CELTIC Accounts and finances

A couple of years ago when the clubs from the 'big 5' tried to get that Super League up and running I'm sure there was talk of members paying 100mill to join it. Our cash will be nowt to do with it in all likelihood but thought I'd mention it since it came to mind.

 

I've lifted this directly from the London Stock Exchange rules and reg's, wouldn't that mean we should have had the annual report within 4months of the 5th of April?..not really clued up on the finance so happy if someone can put me straight.

 

If the interest rate goes to 1 per cent that’s when I think they will start spending


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77 million 300 thousand in the bank wow

 

No, there is no set end to a financial year, it can be whenever the company decides, it just needs to be at the same time every year. The club's is the 30th of June. The 5th of April is the tax year and some companies do use that as their financial year as well, but it's not a requirement.

 

Cheers, thanks fer clearing that up.

 

CeltsAreHere sat down with finance expert Kieran Maguire to discuss Celtic’s accounts, recent statement and the situation the club finds itself in.



Kieran Maguire is a football finance expert and lecturer at the University of Liverpool, best known for co-hosting The Price of Football podcast. He regularly provides analysis on the business side of the game, breaking down club accounts, ownership models and the wider economics of football for media outlets across the UK.






Q: Considering Celtic’s financial power, were you surprised at the lack of spending in the summer?
The decision to not invest over the course of the summer of 2025 has left many observers scratching their heads. There’s two reasons why you normally can’t spend money, the first of which is lack of cash, well that’s clearly not the case. Celtic have got fantastic cash reserves, more than all of the other Scottish clubs put together, so that’s not an issue.
The second issue is the cost control rules that operate within UEFA, they allow you to spend up to 70% of your revenue on wages, well Celtic are well below that, they’re only at probably around about 50%. You’re also allowed to lose 60 million euro over three years, Celtic make profits every year, so again there’s no constraints on the club, it’s clearly been a deliberate choice by the board not to invest in players and for that I guess you have to ask the board as to why that decision was made. It would appear that Brendan Rodgers wanted the money to be spent but he’s not managed to persuade the board to invest as much as he would like either and that will be perhaps a finger pointed by the fans towards the board in terms of their very conservative approach to investment that has cost the club a participating place in the Champions League this season




Q: The claims surrounding UEFA’s restrictions on cash reserves and differentials came under fire. How relevant was it, given Celtic’s income?
Celtic’s statement after the window left many fans baffled. I was surprised, a, at the timing of the statement when it came out, and b, the finger pointing towards UEFA, which you do any form of analysis and appears that it seemed to be quite a disingenuous comment and it looks as if the Celtic board are trying to deflect criticism of themselves by the fans and trying to make out UEFA to be the pantomime villain when it comes to the lack of investment that’s been seen over the course of the summer, which has contributed, it’s not the only factor I’m sure, but it’s been a contributory factor to the lack of success in European football. And that’s where Celtic fans I think now benchmark themselves in terms of whether it’s been a good season or not.
They know that they have the resources to out-muscle all of the other Scottish clubs. Rangers are the one from a financial point of view that can be competitive, although of course we are seeing this season with Hearts and Tony Bloom, an alternative recruitment approach which to date has proven to be successful. We’ll have to wait and see whether that can be maintained over the course of the season.
So yes I was surprised when the statement came out and I also thought it was a bit insulting to Celtic fans in the sense that if the board honestly thought that Celtic fans would read this and you know tip their caps to the board and say well okay guys you know better than us then I think that is a bit insulting. Any analysis would quickly show that Celtic have the cash and they have the headroom to invest. So the decision to blame UEFA in my view was a very erroneous one.





Q: How much would Celtic have to spend in order to make UEFA’s cap relevant or any sort of issue?
Celtic could have an overall spend of an extra 50 to 60 million pounds this season and they still would have easily been within the UEFA limits. They made a profit of 45 even if they said the acceptable level of loss is 15 to 20. That’s fine from a UEFA point of view.
So the ability to spend is certainly to their now how well that money could have been spent is a separate issue and the history of football is littered with clubs who have felt that spending big is the same as spending successfully. So I think you have to decouple quality and quantity when it comes to spending money but Celtic could have quite happily gone all in on a substantial investment in talent and also they’ve been very successful at then moving that talent on to other markets as well and generating profits from it. So there’s no reason why they couldn’t have made that decision over the course of the summer.




Q: What do Celtic’s interim financial reports tell us?
Celtic’s interim financial report is a bit of a paradox. It is record revenues for a Scottish club. It’s likely to be 40 to 50 million pounds higher than that of Rangers.
It’s likely to probably be six to seven times that of the likes of Hearts and Aberdeen. It’s potentially probably 30 times the amount of money that we’ll say 25 times the amount of money that likes of St. Mirren and Kilmarnock generate. So by Scottish standards, incredibly successful. But if you contrast it to what’s happening south of the border, Celtic generate less money than Brentford, despite Celtic making it to the Champions League and making progress. So unless they do spectacularly well this season, they’re unlikely to match these revenues in season 25, 26. As well as making revenue, perhaps more importantly from a cost control point of view, they’re making amazing profits and Celtic have now made profits in 10 years out of the last 12.
If you bought shares in Celtic, perhaps four or five years ago, you’ve done very well. But it’s very noticeable that despite these results coming out, the share price in the last week or two has not moved, there’s been no gains because the market is scratching its head as to what Celtic can do to go forwards.






Q: Are there any comparisons to other clubs to be made?
There’s certainly no clubs comparable to Celtic as far as the finances of Scottish football are concerned. Rangers, of course, would be the closest one, but their revenues are substantially behind and also their cost control has not been as good as Celtic’s because they’ve not historically managed to make player sale profits that we’ve seen at Celtic practically on a year-by-year basis for many, many years. So, therefore, I think that you would have to look at some of the bigger non-Big Five European countries, perhaps Portugal, Netherlands and so on.
And even so, Celtic figures stand up pretty well to the likes of Ajax and Porto and so on. So those clubs have made progress in Europe. You can perhaps see the frustration and the annoyance of Celtic fans because they feel that if they’re not in the top 36 clubs in Europe, effectively, which is now the participation in the Champions League, that doesn’t reflect well on the club hierarchy.








Q: Which part in particular, if any, should fans be paying most attention to in your opinion?
I think as far as fans are concerned, they go to watch what is on the pitch, not what’s in the balance sheet. But if you are going to use the accounts for a guide, then perhaps you should look at the investment in talent at the club. So when the more detailed results come out, I think it would be interesting to see how much has been spent on wages, how much has been invested in the squad in terms of the value of the squad by the end of the season and so on.
Because this is what the Celtic fans pay their money for. So the club will say, well, they spent £38 million on signing new players in 2024-25. Again, by Celtic standards, by Scottish standards, that’s likely to be a record number.
And it is. If you compare it to England, then it would be far lower. But perhaps Celtic, perhaps we shouldn’t be comparing to England.
What about other clubs, other countries of a similar size? And well, then you go, well, hold on, you know, compared to perhaps the likes of Belgium and Portugal and Sweden and so on, it’s still a substantial investment, which might cause some Celtic fans to wonder how well that money was spent in 2024-25 if the club is no longer in the Champions League in the forthcoming season. So I think that would be a frustration for fans. It’s not the quantity of the money being spent.
It’s how well it’s been spent and how well it’s been invested on their behalf by the club.