CELTIC Accounts and finances

The good old Des & Pete strategy of just doing enough to win on the pitch while hoarding the cash into the bank. The reason why we’ve * it from fantastic positions at least 3 times in the last 12 years now.

Wanyama, Forster and Virgil money mismanaged.
Ronny appointment with no backing.
Cutting corners at end of Rodgers first term into Lenny’s 2nd spell.
Now little investment after Ange leaving and a very unimaginative re-hiring of Rodgers.

It’s a * joke and it’s not like we are asking them to spend mega money.

 

See they are now trying to punt the Dundee game next Wednesday on PPV!

Good luck with that.

 

No merch, no PPV!

 

The thing is they are not doing enough now to win on the pitch with a mediocre zombie side 2 points in front and a nearly £60 million for winning the league this season.
If they do go on a win the league I'm wanting heads to roll on the board starting with both lawwells would be a start .
The best financial situation to be in for years could be nearing £90 million in the bank and could lose out to a skint sevco team unforgivable and would expect the Celtic support to make it difficult and protests on these *.

 

Thank *. £17m richer than the huns next year. Skintos

 

Lol

 

Just in advance of the accounts being released now in the next few weeks. I'm giving a word of warning to brace yourselves as in light of the shitshow just served up, what these accounts will lay bare is the complete lack of competence and accountability of this board in terms of utilising the resources at their disposal and growing this club.


Some of you will know and some may not so here are just a few things to be aware of as we compare with last year.

We turned over a record revenue in 2024 of £124m. From an accounting this perspective this money only deals with the revenue generated in the ordinary course of what we do so it does not include transfers which is dealt elsewhere. This will be shattered in this set of accounts, the increased CL prize money generated by the new format, more home games in 24/25, extra TV money etc will likely bring that revenue figure in excess of £40m.

Operating expenses will probably see a rise too. We signed a few guys from England in Idah and Trusty who may have required a decent wage, Jota, Schmeichel and Engels likely high earners too and CCV, Hatate and AJ all had their contracts renewed so I'd say our wage bill may have risen 3-4m in that time - just a pure estimate. There likely could be bonuses awarded for CL progressions but I wouldn't expect a huge change as we also lost big earners like Hart, Kyogo and MOR (who both penned new contracts in the prior season).

Stadium costs would also have increased with more matches being played but I'd be expecting the operating profit to have increased to about ~£30m.

We come to transfers now and this can be a bit tricky for those who are not familiar with it. Clubs amortise players over the course of their contracts, eg we sign Balikwisha on a 5 year deal, so we recognise the cost of that signing over each of the 5 years, eg 1m in year 1, 1m in year 2 etc. As I'm a bit sad, I keep a spreadsheet on our squad and also do an amortisation and gain/loss on players.

In 23/24 we recorded a £6.7m gain on transfers (19.5m gain on transfers and 11.4m amortisation on players) - that is the transfer fees received less the amortised values of the squads. It was a bit of an outlier as the Jota deal to Saudi had been included in the prior year accounts, presumably as the club had the deal in place around the accounting year end so decided it should be reported in that financial years. The amortisation figure I had for that season was £10.35m which is £1m lower than reported in our accounts but that is likely down to differences between reported transfer fees or likely agent fees or signing on fees being included in the amortisation figure that I don't know of.

In the 24/25 season I have the amortisation figure up significantly to £15.7, so the figure will likely be higher in the accounts around about £17-18m I'd guess. The gain on transfer figures will rocket here. I have a £36m figure here and that's me incorporating a large sell on fee for MOR as was reported but is debatable. Kuhn completed his transfer on 8th July so this could also be included in this set of accounts like it was similar to Jota. If that's the case you are looking at it being swelled up to £58m.

Our gain on transfers in 23/24 was just under £7m as was pointed out earlier. It's going to be huge this timer around, depending on which period the Kuhn deal being recorded and whether MOR had a sell on clause to MK Dons or not, the profit on intangible assets could be between £18-36m.

The impact of this is that we are looking at Profit Before Tax figure of just under £18m in 2023/24 rising to potentially somewhere in the region of £48m and that could up as far as £70m depending on which period the Kuhn deal is recorded in and the nature of MOR sell on clause.

IT WOULD MEAN THAT CELTIC HAVE RECORDED UP TO £130M OF PRE TAX PROFITS IN THE PAST 3 SEASONS.

WE ARE GOING TO RECORD RECORD REVENUE AND RECORD PROFITS IN THIS SET OF ACCOUNTS. WE WILL PAY RECORD LEVELS OF TAXES IN THESE ACCOUNTS.

