Well, folks, it’s all there now in black and white; the Ibrox financial results have been published and the hole is every bit as deep as we predicted.
Losses, for the last year, of £23.5 million bringing the overall losses since the club was founded to well over £100 million.
Can you imagine what they’d have been without it? On the level of an Aberdeen.
Our club has, once again, lost a title to a team carrying monumental levels of debt, being funded God knows how and from God knows where, a club which doesn’t offer any explanation for its sources of financing because they know that the people who are supposed to care don’t.
They have posted those accounts along with a Going Concern warning.
They are admitting, in effect, that they are on the brink.
That they are trading whilst insolvent.
Their conduct endangers not only their own club but the whole structure on which Scottish football is built; its commercial deals, its standing at UEFA, its credibility with its customer base. They are the precise model of what Financial Fair Play is designed to prevent.
Please understand this; FFP regulations exist for two reasons.
The first is to ensure sporting integrity.
You cannot have a club funded from external sources in a way that enables them to outspend all the clubs around them. The principle of fairness in football is the meritocracy. Clubs can only spend what they earn. If you grow your club organically in the proper way you will reap the rewards.
UEFA and the domestic leagues of Europe long ago realised that with sugar-daddy clubs becoming if not the norm then certainly more common that these were, in effect, attempting to buy success. The clue is in the name; Financial Fair Play.
But as I wrote in a lengthy piece not that long ago, it also exists to protect the sport itself.
It exists to prevent clubs going to the wall, clubs like Gretna, clubs like Rangers.
It exists because the behaviour of these clubs destabilises football. Imagine for a minute that Barcelona and Real Madrid cannot refinance their debts and both collapse … the impact would vibrate through every league, in every country.
This is why those clubs should never have been allowed to get that way in the first place. Our own domestic example – the last Ibrox club – was the warning this game ought not to have needed after the collapse of Gretna.
Ibrox’s selfishness is incredible. The Going Concern warning in those accounts means that their gamble once again risks throwing the rest of the game into crisis. That the rest of the clubs have allowed this is remarkable, and shocking.
That Celtic has never spoken up and publicly backed FFP has effectively tied one hand behind our backs.
If the club at Ibrox collapses, we will suffer huge consequences.
So not only have we allowed them the natural advantage that all cheats have but we’ve actually assumed part of the risk if their gamble fails.
Think about that for a moment.
We have watched as they continued down this track, seeing quite clearly that it was heading one of two ways; to the Second Death or to a financially doped league title. Indeed, I believe we could end up witnessing both.
Whatever our custodians tell themselves when they take their seats in the stand, these people have lamentably failed not only Celtic but the wider game.
If we had publicly taken a lead on the issue of FFP I cannot imagine that it would not have had the support of the other clubs. They all more or less voluntarily subscribe to its basic philosophies anyway … all but one. This failure has only helped Ibrox.
They have been allowed to do what they did post 2012 and I would say minus the EBT’s but we have no idea what other arrangements might exist behind the scenes.
Our directors think that because our club is a model of probity and financial security that this is some kind of triumph.
But it is not triumph to be cheated and humiliated when that possibility was written in neon flashing letters 100 feet tall for a decade and you either failed to see them or ignored them.
It is not a victory when you repeat the same mistakes. It should embarrass you to find yourself on the wrong side of history repeating itself.
Ibrox’s title triumph, amidst those momentous debts, was enabled at Celtic Park and I don’t care how many board apologists wail and whine and moan about that statement.
Our board had a duty to protect our club from exactly this outcome, and they did not do it.
They had a responsibility to the wider game in Scotland to work towards robust regulations in 2012 after the collapse of Rangers and the lessons that should have been learned from it and they didn’t even try.
That is a failure without precedent in our history.
It is a disgrace for which they ought to be held to account.
It is not just Celtic that are in the dock, it is every club in the land.
While we may carry clout but the desire for cash, regardless of where it comes from, is built into the business model of every club in the league.
Most clubs survive on Celtic and The Rangers fans coming twice a year.
You also mentioned the SFA: they only wish to ensure the status quo. They cannot, and indeed will not, contemplate any other business model.
No club will complain about this as they don’t want their stadium burnt down by the lunatic fringe, meanwhile there is no chance of the people who enabled a decade of cheating, who allocated an illegal UEFA licence, and propagated the Survival Lie are ever going to govern the sport in a meaningful way.
I dunno maybe it will take them burning down say Easter Road to shock the rest of non-hun Scotland into finally doing something about these scumbags, make the filth caterva non grata and boot them out of the league once and for all!
…ach, I can dream, eh?
Daily Record’s take is that the loss is because of Covid. Sevco lost around £10 million in match day income.
So what about the other £13.5 million?
Does the loss column include the money owed to Sports Direct, King and the Scottish Government loans?
Nope. Ashley sum due still to be decided.
SG loan will be shown as a long term debt on the balance sheet ( 20 years they’ve got to pay it back ) taxpayer will never see it back.
