The key pillars of Celtic’s financial make-up have been named by chief financial officer Chris McKay.
Chairman Peter Lawwell boasted over the Premiership champions’ record-breaking set of results for the financial year ending 2023 at the club’s annual AGM on Wednesday. Some fans have been left miffed that in their opinion, no ready-made signings have arrived off the back of it after Celtic posted an increase in revenue to £119.9m (2022: £88.2m) with a corresponding profit before tax of £40.7m (2022: £6.1m profit before tax).
Player sales like Jota to Al Ittihad factored into that while Champions League group stage qualification has also been factored in. And in a video relayed to supporters at the AGM, McKay named the main areas of revenue for the Parkhead side, insisting top table European football and player sales are high on the list. But a longer-term view has to be applied. He said: “Revenue was approaching £120m, profit before tax was £40.7m and underpinning that was three items. It was Champions League football, it was from player trading including the sale of Jota, Giorgos Giakoumakis and Josip Juranovic. There were some other exceptional items including the compensation for Ange leaving the club and joining Tottenham.
“I think when you are looking at football finances in particular, it’s important not to pick a point in time. You need to look at it over a medium-term horizon.
“Just after the year-end, we paid £11.5m in taxes in relation to that financial year which clearly reduces the balance significantly. We have a significant sum ringfenced for the redevelopment of Barrowfield.
“We also have plans for the stadium for the year ahead which we wish to invest in. All of these things feed into how that cash is planned for the year ahead.
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