If there is one question we should be asking our board of directors in the aftermath of last week’s financial figures I feel that it’s this one; why don’t we have a magic money tree?
We have a billionaire on the board, but our club is built on the player trading model which sees us progressively weaken from every position of strength we reach until we’re no longer strong. The shambles of this summer is the natural result of that model.
Other clubs appear to have money on tap.
So either they have a bottomless well of it or there is, somewhere in the vicinity of their ground, a magic money tree. Which begs the question; if they have one of those, why don’t we? And when are we getting one? I call this failure a classic case of sleeping at the wheel.
There are other explanations, of course, for how the operations of other clubs are funded.
If you conclude that bottomless wells of cash don’t exist outside of the sheiks and oligarchs, and once you accept that magic money trees are about as real as magical beanstalk beans then it leaves only a handful of other options, including “the proceeds of crime.”
Celtic has consistently posted profits. Our club is healthy and robust and we know exactly how it was done and who paid for what. We can account for every penny.
But we exist in a football environment where another club has continuously posted losses. Huge losses. Our £11 million deficit from last season was made up partly from our cash reserves and we only managed to limit the damage because we flogged a footballer for £12 million.
How did other clubs survive it?
How, specifically, did one specific other club survive it on top of the losses they had already made in the years prior to it?
Their losses for last season must be several degrees of magnitude worse than ours, yet still they stand with a squad they added to, without having made a single sale.
Does anyone on our board care? Are any of them capable of doing the maths, because the maths don’t add up. There is no billionaire over there, no sugar daddy investor, nobody who has the wherewithal to carry the kind of losses that they must have made.
Are we to assume that this doesn’t concern anyone at Celtic Park?
Good God, there is sleeping at the wheel and there is watching what might be the next big scandal unfolding across the city and doing nothing about it.
They don’t have vast resources. They don’t have a surplus.
None of their directors has the kind of money which would have been required to fund the last five years of loss making, a situation made exponentially worse by the health emergency. Their failure to reach the Champions League groups was certainly consequential, but who’s picking up the tab?
We are a PLC. As a shareholder led organisation the board of directors is derelict in its duty if it is not asking how a major rival can afford to keep spending money it plainly does not have. If we were chasing a procurement contract instead of a league title and they were submitting substantially lower bids than we were, loaded down with guarantees which on paper were impossible to reconcile with reality, we’d be demanding an investigation.
What exactly is our board doing whilst these questions demand answers? That ancient excuse about it being none of our business is plainly ridiculous in light of the stakes here. Of course this is our damned business; how can it not be?
Who is taking this issue seriously? Are we content to allow what might potentially be dark money to be funnelled through another SPL club? Have we not had our fill of being cheated yet? The questions are simple; how are they meeting their obligations? How are they financing their operation? Where is the cash coming from to pay the damned bills?
If they’ve found the secret to mining money from a hole in the ground, then that’s something we should probably be looking into. If they have a magic money tree, then great; when are we getting ours and how long will it take to grow?
Other than that, they ought to be put under pressure and asked to give a full accounting of their funding sources. If Celtic isn’t demanding that then we’re more than sleeping at the wheel; our board is either grossly negligent or worse.
Some might even think we were complicit.
Totally agree. Just like their mythical rising from the ashes, which was lauded, but not remotely investigated by MSM, we have had our fill of looking the other way.
Of course we’re complicit ,how else can anyone explain what goes on over there,it’s not just our useless board who are complicit it’s orange masonic protestant Scotland ,ie what other government would have allowed those hate fuelled marches to proceed,only in Scotland ,but I’ll tell you who is the most complicit of all ,it’s us as Celtic fans who buy STs strips , merchandise etc ,and of course as we do this year in year out our rotten Tory money grabbing board lap this up and treat us like the numpties we are ,so there you are James us daft fans are the most complicit in all the dark goings on in the world of Scottish football , when will we ever learn?
the same gov that has IRA prisoner support marches your losing the plot Mr Duffy
A colonial government across the water in the north of Ireland allows such marches and Trump fuelled hate mob marches in the USA allowed totally right wing hate marches, etc. Its the perverse downside of democracy, the right to protest, though offenders should of course be arrested if they turn racist preaching or violent.
So if you mean don’t buy STs and other merchandise and let them racists across the road win everything if our Board don’t resign then I think not sir. Our Board can’t change this, the power lies elsewhere. Its not just down to our ineffective Board, an ineffective SNP government, corrupt institutions, police, media, etc, but society as a whole. Sadly there appears to be no such happy place. As frustrated as I am, as we all are and I feel this too fella, I will continue to support my club and irrationally hope that Scotland’s citizens can become the rich and diverse society it pretends to be HH
Fair comment my friend ,I like you feel just as frustrated but I suppose you’re right we have to keep supporting our team through STs and merchandise but I keep thinking the more we do this the more the board take us for daft compliant shitkickers but you’re right what else can we do, except maybe this year under Ange win everything in sight heres hoping pal.HH
Since pre-2012, and since, we have all witnessed both our own club and the SFA refuse to ask pertinent questions – and continue to look the other way with all things Ibrox.
The only positive about our own shambolic board is that its lack of ambition should ensure that CFC never goes the same way as the original Rangers FC!
RIFC will already have its financials for 2020/21 prepared: will its accumulated losses top an incredible GBP 100M?
…regardless – as with the outstanding HMRC taxes in 2011 – the SFA will still automatically rubber stamp a Euro license for the Ibrox club for 2022/23. 🙁
We need to stop moaning about finances, other teams, referees, Governance etc etc etc. Its all a massive distraction from how shocking we are. 6 points off the top and its not even the end of September – its abysmal. Seriously the tile is looking lost by the end of October if we keep this up. We need a left back, centre half and defensive midfielder. Add to the the following need to improve or leave …Ajeti, 5m seriously? Soro, Taylor. Starfelt, Carr-Vickers. Jury out on McCarthy, Jota, Abada Will Rogic andn Jullien get back to thier best post injury. Ralston ok as squad player, Hart is a one season buy. Welsh Montgomery are kids. For me only Turnbull, McGregor, Juranovic Forest are Celtic class. It’s horrific, Rangers squad far more valuable. (The Rangers Board have put their OWN money in thats why they can sustain losses – this is the basic of finance stop hoping Ibrox will implode they will not).
I firmly believe that there’s black market money invested into that klub, those directors may well have a lifetime of emotional ties but, to continually throw your own personal finances into that gaping black hole of klub over a decade??
Added to the fact that there’s NO stock market oversight either so, for me, that sets all sorts of alarm bells ringing.
I believe We will All learn this in time but, by that time it will be way too late to do anything about it, give it time…
DRUG MONEY @ibrox ?? DEFO?
I think we should be more concerned what the hell is going on at celtic at present 6 points behind already challenge for the leauge we are crap at present ange won’t last if these results continue stop going on about the bigot finances nothing is going to change the celtic board have got a lot to answer for on the way they have run celtic over the last few years sold most of the silverware ie players helped the bigots blue pound more important than champions leauge absolute madness and liewell was doing a brilliant job running celtic more bull$hit from pr celtic team just like hotel complex ended up with disco lights.
Peter you and I agree 100% let’s look at ourselves. We are a train wreck of a club right now and have been for over a year.
Mark last week poor against livvy midfield to slow again the same this week ange making the same mistakes have said here coaching staff need shifting why has ange gone along with keeping these failures from last season hope he gets shot of them ASAP or he will gone himself.