PETER LAWWELL has spoken about his delight at the club building on the “remarkable” Invincible season to win an historic Double Treble last season, as Celtic revealed a spectacular set of financial results that has seen the club become the first Scottish club ever to have a turn-over in excess of £100million.
There can be no doubt that the decision to invest in a world class manager in May 2016 has resulted in a huge financial windfall for the club.
In the Celtic PlC Annual results released this afternoon the club revealed these highlights:
* Revenue increased by 12.1% to £101.6million (2017: £90.6m)
* Operating expenses including labour increased by 14.1% to £87.1m (2017: £76.3m)
* Gain on sale of player registrations of £16.5m (2017: £2.3m)
* Acquisition of player registrations of £16.6m (2017: £13.8m)
* Profit before taxation of £17.3m (2017: £6.9m)
* Year-end cash net of bank borrowings of £36.1m (2017: £17.9m)
* Year-end net cash, net of debt and debt like items, of £27.0m (2017: £13.4m)
“I congratulate Brendan, his staff, the players and everyone at the Club for these remarkable achievements,” the CEO stated.
“The Club recognises that success on the pitch leads to success off the pitch, which is why the Board is committed to investing in our football operations. Our ambition remains to create a world class football club. Our success on the pitch this year has allowed us to commit, not only to fees for the transfer of player registrations (£16.6m, rising from £13.8m in 2017), but also to player, football management, coaching, recruitment, medical, performance, sports science and the youth academy costs. Total labour costs in 2018 increased by £7.1m, from £52.2m in 2017 to £59.3m (14%), largely due to increases in the football department. This has allowed the Club to retain key football personnel including Kristoffer Ajer, Kieran Tierney, Callum McGregor, Tom Rogic and Leigh Griffiths on long term contracts.
“We continue to search the world for talented players to play the Celtic way, such as Odsonne Edouard who joined the Club for a Club record transfer fee. Player recruitment and development continues to be fundamental to the Club. Our objective is always to bring players to the Club who will improve the squad. Given the quality of our existing squad that is a challenging task, made more difficult by hyper-inflation in transfer fees and player salaries in the market. Nevertheless, our objective is to invest everything that we can into the football operation without putting the Club at risk.
“For season 2018/19, everyone at the Club was disappointed not to qualify for the Group Stages of the Champions League. As we shared the successes of the last two seasons, we share in that disappointment, but given the Club’s strategy over many years we have financial reserves to rely upon as we continue to look to the future with ambition and optimism.
Our long term strategy enables us to continue to invest in player retention, player recruitment, stadium infrastructure and everything that is needed to develop the Club for future generations and to continue to deliver success. We have an excellent first team squad and in the Youth Academy we have the next generation of exciting young players such as Mikey Johnston, Karamoko Dembele and many others, all of whom are eager to follow in the footsteps of Kieran Tierney, James Forrest and Calum McGregor in becoming Champions League players for Celtic Football Club.”
Lawwell also had a word of praise for Celtic’s captain Scott Brown.
“In closing I would like to record my continued appreciation for our Club captain, Scott Brown, who celebrated his Testimonial Season during the year. Scott has served Celtic brilliantly over the past decade. He has been a fantastic Celtic captain, doing so much for the Club on and off the pitch in this role. Scott’s dedication and commitment is an inspiration to everyone at the Club as we work to deliver success for the Celtic support,” Lawwell stated.
You can review the Celtic PLC accounts HERE.
