didnae have birth certificates but did have baptismal ones, unfortunately it seems her parish had some flooding and they were destroyed, this was told to me by the girl in the Irish Consulate over here so she suggested I try my grampa who was born and bred in Fermanagh where the family have resided for hundreds if not thousands of years, so I foolishly, I hasten to add, said but that’s across the border, she rebuked me by saying “THERE IS NO BORDER” and then added and there widnae have been one back then, 1800s, so I did and I was actually looking at it last night.

  30. Greenpinata on

    We had the best home result of the season to date on Sunday.

     

     

    Mega praise to the players, the management team and the supporters who made the effort to attend.

     

     

    Questional debate ,:- Do we need malcontents ?

  34. Moderator1888 on

    As in the in house security draw attention to “scene” and the dealers work there magic

     

     

    SOCO…….

  37. What is the Starz on

    Ron Bacardi

     

    There 13 people by the surname Kilkey listed in Co.Derry on 1911 census..all in the townland of Slaghtmanus

  38. What is the Starz on

    http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/results.jsp?census_year=1911&surname=Kilkey&exact=&firstname=&county19011911=Londonderry&county1821=&county1831=&county1841=&county1851=&townland=&ded=&age=&sex=&relationToHead=&religion=&education=&occupation=&marriageStatus=&marriageYears=&childrenBorn=&childrenLiving=&birthplace=&language=&deafdumb=&search=Search&sort=&pageSize=&houseNumber=&familiesNumber=&malesNumber=&femalesNumber=&maleServNumber=&femaleServNumber=&estChurchNumber=&romanCatNumber=&presbNumberDiv=&protNumber=&parish=&barony=&yearsMarried=&causeOfDeath=&yearOfDeath=&familyId=&ageInMonths=&pager.offset=0

  40. setting free the bears for Res. 12 & Oscar Knox on

    Chairbhoy

     

     

    “So the unimaginable did happen…”

     

    ——————————-

     

     

    There was nothing unimaginable to me in losing a league. It is always a possibility even when it was an unlikelihood. And even though we are on 2iar and in a good position this year, nobody should be stating that 3, far less 4, is an inevitability. Sport is competitive and every league we won was won through competitive effort- none were gifted or gimmes.

     

     

    When you made that “prediction” in March 2019, we ended up winning the league by 9 points, the same gap we had over 2nd placed Aberdeen in 2018- did you express concern then that the Dons were gonna overtakes us? Or was your fear reserved just that “they” might win it?

     

     

     

    Your “unimaginable came about 18 months to 2 years after you suggested it might. 4 transfer windows and two completely reformed teams later. The Stevie G team that so concerned you in March 2019 lost the league the following season by 13 points to a Celtic team that only garnered 80 points, our worst season total since 2013.

     

     

    Now, if you’d predicted then- at the end of that season- that we would lose the following season, I would have been impressed by your predictive foresight.

     

     

    But……. saying in March 2019 that we might lose a league??- that showed no more foresight than I did. I have always stated that we will lose a league one day. I never predicted it in 2020, not even as late as November when other, more regular pessimists, were predicting that this would be the year we failed. But, by January 2021, I was agreeing with them

     

     

    So I showed as much foresight as you and I still am.

     

     

     

    Every year, I see losing a league as a possibility. I was 10 years old before I saw Celtic win a league and I was 19 before I saw us lose one again. For most of my 30’s and early 40’s we lost every league, sometimes not even managing 2nd or 3rd place, and I always hoped that next year it would be ours.

     

     

    So I will make the same conditional prediction. We might lose this season’s league. We might lose next season’s or the one after that. I hope not but it is always and has always been a possibility. Even Paul knows that surely.

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