Celtic announce £41m pre-tax profit after Champions League and player sales

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Celtic's Greg Taylor and Real Madrid's Luka ModricImage source, SNS
Image caption,

Celtic faced Real Madrid in last season's Champions League

Celtic have announced a pre-tax profit of £40.7m for the year to June in a "record set of financial results".

The figure is more than £34m up on last year's equivalent, with revenue increasing by almost £32m to £119.9m.

The men featured in last season's Champions League group stage, won the domestic treble and made a £14.4m surplus from player trading while the women's team were SWPL runners-up.

Celtic sold Giorgos Giakoumakis, Josip Juranovic and Jota during that period.

Manager Ange Postecoglou left Celtic for Tottenham in early June, with Brendan Rodgers returning to Glasgow as his replacement.

Celtic, who reported £112.1m in total liabilities, are once again in the Champions League, opening their campaign away to Feyenoord on Tuesday.

"This represents a record set of financial results for the club," said Peter Lawwell, who became chairman in January.

"The £31.7m increase in revenue reflects the participation in the Uefa Champions League in season 2022-23, when compared to the Uefa Europa League in the previous season, resulting in greater ticket and media rights income.

"In addition to this, our tour of Australia and a record year for our retail business were also significant contributors to the increase. The £34.6m increase in profit before tax resulted from the significant revenue increase outlined above along with a £14.4m gain on sale of player registrations, predominantly from the sales of Jota, Juranovic and Giakoumakis.

"In addition, we recorded £13.5m of other income that came from a combination of compensation received following the departure of Ange Postecoglou and a business interruption insurance recovery in relation to Covid-19, with the two items mentioned being one off in nature and typically non-recurring."

Lawwell also reference "the significant investment that the club is planning to make in developing our Barrowfield training facility", which is separate from their main Lennoxtown training base.

And he added: "It is important to highlight that, given the increasing gap between the sums able to be earned between the Champions League and the Europa League, it is vital that we retain a cash buffer in reserve.

"History tells us that we will not always qualify for the Champions League and the benefit of holding cash reserves affords us the optionality of managing through seasons where we participate in the Europa League with the ability to retain our squad as opposed to selling key players to bridge the income shortfall between both competitions.

"The financial sustainability rules are also a key feature of Uefa licencing and we need to be cognisant of running our club accordingly."

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