That is only the profit element of our accounts. As we have known for years we are debt free. Our cash reserve position was down to £65m in the interim accounts, the season ticket money and the CL prize money plus CL tie vs Bayern at home will all add to that. The Barrowland project will likely take a portion of that money but I'd still say we were going into this window with a solid £80m sitting pretty in our bank account at the end of June when we decided to sell Kuhn in early July and reached a CL qualifier with huge issues in our squad, flagged relentlessly by our manager, spending just £3m.

However angry you are now, bare yourself for the fury that will come when the figures are laid bare in a few weeks, that our board oversaw this from that position of power and strength. It's why they are not fit for purpose and its why they must go.

 

Really good post- thanks for putting the time in to it to help explain the situation. HH

 

Good to see things have only gotten worse in the last 18months.

More cash in the bank yet stadium looking worse outside, squad has regressed further and a shocking transfer window.

 

Be like a nuclear explosion when they release these accounts.

 

We are practically paying more in taxes than on players these days

 

Brilliant post @Agathe17

Year end 24 had £77m in bank. Interim have £65 to dec 24.

Interestingly the drop of £12m of that mckay confirmed at AGM was tax paid approx £8m.

Mind he said "there isnf £77m any more we paid corporation tax off that" * idiot.

Turnover could easily hit £150m last season with profit of £40m plus. Could be paid 8 figure fee tax!

Edit: am sure all of barrowfield was accounted for in the 23/24 accounts.

 

I think there was the remainder of Barrowfield in the interims or certainly most of it. Cash at bank was also down due to the new way CL revenues were paid and two of the group games being played post Xmas and getting to the playoff game with Bayern.

Without boosting player trading last year or going further in the CL we would not have ever made close to the amount we did. We played all cup tied at home or Hampden, sold out most of our domestic and European games.

The Kuhn money will be in this years accounts. I think we owed MK Dons 10% of MOR money so around £2.5m. However the Frimpong sell on and Nygren purchase would have likely been captured last year.

The sad reality for them is this year there is no way our revenue gets close to those figures simply by making a backside of CL qualification needlessly.

This summer should have been a mini rebuild done pretty much cost neutral or better by selling Trusty, Yang, Hatate and Maeda along with Kuhn but bringing in 7 or 8 first team players with the cash.

Made the CL and then they would have been on for a bumper year.

 

This year is looking more like a break even year or small loss. Our revenue will be down significantly with the CL and bar Kuhn, any sale would have only realized small gains or losses, the sell on fees will pick up a little bit of ground. The Kuhn transfer could potentially be included in the 24/25 account similar as they did with Jota.

The cash reserve figure should improve likely though as we've spent * all.

All relative to what will happen in January though.

 

I think it took longer to report the Jota transfer (around 3rd of July) but it was actually done at the end of June. Where Kuhn I believe was actually done in July, announced around 11th of July, as at the end of June it was thought he was going to Leipzig.

If they had the choice it also wouldn’t make sense to put the Kuhn money in last year where there was a big profit vs the likely OPEX loss to offset. The circa £5m from Frimpong though will have been as he moved before the Club World Cup.

Yeah the cash reserve figure will should improve significantly and revenue will be a record minimum £135m but I think probably closer to £140m. Also agree costs will be up too due to wages and stadium costs as you rightly point out.

I just laugh at the idiots running this show as their own silly rules for two summers in a row has seen them leave the squad with gaps and overpay for players. Then apparently take the huff about some of them not playing.

 

I looked at both clubs in some depth and Brugge in particular operate the model
Lawwell claims they invest close to everything they can back into the team.
They actually make a pretty sizeable loss operationally as their stadium is a pretty modest size so player trading covers that. They also rely heavily on ily on champions league money as the season they were only in the conference it was big player trading profits that got them close to break even.

They are the model for clubs like us but they have an excellent academy backed by really smart signings from across the world and often less fancied leagues including Bulgaria, Bundesliga 2., Denmark amongst others and aren’t afraid to sign talent that is sometimes viewed as being difficult like Forbes and previously Noah Lang, but they have become player trading monsters and give their youth a chance.

They also have that core of 3 or 4 old stagers in Miglonet, Mechele and Vanken to support that model.

 

The one thing you can guarantee is there is no one at Brugge signing boys the Head Coach won’t play or that don’t have a chance of being involved with the first team unless they are being signed for Club NXT.

There won’t be many properly run clubs doing what we have with Inamura and Yamada because quite frankly why would anyone operate that way? No one would do what we done to Yang either.

Time will tell but it wouldn’t surprise me if we have at least 5 or 6 in the current squad that thought for differing reasons that this summer was time to leave.

 

I can tell you one thing. DD and his mates at the club will have big multi million dollar smiles on their faces.