28 Jul 2025 15:43:26
I've tried so many times to explain Celtic's finances to some of our fans but a lot of people just don't get it, here it is laid out again for the hard of understanding.
This season the UEFA rule is 70% of turnover can be spent on players and coaches - this includes wages/ bonuses/ staff costs, transfer fees and agent fees.
Our turnover in 2024 was c£124m, 70% of that is almost £87m.
Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee our turnover will remain at that level year on year, Champions League qualification and player sales cannot be relied upon, so what can - season ticket sales, matchday revenue, commercial/ sponsorship deals, TV revenue, Europa League participation. That is literally all we can account for. So add that up and you probably get closer to £100m.
70% is now £70m, our wage bill is £65m, this leaves almost no room for additional spending.
We have money in the bank but that does not count towards anything. The sustainability rules are purely on turnover. We can use the money in the bank for stadium upgrades, youth development, scouting, that sort of thing, but not towards players and coaches.
If we spent an additional £20-30m on transfer fees for 2,3 or 4 players, it's not the fees that would cripple us, its the wages going forward. That could add an extra £10-15m to our wage bill, which puts us over the threshold in a year we don't make the Champions League. And before anyone says, it doesn't matter who we sign - it can never be guaranteed.
So, trust the process which has won us 13 of the last 14 titles, several trebles and many more doubles and just enjoy it.
My predictions for the year ahead;
League champions
Scottish cup winners
Champions league group stage
POTY - Tierney
Top scorer - Shin
I'd rather a run in the Europa than just an appearance in the Champions league, but any season we win a double is a great season, so I'll be happy if this comes in.
{Ed007's Note - I said on a previous podcast Gerry, in simple terms, from the £10 million we got for Kyogo we can "only" spend £7m on his replacement but that £7m will have to include the players signing on fee, the agent's fee & other costs IF the player is on the same wages as Kyogo was.
I know it's more complicate than that but that's the gist of it.}
28 Jul 2025 16:29:36
All the support want is to start any season no weaker than the previous - therefore jeopardizing any advantage and momentum held.
Normally, we have just about maintained the standard; however, at this moment in time we are not quite there yet and the manager agrees.
28 Jul 2025 16:39:48
No need to be so condescending gerrymurphy, or are you P. Lawell in disguise? …. Most is us are well aware of how the 70% rule operates. Question though… where did the estimated £80m in the bank come from if not part of our turnover?
28 Jul 2025 16:40:05
Some of your figures are off Gerry.
For example our revenue for 24/ 25 is projected to be 140-150 million and 70% of that is 98-105 million. Your wages figure is correct. However, it is only wages for footballers, managers and coaches that count towards the 70% we are allowed to spend. So it is less than 65.5 million coming off the 98-105 million we can spend. We can also sell players to increase our budget if and we have done that.
This is why many fans are getting frustrated. We have never been this rich and we have plenty to invest and there is no risk but we have spent a pittance.
From a personal point I am waiting to assess our recruitment at the end of the window.
28 Jul 2025 16:45:23
Good post gerry, but I'd have thought our turnover would be more this year to last years, we must have spent the guts of 30m last summer and took in about 30m with the sale of oriley, quite similar to this summer with the khun and frimpong money allied to 2m for lagerbielke, but yet we appear to have tightened the purse strings for whatever reason.
28 Jul 2025 16:46:25
Informative post gerry.
The only summer I can remember Celtic signing our players early was in 2021 when we had just lost the behind closed doors title.
This waiting until the last minute is the normal procedure under our current board.
{Ed007's Note - By this point in the summer of 2021 we had brought in Kyogo, Starfelt, Abada, Bosun Lawal, Osaze Urhoghide, Liam Shaw & Joey Dawson - we didn't even have Joe Hart in until August 3rd.}
28 Jul 2025 16:48:42
Gerry your wages figure at end is wrong. You said if we bought 4 players it would cost 10-15 million in additional wages.
Let's say each player got paid 40k per week. This would equate to around 8 million and we are not going to be paying that for most of our signings. They will be lucky to get 20-30k per week. As you can see this is less than your calculation.
28 Jul 2025 16:53:13
@gerry - you are correct that we can't use money in the bank from last season on signing new players this season. However, we could have used it last season on new players.
Instead we kept it in the bank and now use to pay tax on it. Could you explain how that is good business?
28 Jul 2025 16:55:46
I've never got my head round our wage bill being £65 million, I'm not saying its not. The highest percentage of this must be paid to the first team squad, so just say the average wage of a first team squad member is £750k a year 15k a week ( I know there is 3 or 4 on 30k a week but there is a lot of them on a lot less than 15k a week) and we'll say there are 25 players on an average of 15k that's £18.75 million and that's being very generous in this estimation. So this leaves another £46 million to pay everyone else connected to the club, that equates to 460 £100k a year salaries or 920 50k a year salaries. I'm sure all this is broken down in the yearly accounts but I find it difficult to comprehend the huge wage bill?.
{Ed007's Note - Celtic employ over 1000 people mate, 1051 according to the last accounts, a rise of 109 on the previous season.}
28 Jul 2025 17:11:55
Those new dugouts must have cost about 40 million each?.
28 Jul 2025 17:20:37
Must get a job in the pie stall on matchdays, they must all be on around 50k a year ?Seriously tho i would like to see who those 1051 people are?.
28 Jul 2025 17:24:40
@stevie - Our wages bill is 65.5 million. This is the figure quoted in our last set of audited accounts.
However, you are right to question it as not all of that is for players wages.
As ed alluded to, the total is our whole clubs wage bill for all employees.
In terms of FSR and the 70% we can spend, it is only players, coaches and managers wages that contribute to the 70%, which I pointed out in my first reply to Gerry. Hope that helps and sorry I don't have an exact breakdown of the 65.5 million wage bill. That being said I would guess about 70-80% of that will go on player, coaches and manager wages. We also need to remember bonuses will be part of that total figure.
28 Jul 2025 17:39:45
Of that 109 extra employees, were any of them players? Just asking for a friend ?.
{Ed007's Note - There was one but the other 108 are working in Peter Lawwell's house as his personal staff.}
28 Jul 2025 17:49:21
Celtic also made a few really last minute signings in the summer of 2021.
Giakoumakis, Juranovic, CCV and Jota were all signed late on.
The Celtic fans are used to the waiting,
There’s still plenty of hope we can bring in another 4 or 5 decent signings.
28 Jul 2025 17:54:22
Shouldn’t he be paying them then? ?.
{Ed007's Note - C'mon, it's Peter Lawwell we're talking about.}
28 Jul 2025 18:07:27
Ridiculous! Seems we are the only club on the planet that can't spend money! Even the mob over the water are outspending us. Show some ambition, for Christ sake!
28 Jul 2025 20:57:52
Look where that has got them the last 20+ years.
28 Jul 2025 23:39:52
@weedessie - companies in the UK pay tax on their profits. So in the case of a football club it makes sense to invest in players rather than operating a sizable profit. This means you have opportunity to increase your money when you sell them, assuming you have invested wisely.
I agree that our recruitment team have done well so far but there are deficiencies in our squad and the season and champions league qualifier are fast approaching. I have also stated many times that I will judge the window when it closes.
I also agree that we don't have an accurate figure for our budget but it is a good ball park figure I have provided, which is not to say the board can or should spend the full 70%>.