The Celtic plc annual results for the year ended 30 June 2022 were posted on the official club website yesterday afternoon to provide a first insight into the numbers behind the Ange Postecoglou revolution at our football club.
Despite a huge overhaul in the playing staff amid a monumental rebuilding process under the new manager, Celtic returned to profit making £6m during the lastest financial year. Both Chairman Ian Bankier and new CEO Michael Nicholson provide commentary on the numbers which cover the year after the Covid pandemic closed stadiums, including Celtic Park, to supporters. You can read what both Bankier and Nicholson have had to say below.
Rather amusingly the short-lived reign on Dominic McKay as the Celtic CEO, replacing Peter Lawwell is not mentioned but the cost of his employment and the non-disclosure agreement and subsequent pay-off will be included in these numbers somewhere.
That said few could argue with the outstanding job that Michael Nicholson has done, backing Ange all the way and bringing an entirely new dynamic to the way transfer dealings are conducted at Celtic. The Hogmanay triple signing announcement – on the eve of the January transfer window opening – was the polar opposite to the frantic last minute bargain hunting from Dom McKay’s predecessor, Peter Lawwell.
With a handful of games at the start of season 2021/22 played with reduced capacity, a more normal situation was resumed in August 2021 and Celtic Park has been packed ever since as the Celtic support got behind the new manager from the very start, despite activity by the BBC and the tabloids to undermine the manager from the start after he got offered the job following Eddie Howe’s rejection. Remember, Hugh Keevins reckoned that ANGE stood for Absolutely Not Good Enough.
Celtic report that the club currently has £30m in the bank, not bad at all given that the club has just gone through a huge rebuilding job on the back of a global pandemic.
The club achieved record player sales during this financial year, bringing in £29m primarily from the sales of Wantaways Odsonne Edouard to Crystal Palace and Kristoffer Ajer to Brentford. The club also invested close to £40m on new signings with Ange Postecoglou bringing in 14 players as he assembled a side that went on to win both the League Cup and crucially the Scottish Premiership title, which came with automatic qualification for this season’s Champions League.
Celtic reported a loss of 11.5m during 2020-21 in the previous Covid-hit season but it is worth re-stating that the Celtic support, unlike any supporters in the much hyped English Premier League, paid for their season tickets that year to minimise the impact that the pandemic had on the club. And they did so in huge numbers with close to 60,000 season tickets being bought despite there being little to no chance that these matches would not be played behind closed doors.
Iain Bankier refers to this as “restoration of a more normalised trading environment” that allowed Celtic to increase matchday income, as revenue rose from £61m to £88m, excluding player sales.
With Champions League revenue to come this season there’s every likelihood that Celtic will smash the £100m turnover barrier next year, so crucial for the progression of the club into one playing regularly on club football’s biggest stage, as is the longer term strategic plan endorsed by the manager.
Transfer activity after 30 June 2022 is not covered by these results, so the later summer deals for Sead Hakšabanović and Aaron Mooy plus loanees Moritz Jenz and Oliver Abildgaard, will be accounted for next year, while the earlier summer deals Jota, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Alexandro Bernabei and Benjamin Siegrist this summer, plus the January window signings Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate, Yosuke Ideguchi and Matt O’Riley, are all included in the £38m investment in players, reported yesterday.
Both the Chairman and the Celtic CEO pay tribute to the work done by Fran Alonso, his staff and players for what was an historic season for the women’s team, winning the League cup for only the second time and the first in a decade while adding the Scottish Cup at Tynecastle in May with an 3-2 extra-time time win over Glasgow City, with Celtic having played for over 70 minutes with ten players after an honest mistake gifted a penalty kick to City. Michael Nicholson was at the match to see Celtic lift the Women’s Scottish Cup for the first time in the club’s history.
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