Pundit Lawrence Connolly has recently made a claim about Celtic’s current financial situation.
Connolly was a guest on the latest episode of the ‘A Celtic State of Mind’ podcast and the panel discussed multiple issues involving the Parkhead-based club. One topic of discussion was the club’s financial situation. Connolly talked about it and he believes that the club may not be able to get over £40 million from a potential sale of Odsonne Edouard because of the club’s financial situation and football’s global market.
Because of the impact of the pandemic, Celtic’s revenue fell by 16% last season. The club made a pre-tax profit of £100,000 as the income fell to £70 million as well.
Connolly believes that Celtic have the best business interruption policy in Scottish football and he provided further details about the club’s financial situation.
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He said: “We’re led to believe that our business interruption policy is the best of any club in Scotland. I don’t think that’ll cover over [into] next season. What does the Champions League bring, £20-30 million? The football marketplace as a whole is going to have changed.
“What kind of fees will we get for players? What clubs are going to be left in a buying position? I think we were all hoping and thinking [Edouard] might be the first £40 million player to be sold from Scotland. I don’t see it now with the way the football market is going. I think transfer fees are going to drop on average or medium – whatever way you want to look at it.”
TIF Thoughts on Connolly’s comments about Celtic’s financial situation…
The club’s chairman Ian P Bankier indeed has confirmed that the pandemic has had an ‘adverse impact’ on Celtic’s finances and balance sheets and the Hoops are still grappling with the challenges that the pandemic has posed in a financial sense.
Despite that, Bankier also confirmed that the club’s commercial sponsorship arrangements are still intact and that is certainly good news for the Bhoys. BBC Sport had reported that the pandemic was going to have an impact on the game’s transfer market and because of that, it is understandable why Connolly believes that Celtic might not get as much as they expected from a potential future sale of Edouard.