Celtic have announced their year-end accounts, and I immediately sent up the Rugger Guy signal.
Hopefully, I will hear from him in the coming days.
Folks who know much more about this than your humble correspondent -which is basically just about everyone -has stated to me that £11.5m in the Covid year is not as bad as it could be.
However, I will await my egg-chasing pal’s expert analysis.
Acting Celtic chief executive Michael Nicholson has referred to some impending “evolutionary initiatives” at the club.
In terms of survival of the fittest, I can see the current chairman getting a Darwin Award at the next AGM.
One rumour on the Irish business grapevine is that golfer Paul McGinley has been sounded out to take a seat at the Parkhead board.
He is undoubtedly a genuine Hoops fan.
A few eyebrows have also been raised in the same corporate network that Philip Browne has parted company with the IRFU.
Despite this statement from earlier this month saying he will remain until the end of the year, my Irish rugby sources tell me that he HAS left the building.
This is possibly germane to the Celtic situation because it is well known that he is very close to Dermot Desmond.
Of course, the Parkhead club ARE in the market for a new permanent CEO.
Ultimately the only opinion that matters on that issue is Mr Desmond.
For the avoidance of doubt, the usual health warning is in place with any rumour, no matter how well placed the source.
Across the city, if Celtic incurred a loss of £11.5m during the covid shutdown, then one can only imagine what RIFC’s year-end accounts will look like.
I’m told that the Serious Professional recently reached out to several companies that provide the same type of service as Close Brothers.
My information is that the poor chap went armed only with the recent share prospectus.
Rejected out of hand would be a fair characterisation.
Ultimately professional sport and finance have to be formally introduced to each other at some point.
The story of the last twenty years in Glasgow is that this essential truth was fatally ignored at Ibrox.
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Imagine if the SFA and the SPFL adopted the same financial fair play rules that the EFL have in place!
Look at Derby and now Reading. Oh, but wait, that would not be fair on The New Rangers.
Corruption at the highest level with no intention of trying to improve the game or get nearer to a level playing field.
James
If Dermott is responsible for all the “needless failure” is there any wafer of credit for the successes? 4 trebles in a row? Invincibles season? 9 in a row again? Is it just the bad stuff he’s on the hook for?
He has been an “extra ordinarily long” non-executive director because he has a large investment in the club and is entitled to have a say in the running of the club whether you like it or not. Football is cyclical. Sometimes you just need to suck it up. It’s just a sport with over paid prima donnas after all.
I think what Celtic fans should be up in arms about is governing bodies allowing clubs, Barcelona and others, to run up immense debts trampling all over financially prudent clubs on the way to CL success. Clubs like sevco racking up loss after loss. Clubs like Man City and PSG being underwritten by essentially by countries with bottomless pockets. Barca can always do a sevco though. Liquidate the “holding company” abandon their debts and re-appear as the Spanish equivalent of sevco. If it were so easy and you maintained your history and trophies every debt laden club would be doing it. Obviously the continuation lie is only a figment of the SMSM and sevco fan’s imagination.
JS.
People moan about the Celtic board being frugal and living within its means, quite simply they shouldn’t
Derby County officially enter administration and are deducted 12 points
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/58649432
This is the start of it, there will be many more.
The BoE has described what the UK is facing as the worst recession in 300 years and there have been some bad ones.
Dont say I didn’t warn you, it’s been unavoidable for some years, Covid or no Covid.
Will Sevco survice the down turn….I hope now.
Things to watch out for:
1) Evergrande collapse followed by US contagion
2) US federal reserve being forced to end their QE/Low Interest rate scam due to inflationary pressurss
3) The Germans forcing the ECB to end QE/raise interest rates.
4) The royal family being strung up by the poor and hungry ( i made that one up for a laugh but you never know ).
Since Dermot Desmond made his money from the hit song….The Israelites…
he’s done nothing for the Club.
Just saying.
