Glasgow Celtic, who remain one of the most popular teams in Ireland celebrate one of their biggest nights for a number of years this evening when they take on Juventus in the last 16 of the Champions’ League.
Tonight’s match and the return in Turin is estimated to be worth in the region of £5 million (€6 million) to the club and progress through the competition in the latter half of 2012 was the main driver of a stunning turnaround in financial fortunes.
The interim results for the the six months to the end of December 2012 show an increase in turnover of 71% to a figure of £50 million (€60 million) and a reduction in debt from £7 million (€8.1 million) to only £130,000.
Given this covers a period in which there were no old firm clashes with Glasgow Rangers, as a result of their financial implosion, it is a remarkable achievement made possible by results including against Barcelona in the group stages of the Champions’ League.
“The revenues generated by our performance in Europe this season have had a significant impact on revenues across a number of streams including merchandising and ticketing,” said Celtic Chairman Ian Bankier.
“This is despite the economic conditions facing the general public.”
“Our profit from trading, before asset transactions and exceptional operating expenses was up from a little over £1 million in the last six months of 2011 to more than £14 million in the same period for 2012.”
Fears were expressed at the time of Rangers’ demotion that the impact throughout Scottish football would be enormous and it is of great credit to Celtic that they have maintained such a strong financial performance.
They added profit in terms of player trading in the same period and appear to have struck a winning balance between spending enough on the team to generate the prospect of European advance without spending recklessly in the hyper inflationary world that still exists across much of European soccer.
Download the full Celtic Interim Report here.
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