The 2024/25 Scottish Premiership campaign is turning into another good one for Celtic fans around the globe.
We are ten games into the league campaign with nine wins and a single draw – a slip up against fellow high flying, and very impressive, Aberdeen back in October. But we are still in top spot in the table on 28 points and although the Dons are tied on points right now, we have a far superior positive 15 goal advantage over our nearest challengers given our dominance and free flowing attacking play.
It is not just the league that has raised spirits though, moving into the month of November we have progressed through to the final of the Scottish League Cup (having hammered the Pittodrie outfit 6-0 in the semi finals) and our Champions League hopes remain on track following a 3-1 victory over RB Leipzig in Tuesday’s league stage encounter, taking us to seven points from four games (two wins and a draw).
After our 2023/24 European campaign, no fan would have put a bet on that happening and would have much preferred a no wager no deposit bonus shot with one of the popular online casinos. Particularly those offering 5 free spins on registration no deposit as the chance of success was presumably higher, but here we are defying expectations.
The above will certainly be pleasing to the Parkhead faithful, but off the pitch it will not just be our progress that is pleasing to the board. With the European changes this year, we are well on track for a lucrative financial windfall for our efforts. With us sitting in 13th place in the 36 team table, we are already well on course to qualify through to the round of 16 play off spots, but our current form indicates that we could be one of the sides that ultimately qualifies automatically for the next stage as we are only two points shy of the top eight.
With UEFA now handing out prize money for wins and draws in the revamped league format, we have already earned around the £4.13 million mark from our performances on the pitch alone, as that sum does not include other related revenue such as gate receipts, match day spending, additional bonuses or linked European related sponsorship clauses and nor does it include their new ‘value pillars’ ranking reward (1-36) – basically an additional merit based payment at the end of the league phase depending on where you finish.
It breaks down as roughly £1.77 million for a win, with £590,000 for a draw. This is obviously on top of the £15.7 million we have already banked for simply qualifying for the league phase by winning our domestic title last season.
Progression carries its own financial awards as well, and whilst chickens should not be counted the additional sums available break down as follows (figures rounded):
Knockout Round Play Off – £843,000
Round of 16 – £9.27m
Quarter Finals – £10.5m
Semi Finals – £12.65m
Runner Up – £15.6m
Winner – £21.1m
As the saying goes, that is a truck load of cash when you add it all together, and then you further add in the revenue streams that are not included in the above figures. Depending on how you choose to look at things, we earned circa £30 million from European involvement last season, but under the new format we have already banked circa £20 million, and we have four games remaining – plus the unknown additional placing fee.
That could potentially take us roughly close to last season’s total, yet any progression bonus would not be included yet. Our board would naturally be delighted with that, I imagine fans are simply happy with our European performances when we think back to last season’s competition.
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