Slightly over the top but someone once remarked, circa 2000 years ago, that you don’t put “new wine in old wineskins” and yet people expect Ange to come in with a whole new way of working and yet he is faced with the same setup that has served us so badly in recent years. What hold have Kennedy and the Strachans got over Desmond?
With the realities of Brexit and the effects of Covid beginning to impact on the economy and the markets panicking over the Evergrande collapse the world of easy credit is beginning to tighten . The ability to borrow is what keeps business’ that sail close to the wind afloat . If Close didn’t perceive the club* a safe bet and the Directors are either tapped out or unwilling to throw any more in then the failure to offload a few players at the last window could be a fatal mistake.
When Dave King grabbed the reins in March 2015 his company (Sebata) had an avg share price of 1400 ZAR (Rand) today it’s 211 . The exchange rate has also gone South (of the Limpopo) from 12 to the £ to now 20 so in Sterling terms Dave has had a haircut and a half losing over 90% of its 2015 value. The importance of this as far as the club* are concerned are twofold , King will not be rolling over his loan (or increasing it) and I strongly suspect he will be demanding repayment without delay.
As David Murray said to Airdrie , “it’s nothing personal just business” before sending them to the wall over a debt much smaller than Dave’s. If King does have some security then he will call it in if the club* default on the debt.
They say history doesn’t repeat but it rhymes . When the originals went out of the CL to Malmo and cut off the riches they were relying on it was the beginning of the end . I hope the new pioneers can emulate them , it’s going to take some deep pockets to stop them.
Hopefully the accountants who advise Celtic do better than the medical staff who gave our new Greek striker his medical. It seems to be the case that he was as fit as Leigh Griffiths. You have to wonder what has gone on there.
…and CFC still has a c.GBP 16M pot of net cash, which is useful.
If the Parkhead loss was GBP11.5M, then it is a given that RIFC has lost a similar “quantum”, if not more.
The only creative accounting available at Ibrox now, is to keep the accumulated losses total below a headline stealing GBP 100M.
I’ll guesstimate a loss of c.GBP19.5M at Ibrox, to bring their total losses to c.GBP99.5M! 🙂
They have converted £31m into equity confetti this Season already so I think a loss of £19.5m is being very conservative indeed.
My guess is it will be closer to £30m than £20m even with the Debt for Confetti program they now have running on an almost monthly basis since March of this Year.
2 issues in March
2 issues in April
1 in May
1 in June
1 in August
1 in September
7 months of 2021 Borrowed £31m so far
3 months of 2020 Borrowed£16.3m (£15.9m Loss)
4 Months of 2019 Borrowed £8.9m (£11.6m Loss)
1 month in 2018 Borrowed £1.44m (£13.2m Loss)
Im really disapointed we cant yet accommodate away fans at Parkhead. Our full houses are rarely full – and surely we could have got 500 away fans in with a bit of seat management.
And still they sit at the top of the league. When will their debt finally come home to roost?
As I have stated here ad nauseam, if someone wants to cover the losses then the show will go on.
Fair play to you Phil…yes you have answered this question ad nauseam…but think on this.
Its obvious that many Celtic supporters, including myself, cannot understand why “someone” would continue to throw good money after bad to prop up this debt ridden organisation.
I’ve stated on here before that I have little knowledge of business affairs, and so I am not in a position to make an informed judgement…I just find the whole thing baffling.
This Club produces…Annual trading loss after annual trading loss…debt after debt…court case loss after court case loss…massive share dilution…and yet “someone” still chucks money in ?
Oh and lest anyone thinks its the CL pot for the league winners that is driving this funding…its been going on long before the rules changed for CL entry.
Anyway…You’re right Phil…If the losses are covered…then the show will go on…
But you have to admit….It’s a strange one…and that’s putting it mildly.
No love nor trust for Desmond anymore, HE is the common denominator of ALL NEEDLESS failure during his extra ordinarily long directorship.
Aye… very funny!
Sevco releasing accounts…
Come on?!? (heid, zip, Clyde, bike etc)