Peter Lawwell has reiterated that the policy of the Celtic board is to buffer the club for failing to reach the group stage of the Champions League.
Last season’s participation, driven by the success of Ange Postecoglou in the SPFL, took Celtic back into the big time for the first time in five years.
AEK Athens, Cluj, Ferencvaros and Midtjylland caused severe damage to the balance sheet with a differential of around £20m attributed to reaching the Champions League compared to playing in the Europa League. Previously Malmo and Maribor had knocked Celtic out of the Champions League.
The value of showcasing players in the elite competition can’t be quantified while Champions League football makes the club more attractive to prospective signings with a variety of commercial knock-on benefits.
This season is Celtic’s fourth in the Champions League in the last 10 years with Lawwell spelling out in the Annual Report how the boardroom strategy is geared towards preparing to fail in the Champions League:
In terms of funding and liquidity, our year end cash, net of bank borrowings, was £72.3m (2022: £30.2m).
The increase this year was principally due to the translation into cash of the strong trading environment and the typically non-recurring items mentioned previously.
These reserves were used to fund the summer 2023 transfer window and will be used for settling outstanding sums due from transfers over the last two seasons, which are typically paid in instalments.
This sum also contains the cash required to fund the significant investment that the Club is planning to make in developing our Barrowfield training facility. 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.
Reaching the Champions League didn’t prevent the sales of Jota and Carl Starfelt, two starters whenever they were fit since moving to the club in the summer of 2021.
If suitable offers come in Celtic’s track record is that they will sell players regardless of whether they are in the Champions League or not.
Why is it whenever I read what Lawwell says I can’t believe any of it. He still seems to think the summer transfer window was a success. I most certainly don’t think so. Most of the guys bought will hardly ever play for us.
With Lawwell in charge there’s every chance Celtic won’t make the champions league due to incompetence and sheer parsimony. The untold millions that that parasite has cost the club over the years is absolutely mind blowing. And here he is, installed as chairman.
The club is going nowhere as long as he’s involved at any level.
Not winning a champions league game at Parkhead for 10 years is shameful. I hope someone asks the board at the AGM how they plan on rectifying that.
Editor: That will be asked as well as the background of the Head of First Team Recruitment and Scouting after the shameful claim that he was in that job in his twenties for Manchester City, a post he held for 10 years then decided to downgrade from Grealish and Haaland to Kwon and Tilio.
Yep total bs so he can spread more nepotism at our! Club! He need taken appart but real issue is Desmond have far too much control. Last year it was we can’t afford a new main stand when we obviously can!! Real visionaries would built that years ago!! Those corners and that stand is embarrassing!! We could be so so much more with these chancers gone!
The reason I highlight the stadium is that they won’t spend it on players fine then invest in us the fans and finish the ground while blowing everyone out the water!! But no that won’t suit Lawwell and his Nepo babies! Disgusts me he back at our! Club! Ours!
Yes, why would Mark Lawwell leave a job at Manchester City for a job as
“Head Of First Team Recruitment And Scouting”
at Celtic?
Unless it paid more money, or he needed to get out quickly!
Something else has to change if we are to move forward.
There is no point in standing still.
Perhaps Lawwell made an unfortunate omission in the statement above;
“…the benefit of holding cash reserves affords us the optionality of managing
[DIVIDEND PAYOUTS ] through seasons where we participate in the Europa League…” ?
With such an accumulated cash pile, I’m just surprised that Lawwell hasn’t yet
announced a Special Dividend,
– to distribute a good chunk of that cash before it can be ‘wasted’ on players…? 🙁
As I understand it…BR is given players by others …and told to improve them…Well at my modest level of football management…nobody would have done that to me…And I am still struggling as to why he’s accepted it…I also think that some of our buys are poor to say the least…and the Tilio situation is embarrassing…Lawwell should be nowhere near our Club.
This guy is going to hold us back again. Cost us 10iar should be nowhere near Celtic, actually why is he back what is going after what happened previously, makes no sense. How much of a buffer do we need 100m then why wont we buy good players what will the next excuse be. This guy is a parasite and needs removed.
Stick your RW&B saltire flag up your arse.
I think the strategy is simply to buy anyone cheap and sell on for a profit.
At one time they were only buying midfielders and another time, wingers when there was an immediate need for a left back for example. It was like the football side of things wasn’t even being considered.
The business side is almost diametrically opposed to the footballing side as they have different desired outcomes.
Good article Joe. Celtic is a business, not a football club, the way it is presently run.
Editor: Tomorrow’s match is sold out, the board has a willing market for their ‘strategy’ but I think that two more windows of project signings will see interest/demand wane for Champions League nights.
Yeah we’ll build a new main stand !! Well overdue or as seems obvious they are happy to play at being it!! If we had real visionaries we have a 72,000 paradise finished and symetrical!! Long overdue ! But these chancers happy to line their pockets especially Lawwell and play down play what our great club is capable of and that’s to be the biggest on the planet I truly believe we have the most real fans in world football!
