Celtic has tonight posted astonishing financial results from last season’s campaign. They are incredible. Our turnover has increased to a nearly unbelievable £90 million … a number that shatters our previous turnover records.
Tomorrow I’ll do a full analysis on these figures, but they represent a £6 million profit before tax and the best numbers we’ve seen in years.
Operating expenses have leapt by 33% too, to over £70 million.
This would be worrying at another club, but some of that is investment in infrastructure and will have included spending on the new pitch and will take into account exceptional player bonuses for an exceptional campaign. In short, it’s nothing to worry about. Success breeds success.
It also brings more money.
Most of us felt sure that the club was going to post good figures, that our turnover would be more than £80 million, but this is way beyond what we expected. These numbers are extraordinary. They put us into a similar financial bracket as some of those clubs in the lower part of the EPL … that’s quite a statement when one considers what they get in TV cash.
Celtic is a huge club playing in a small league. Our financial power dwarfs that of sides here at home, and it’s because of this that so many are wailing about it. But all the crying in the world won’t change the hard numbers. We can outspend all of them put together.
Other clubs have still to publish their figures. We await those at one particular club with relish bordering on glee. It is not inconceivable that our turnover will be twice theirs … in fact that’s now more likely than not. How they even begin to bridge that I just don’t know. It’s going to translate into an extra £20 million or more that we can spend on our playing squad – transfer fees and wages – each and every year, a gap nearly impossible to close from Scotland.
The BBC is already spinning this as a result of our being in the Champions League; in fact, revenue is up right across the club, from merchandising to multimedia activity, and this news comes a day after leaked papers reveal that our hotel development could be completed by February 2020, with construction due to begin next years. We’re firing on all cylinders at the moment, and heading for £100 million turnover.
We might get there as early as this year.