The Sunday Mail today published details of a report that puts Sevco at the very top of the league table of existential risk due to coronavirus.
In their typical way they tried to sling us into the mud with the Ibrox side, but the report they cite makes it very clear that Celtic has advantages which Sevco does not and are nowhere near faced with such a dire prognosis.
The report, which was commissioned by football finance experts Off The Pitch is focused on how dependent clubs are on gate receipts.
Sevco tops that list, with a full 67% of their total income based on that stream of revenue. Celtic and Porto are joint second with 45%.
But the report doesn’t appear to know that Celtic has worked hard over the years to keep this ratio as low as possible, and that we’re currently sitting on a £30 million plus rainy day fund. On top of this, we’ve also received a hefty advance from Adidas.
The lights aren’t going out at Celtic Park anytime soon, and everyone knows it well.
Of the 100 clubs surveyed, from all across Europe, Sevco’s exposure to this crisis is greatest.
The report suggests that directors could try and plug the gap with debt-to-equity swap agreements and that efforts to bring their ratio down are ongoing, with the club hopeful – haha – that their new shirt deal can go on to make them big money.
Both of those are fantasises though. Sevco is already at the UEFA threshold of its debt-for-equity capability and even if the shirt deal was capable of reaching parity with the one we have – unlikely if we’re being generous – it will take years and the Ibrox club’s problems are very much in the here and now.
They are banking on time they haven’t got.
As far as I’m concerned, this report entirely vindicates everything the bloggers have been saying about the serious state of the finances over in La La Land.
Even a moderate drop in season ticket income over there would put them in a state of crisis from which administration would be the only certain way out.
It would involve cost-cutting on a massive scale, the sort their demented fans and the media which caters to them is nowhere near ready for.
Much of the media has been content to ignore this story today; we should be pleased, at least, that The Sunday Mail has acknowledged it even as they try to bring Celtic into it with the Ibrox mob. But it is the first outward evidence of how serious the financial hole they are in actually is.
The bloggers are right on this one as with so much else.
That club is sitting on a volcano.
As the summer goes on, we’re going to watch it blow.
James Forrest is the guest on the latest Celtic Down Under podcast, which you can listen to here.
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