I mean real fans and living overseas you see it even more!! But these clowns like some ” banana republic” wish to play us down for their own ends much like those cretins from the past ala Kelly’s and whites. We are Celtic not them! Change long long long overdue!
With the greatest respect, don’t knock Robert Kelly, the Celtic Chairman.
He realised that the Club would be judged by what they did on the Park!
You cannot compare the current Celtic Board’s operating model to Kelly’s!
The current Board have no football knowledge among them. They are toffs, simply brass-necking it and making a living, a fortune in Lawwell’s case, out of administrating the Celtic plc.
Shame on all of them and those who support them!
Forget your respect, stop being padentic you know exactly what I meant !! And give us peace on those families they run us into the ground with their stubborness incompentace and sheer cowardice!! Your one those guys eh need to be right! Now do one you clown shoe. I am only interested in Celtic!! Don’t reply to me ok!
Oh and it was the Kelly’s and whites that first brought that bassa lawell to our club!! Don’t dare try tell me about those charlatans the same clowns that gave the poison their full end after Murray banned us!! ” we woulnt do that to the rangers fans” Micheal Kelly!! Utter coward ” bunnet ringers!! Thank God for Fergus!! Lied to us all their days remember they canvassed fans in upgrading the ground in the early 80s ha ha yeah the results were only seen by old Desmond never published the numbers! ” then claimed ” fans happy with ground” Aye loved wading through the pish and disgusting smell of! Guys like you obviously held us back and were a dream to those cretins!!They run our! Club for their own gains disgusting people
Celtic’s most distinguished period came under the Kelly’s. Lest we forget!
Don’t let me hold you back pal. You are obviously special (or think you are)!
We’ll never change this popular narrative. It is easy to “rationalise” our defeats as being down to biscuit tin, lack of ambition, risk-aversion, preparing to fail or not speculating to accumulate. It is popular because it is fool-proof. It cannot be disproven because no-one is ever going to implement a vastly different strategy while Celtic remain a dominant team in a financially impoverished peripheral league getting a chance, every year, to be cannon fodder for the big boys. Our fate is shared by Copenhagen, Zagreb and many other comparator clubs.
The popular explanations explain nothing; they just explain it away. “if it wisnae for that pesky Dermot, Peter, Mark or any other anonymous Suit wearer, we would be doing much better in Europe.
Thankfully, no Viv Nicholson type character will ever get the chance to implement a “fur coat and nae knickers” strategy to our club.
We can do better only by coaching and playing better. There just isn’t enough money in Scottish (or Danish, Croatian, Polish or Austrian football) to make a consistent dent on the Financially steroid-enhanced clubs.
P.S. Anybody who misreads this as “you’re saying we cannot improve” has reading comprehension problems.
Editor: There is a club in Austria making in rods. None of these clubs in peripheral leagues can count on 50,000 Season Ticket sales and incredible merchandise sales. You won’t find many RB Leipzig tops in Mallorca, New York, Sydney, Tenerife or Tokyo, too many fans take the CQN line and accept the managed decline.
Just how long have you been on the PLC plants payroll?
If Celtic don`t park the bus and play on the break like they did at Ibrox earlier in the campaign then we`ll be playing violins again.
Wise up!
What Dermot and Peter know about playing football … is not worth knowing. They have both taken from the football Club vast sums more than they have paid in, either by knowledge or sweat!
As for Mark? Well, what does he know anyway?
The Celtic Board, collectively know nought about football, except what they have learned at Celtic, being paid to watching games and shaking hands!
Get them to pot and get in a Board who know football. There are plenty of them who are or have been associated with Celtic and have made a positive contribution to Celtic!
You know who they are, genuine Celtic men. And if they can’t do it, then get them out!
Get a Board in who are Celtic minded and get the money-grabbers to pot!
Anybody can hire an accountant. A salary of £100k will guarantee this.
Get the money-grabbers to pot!
You talking about Salzburg with the Red Bull money and the cosy transfer relationship between clubs in the USA, Brazil and Germany- yea – they are doing a little better. So did Basle for a bit.
We have a great following and merchandise sales but they pale in worldwide sales to the successful big league clubs, who year by year motor further out of sight. Our attendance money and merchandise money don’t get us close to poorly supported clubs like Bournemouth, Hoffenheim, Villarreal, Rennes and Sassuolo who are in the big money leagues.
I credit you with writing and being responsible for your own stuff. Your CQN jibe is a poor attempt to detract from any debate. As I said, I don’t expect to convince many. it’s a popular form of thinking to blame someone else for your misfortunes but only those that sort their own issues out get improvement. Ange knows this and Brendan, as he said at the Q & A you reported on recently, understands it this time round.
Editor: Well spotted. RB Salzburg comply with UEFA FFP, they generate money by selling high and reinvesting in quality, not projects from Australia and the Korean Second Division #teamlawwell. Continue with the gymnastics to justify a woeful European record, CQN has so much to answer for.
Celtic fans, not the CQN happy-clappers, expect to see a club better than Malmo, Maribor, Ferencvaros, AEK Athens, Cluj, Midtjylland, Copenhagen, Molde and Sparta Prague Reserves.
