CELTIC chairman Peter Lawwell couldn’t resist a veiled reference to events across the city at Rangers as he pointed out the wisdom of having reserves of cash in the bank.
The Hoops are holding their AGM at Celtic Park today on the back of a strong league and financial position – with a whopping £77.2m in the bank.
It’s Celtic AGM day at Parkhead[/caption]
Michael Nicholson and Peter Lawwell[/caption]
The Hoops balance sheet shows a healthy bank balance boosted by almost £5m to £77.2m year on year.
By contrast, historic rivals Rangers made a significant loss and things could get worse before they get better with the club being locked out of Ibrox for a period this season due to a delay in steel shipments.
Speaking at today’s AGM, Lawwell explained the advantages of having such high cash reserves.
He said: “This is an uncertain industry.
“When you’re winning the league it’s fine. But we need to provide for the longer term if things don’t go quite as well as they have gone int the past.
“We can see – looking elsewhere – what happens if you don’t participate in the Champions League for a year and you replace that with the Europa League.
“That is the difficult financial challenge we have moving forward.”
Chief finance officer Chris McKay too insists the gap between Champions League and Europa League qualification have never been bigger.
He said: “The difference between the Champions League and the Europa League has never been more stark.
“That is evident if you look at a set of accounts with a Europa League participating team and a set of accounts with a Champions League participating team.
“Eight games is good for us and that jeopardy further into the league phase also introduces an additional dynamic as well.
“It [cash in the bank] gives us the flexibility throughout transfer windows to invest when we need to invest.
“And secondly it allows us to run the business normally if we are in the Europa League for a period of time.
“The cash won’t last forever but what it gives us is runway. You can run your business under normal operating conditions without having to sell marquee players and allows you to invest into the squad at the same time.”
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