The Scottish press never ceases to amaze when it comes to balanced journalism.
There is a club on the other side of Glasgow who have a hole so big in their finances that questions could and should be asked as to whether they are trading insolvent, yet somehow Celtic are the ones having a torch shone on their balance sheet, this time by BBC Scotland’s Sportsound reporter Brian McLaughlin.
And the same organisation – the publicly funded BBC – don’t even see the contrast in their own reporting on the same matters as they affect their near neighbours in Govan. Here’s the BBC man Chris McLauchlin reporting on the Ibrox club selling 32,000 season tickets already and looking forward to welcoming fans in August. Happy Days for the regular close season Champions.
BBC Sport – Rangers sell 32,000 season tickets & hope for August fans’ return https://t.co/m4WVANg8Y8
— Chris McLaughlin (@BBCchrismclaug) June 21, 2020
At this time of year Celtic are always closed for business. There is no income coming into the club until the season ticket money hits the bank account and that particular stream still has just over a week before the deadlines for season ticket renewals date is reached.
The Coronavirus shutdown meant that Celtic’s income was hit for ten weeks longer than normal. Not ten months. If we can’t ride that out then questions need to be asked, but there is no evidence whatsoever that we are in any danger.
Neil Lennon was honest in his assessment this week when he Celtic were not immune from the financial impact of the Covid 19 shutdown should football remain closed to fans into next season. Yet should season tickets be renewed in numbers and Celtic’s kit deal with Adidas comes into play it’s safe to assume other Scottish football clubs would be in more danger of having to take drastic action long before Celtic would. Say a club who already needed a further injection of £10million to make it to the end of last season and that was before a global pandemic hit.
It would be nice to see some forensic journalism of the finances at Ibrox before anyone casts aspersions on Celtic’s ability to come through this unscathed. Yet we hear no-one in the mainstream media questioning the financial practices at Ibrox, this despite being a football club that hasn’t broken even in a single season since they came into existence. Surely there’s a story there?
But no it’s Celtic who are suddenly in danger here. Before this pandemic struck Celtic had a reported £30million buffer in their finances. To protect this players and staff to a mixture of wage deferrals and cuts, even that will be revisited at the end of the month.
💚🟢 Neil Lennon and his players want the #CelticFC fans back in the stadium as soon as possible, and the Hoops boss knows that the club is doing everything it can to make that a reality.
Read the manager’s quotes 🗨️
— Celtic Football Club (from 🏡) (@CelticFC) June 20, 2020
There is no immediate financial threat to Celtic as long as season tickets are renewed and the football season begins as planned on August 1st. The Sky TV deal will then come into play and be it behind closed doors initially or with a small number of supporters as is now looking likely then finances may well be down but certainly not to disastrous levels.
European football is planned to begin in October and the qualifiers in August, meaning another of Celtic’s relied upon income streams remains open to them. As long as we can perform well enough on the pitch to reach the Champions league group stages or parachute into the UEFA Cup then again money will continue to come into the coffers.
If nothing changes by the end of the year then there may well be a story to report on at Celtic Park. For now it’s ridiculous to run a story questioning whether Celtic are strong enough financially to cope.
Aberdeen are haemorrhaging £1million a month according to Dave Cormack, and across the City in Glasgow there is a club who, in a previous guise, were not renowned for financial prudence, going about their business in the same way as their previous incarnation had.
That story led to liquidation and the mainstream press were slow to react. You’d think they’d be shining their torches on the books of that club long before questioning Celtic’s financial stability.
But then that’s now how it works in Scotland is it?
Niall J