All the other litigation is on going for all the contracts they tore up with Hummel etc.
HMRC.. OH Bhoy.
The Losses will run a lot higher than this! Only showing us what we already knew, ie Match Day income, Merchandising etc!! SCUM BASTARDS NOW & FUREVER & WE STOOD BY & WATCHED!!
Let’s for arguments sake agree that “the rangers” accidentally made made mistakes (EBTs). That led to the clubs closure in 2012.
This time they are doing it deliberately and with the help of the very people lied to last time the “SFA/SPFL”. SHAME ON THEM. But the whole of Scottish football will suffer.
And chaps is the reason refused to renew my season ticket, daft I am not
100% correct. A Board like no other indeed. The likes of Tory Bankier and Wilson, ex Labour MP who even spouted the continuity lie in Smith’s obituary.
A Board like no other definitely.
Time all member club’s spoke out about this shame, ours seemingly won’t.
Great article and very true James.
How about the members of our board declare if they are a member of the mason lodge?
Job done.
Why is the lack of motivation on our so evident as you have pointed out? Is there something or things on our side to hide?
Said it for long enough, Celtics Board ensure Rangers (V2) success and Celtic failure. I doubt to a man that anyone would disagree, but if Fergus McCann was in charge there isnt any chance of events unfolding as they did and Celtic supporting it from behind the scenes.
The Sevco accounts in any other football nation (bar Spain) would see transfer embargoes enforced as a minimum.
Only thing Our Boards I tested in when it comes to Our Support,Is what they can obtain from Our pickets.Its all about The Gravy Train.Same Club,My Arse
They should be held accountable but they won’t, they’ll turn the page and roll over to get fqt again, and again and again SHAMEFUL
Every last one them HAS A HAND IN THIS, and not one should be excused, anyone with and ounce of sense could’ve seen this coming.
Let’s face it, if you sit round a table conspiring, conniving and in the process LEGITIMISING UNLIMITED DEBT you’d be a fool not to take the full advantage, Celtic are FOOLS for agreeing to all of this back in 2012.
Their beloved O%£ F/&M trademark tag has cost them and us, TIAR and everything else too, I hope they’ve unending sleepless nights over their selling of our collective Celtic souls.
The old Rangers cheated other clubs out of trophies for a decade by fielding ineligible / incorrectly registered players – and by applying financial doping via huge, accumulated losses.
The new Rangers has cheated other clubs out of a league title by ‘only’ applying financial doping via huge, accumulated losses.
The SFA might regard that as progress at Ibrox?
The new club has been a slow moving car crash over the last 9 years.
And Scottish football deserves whatever comes from the fallout.
I absolutely concur with the sentiments of this article.
Our Board should indeed be ashamed, as should the SFA and all involved in running Scottish football.
Think now we’re beginning to see it Dawn on supporters outwith Govan what’s happening again.
Our board SFA SPFL Referees all know they have to win the league.
Honest mistakes will continue with the acceptance of all of the above.
My opinion only but one I’ve payed the ultimate price for.
Our custodians have been in collusion with the scum from Ibrox since 2012. They don’t represent the fan base of our club. God only knows what Brother Walfrid would think of this current bunch of tories running our club.
They should hang their heads in shame.
When in gods name is somebody in authority going to have the balls to stand up, ask questions and bring these cheating bastards to task. Any other country in the world would have brought them down by now.
It’s all ok over er,,, the record have broke it down to 5 reasons to why an how it can be fixed,,, thank god for for em boys in the press
Well done liewell and his co #unt Desmond for there sterling work keeping the bigots alive blue pound very important in their warped minds,plus all the other spl clubs agreeing 5 way agreement res 12 the lot corrupt and the sfa the main ones. The whole football system is corrupt in Scotland has been for decades any other business trading like the bigots would have ceased trading years ago but if the their directors have very deep pockets and are willing to dig deeper they will keep going till the system is changed not likley in backward corrupt scottish football.
Aye, heard it. As much as everyone Celtic minded would like to see back of the morally offensive shower far Ibrox, it’s no gonna happen. Too many underhanded Masonic fingers in the political pot, they’ll be run at a loss just to spite us.
Huge losses for the filth oh dead what shame Sevco scum!!!!!
Its easy to lay the blame on our club but its not just down to us and if we promote FFP do you really believe the SFA/SPFL would act. If FFP is the correct behaviour then why has nothing like it been promoted by them. They’re not the only club to be liquidated or put into administration and our bodies of governance and us know why they haven’t and won’t. HH
Only thing the Celtic Board wants from Our Wonderful Support is Season Ticket Monies and Merchandise Monies etc.And Playing Along with Sevco is Unforgivable.Anything just so long as this Tribute Act Exists to keep the cash flow rolling in.Theyte not I tested in anything else.Just so long as Paradise is packed Full.The Boards Happy
There is no Tribute Act under explanation that the full SFA membership of RANGERS FC FOUNDED 1872 was never dissolved in the first place