Forbes, the leading American based business magazine, has produced a telling commentary on the horrendous Annual Accounts issued from Ibrox on Friday night.
The report opens up with the timing of publication. While the BBC and others provide token coverage from the Press Association, Forbes has taken time over the weekend to delve into the figures.
With an O** F*** final to drool over for a month the red flags all over the Accounts are likely to be ignored as the clock ticks down quicker than the bank balance at Ibrox. Until mid-January there are only three SPFL matches at Ibrox although reaching the final of the Betfred Cup should provide a boost of around £1m, or just over one month of losses according to the figures to June 2019.
The reported shortfall of £10m is bad enough but the Forbes report also covers the damages owed to Sports Direct. Not mentioned is the fact that Hummel and Elite won’t be involved in next season’s merchandising with claims likely to come in from both companies. They can join a queue headed up by Memorial Walls
With Scottish clubs not interested in Financial Fair Play none of them can have any cause to complain if administration or worse happens in mid-season. Finding a way around paying out ‘many millions of pounds’ to Sports Direct in January will be challenging, in the last two seasons Close Brothers have shored up the shortfall at that time of year.
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Taking the figures onto the football field, and transfer market to provide some context Forbes report:
Next summer, Odsonne Edouard or Kristoffer Ajer could move on to keep the wheels in motion. Rangers fan media, in response to their poor accounts, has played heavily on the line of “if Celtic hadn’t sold XYZ, they’d be losing £10m too”, without countenancing that selling players is an essential part of the business plan.
Currently—and despite investment similar to Celtic’s—Rangers lack anyone who might represent any significant sell-on value to the club. Alfredo Morelos, their most obvious cash generator, is seen as toxic due to his horrendous disciplinary record, while Ryan Kent, the club’s record signing, has barely featured since joining three months ago. James Tavernier, club captain, is touted as an asset, but has been found out consistently at a higher level than the Scottish Premiership and a significant portion of the Rangers support would question his place in their team, let alone an English Premier League club’s. Throw in that all three are older than Odsonne Edouard and Kristoffer Ajer, Celtic’s most sellable assets, and the outlook becomes yet bleaker.
Author Mike Meehall Wood describes himself as I have been a sports journalist since I was 15 and a sports fanatic since long before that. My first paid job was writing Rugby League match reports and I got paid with a bag of chips. Now, I make a living from taking apart the big stories in football, boxing, cricket and, yes, rugby to make sense of the powers behind the players. I cover everything from governing bodies to anti-doping, fan culture to high finance.
