Gary Keown has become the first mainstream reporter to publicise the £4.144m loss in the 2023 accounts of the Ibrox Tribute Act which were published on Monday.
Without exception from BBC Scotland to the Daily Record and Scotsman they all opted to highlight ‘an operating profit of £252,00’ rather than the main figures in the accounts.
Income for the year reduced from £86.8m in 2022 down to £83.7m with losses up from £919,000 to £4,144,000.
The headline figures are fairly transparent from the accounts but without fail the summaries all led with the ‘operating profit for the second year running’.
Despite reaching the Champions League group stage for the first time ever and selling Calvin Bassey and Joe Aribo income was reduced, it is hard to see the accounts for 2024 recording income above £70m unless there is a long run in the Europa League or an unexpected transfer windfall.
While others speculate over Philippe Clement’s likely transfer targets in January Keown breaks some unwelcome news for bear in his Daily Mail column:
WHEN a Scottish team is still ending up with a £4million-plus net loss from a year in which it competed in the Champions League group stage and sold a player for just short of £20m, it is perfectly evident there is nowhere to hide. For anyone.
Not the board. Not the football department. Not the executive team. Not the youth academy. No one.
In fairness, it didn’t take much reading between the lines of chairman John Bennett’s opening address in the Ibrox club’s Annual Report — still more like the script of ‘Brewster’s Millions’ than the balance sheets of a fully-functioning business — to get the message that we really are at the end of the road now with the misty-eyed reflections on ‘The Journey’ and the talk of rebuilding and regenerating and carrying the burden created by the sins of others since 2012.
Bennett, no matter his faults, has quite some skin in the game here. According to the accounts, he still has over £12m in loans outstanding. Lord knows how much else he has ploughed into the place.
His words certainly read, and felt, like those of a guy running out of patience in search of a greater return than just his pre-agreed four per cent interest.
These annual reports tend to be an exercise in accentuating the positive, but the tone was set early when Bennett stated: ‘Having spent recent months getting closer to the daily operations of the club, it is clear to me that there is widespread scope for improvement.’
Chief executive James Bisgrove and other assembled money persons were informed in no uncertain terms that ‘we look forward to seeing clear, tangible results in the current financial year’.
Beale’s summer spending spree and pay off has already cost the club £13.1m during the current season, the next stage is guessing when the club will announce their first share issue of the season.
Last season with the income from transfers and the Champions League there were share issues on February 8, April 3 and April 18.
Dave King and Douglas Park are no longer offering loans to be converted into shares that are rapidly being diluted.
CLICK HERE for Companies House details of last season’s Share Issues.
Scottish “journalist” telling the facts!!!.
It will never catch on a tell ye!!…
I guess Mr. Keown will now be banned from Ipox…Naughty boy….Any idea if their situation mirrors Everton’s Joe…??
Editor: Sadly no comparisons with Everton. Competitor clubs in England are going lawyered up for compensation, in Scotland clubs banded together to create the Five Way Agreement to pretend that nothing had really happened in 2012.
The FWA and the phrase “Imperfectly Registered ” are the two biggest stains in the history of the Scottish game.
The story of the month so far has been the diabolically abysmal the Rangers latest accounts . The jiggery pokery with the figures allows them to look like a big bowl of spaghetti letters ! So what does the master telephonist scoop for the ages -Keevins – cover for his Sunday daily Record snoozefest this week ? Yes ,you’ve guessed it …how great a guy big fake Kris Boyd is and how fantastic he is at his work ! Attaboy big daddy !
Attracting loan finance from wealthy supporters when when interest rates were ultra low and returns on lower risk investments were similarly low was clearly not that difficult. Doing it when the era of ultra low interest rates is over, yields on even the lowest risk investments have moved up in lockstep and you have already maxed out your most willing financiers is a whole new ball game. Any new loans, or refinanced old ones, that are offered will be on significantly higher rates and tighter terms than the current ones and I doubt thee will be much scope to swap them for yet more worthless, confetti shares, if repayment becomes problematic.
If defeat by Celtic extends our lead just before the next transfer window opens, then funding new players on increasingly ‘wing and a prayer’ hopes of Champions’ League involvement next season becomes an even bigger risk. Player sales may help, but then again, they may be needed just to keep the lights on after their catastrophic summer transfer splurge, which led to the management team being sacked and more expenses being tacked up in the process.
That’s before we get to the potential £9.5m plus costs payout to Hummel/Elite Sports. Based on how the related Sports Direct case went for them, that looks like something they might want to keep any cash they have in reserve for.
So FINALLY a Scottish Football Media ‘journalist’ speaks the truth about figures and losses at Liebrox…
Well done to this guy then ! (I cannot believe that for once that I’m praising the media) –
He is probably the only writer from the Scottish Football Media that will be a Ladies man…
Why is that one might ask ?
Because he is the only one that has actually got BALLS would be the answer !
So, whit is Kirsty Wark looking forward to most in her retirement?
“Laxatives”?
Good fortune with that!
That’ll be Gary boy on the sh*t list
No more scoops from inside the Debt Dome and if the huns find out his address he better get on the blower to Everest double glazing
Does anyone know when the loan from Scottish government is due to be paid back I believe they took something in the region of £2 million, which has to be paid back ? but when ?
Editor: It is interest free over 20 years, not a big deal but they were propped up and bailed out by the SNP Government that they despise…
Good point Editor – And one I’ll throw at them the next time I hear one slag The SNP in the pub…
Although a helluva lot of them about these shores vote SNP –
They’d be wise not to admit that if they attend their bastion of bigotry…
Lie at Liebrox would be sensible for these type of their support –
I don’t see many of them in Glasgow or The Central Belt voting for The SNP though…
They probably go for Tories these days – even if it means they’ll be working until they’re 70 for their pensions –
And those on benefits will almost need to be getting booked into a mortuary slab before they get their first payment… !
That loan has to be repaid to the Scottish Government before any directors dividends are awarded, so no payouts from the clumpany to assuage their eternal angst over their financial travails until wee Shona Robison gets weighed in.
What a wee shame (for them) that they aren’t on the Celtic Board of Directors where they could award themselves eye watering bonuses on top of their English Premier League wages.
Never mind, if push comes to shove and they find themselves staring into the abyss once again they can rely on on that treacherous bastard Lawwell to come riding to the their rescue on his white charger, a la King Billy.
Sell the jerseys to throw the league and the champions league cash ????
Not a problem !!!!
Cheaper than building a team for Europe and also keeps The Old Firm Franchise alive and kicking until the next fiscal fiasco rears it’s ugly head.
Our winter transfer window is going to indicate a lot more than usual on how the parasites at Celtic Park view the cash crisis in G51.
Get ready to be selt doon the river……AGAIN !!!
Financial statement can come back and bite very hard when 2024s statement is due.
The Bassey/Aribo fees are on paper but the cash is long gone.
Next year that £30 ish million is not there either in cash or paper terms, what that will do is leave a black hole of £60 million or there abouts.
Player sales are required to keep the club going, all the loans that need repaying will also hurt considerably.
The board in their attempts to get in front of Celtic are doing more & more harm.
The future is not full of singing & dancing, it’s getting closer to the 2012 problems that killed off Rangers.