Thankfully – you don’t get to decide Celtic credentials nor proclaim yourself a better version.
I wouldn’t expect the cosy internal transfers between RB Group teams to be declaring true values but they’re not alone in gaming the lax system of oversight in football economics.
We have enjoyed the best and most prolonged period of domestic success in my lifetime but like the Ibrox fanbase in the 90’s we decry this as unimportant and make Europe the only criteria, thus guaranteeing misery.
But, if that’s your VideoCelts dictated Party Line- knock yourself out crying and moaning about bogeymen! I’ll leave you to it
Editor: Hurry back to the CQN podium, you won’t be spreading any more Balance Sheet Bhoys crap on here again, being ahead of a club founded in 2012 by Chuck Green really isn’t any big deal outside of Paul and the Crew.
Cluj, Ferencvaros, AEK Athens, Malmo and other minnows have been laughing at big Pete for years.
Exactly editor this guy a total happy clapper and as you say sounds right out of Brennan’s/ lawells blog!! We should be a pot 2 team at the very least but for lawell and these cretins!! Their is no club with our real worldwide fanbase none!! Living overseas I see that big time Sydney a good barometer and Celtic blow all English and Latin clubs away!! And there plenty Spanish and Italians migrants there but nothing compares to our ” community”! Point is we have massive advantages if only we had guys like Fergus back instead of bean counter ego maniacs like ” big Peter” remember the same guy that the old board employed in 1990!! He should never been allowed Bear our club ever! After that association God wee Fergus if only he wanted to stay eh
Allowed near our club I meant obviously
Spot on and having lived in Sydney for years I can verify that!
There is no support worldwide like ours in that we could are the club!! And take it everywhere we go !! No club comes close if we have real visionaries or real self made men we be unstoppable!
Lawwell has always been a employee!! Never self made but it’s suits an old 75 year one to have him in situ!! While making himself a multi millionaire, looking after his friends and family also at our expense!!
Disgusting!! We could be so so massive!! That main stand as disgrace whine they boast of money in the bank!! Fergus Built 3 stands in 4 years in 24 they have done nothing but use ” big Peter to micro manage and fill his pockets!
How he s back as our chairman is a disgrace!! And that should be our focus !! Regarding that board!! It’s crazy he back !! And not the title he was first given no now he just ” chairman”! Why is this being allowed!
“…as opposed to selling key players to bridge the income shortfall between both competitions.”
Aye, but if the right offer comes in we’ll sell the players anyway. Lawwell is a twat bastard, get him and his nepo wanker oot immediately!
That’s a bit unfair. Both Jota and Starfelt wanted away.
But Jota and Starfelt fell for the Love and Money options. Our Board haven’t the wit to counter that!
You have got to remember that the most of the Directors have no previous professional experience of executive function at a football club!
Peter Lawwell and the rest of them will be at the match tomorrow. But how many Celtic matches have they paid to get into!
Nil?!
Hi Joe, just a quick question if you don`t mind.
Why does no Celtic blogger on any website ever mention the fact that, when the Ibrox club got promoted in 2016 as an obviously “new club” why did Celtic FC agree to keep the Old Firm ticket prices of 2012 – £49?
Why has no Celtic blogger questioned this deceit?
It was carried out in 2016 under the public media circus following the arrival of Brendan Rodgers as manager the first time – how convenient?
What we had in 2016, and since then, SEVEN YEARS LATER, is Celtic fans paying old Rangers ticket prices of £49 for tickets and then singing that Rangers have died?
Does this not look stupid?
Maybe an article for your readers to spread the news could help?
As it stands….Celtic fans are financing a PLC board who are in bed with the big lie, and getting the Ibrox club, and David Murray`s crooked board off with the greatest sporting crime in history, 20+ trophies and over £60 million HMRC swindle that we know of, all stolen to cheat Celtic and other fans.
This surely has to be unacceptable, no?
We now live in a Scotland where the majority of Celtic fans think that everything is corrupt apart from the sacred Celtic balance sheet?
Ah mean cmon!
HH
Editor: I don’t speak for others but this blog never makes any reference to a current Glasgow club beginning with the letter R. Usually I refer to them as the Ibrox Tribute Act.
Sadly many Celtic sites refer to the current club by the same name as the one that went into liquidation in 2012.
This site provides no positive coverage to the Celtic board, until all of those that were in place in July 2012 are removed Celtic will forever be tied to their O** F*** business buddies, most recently seen by the attempt to launch O** F*** tours through the Sydney Super Cup.
Lawwell and Bisgrove are partners in a three legged race. Lawwell hoping to win by a nose every year.
Watch out for that dangerous smile on Lawwell’s face in that photo Ed.!
And his wee left hand porky trotter. There could be money in that face, and Nicholson’s before the end of the season!
I am a Celtic shareholder. But this year, the third in a row, I won’t be invited to the AGM, either virtually or in person!
That is the way that Lawwell governs his Board. The guy is immoral!