Celtic debt up by £4m after title 'surrender'

CELTIC revealed yesterday that their debt rose by almost £4million to £19.5million at the end of a year which, in the words of chairman Brian Quinn, saw the Premierleague title "surrendered". As the club prepare for a season without extended European participation, Quinn also stressed their determination to cut the size and scale of players' contracts.

The annual accounts for the year ended 30 June showed Celtic's turnover was down for the first time in ten years, a drop of almost ten per cent to 62.17million. A major drop in merchandising revenue was blamed, with Celtic now anticipating that avenue to improve dramatically on the back of their new five-year contract with kit manufacturer Nike.

Quinn remains content that Celtic have successfully emerged from the most serious financial recession experienced in football and expressed his confidence that, despite the shock second qualifying round exit from the Champions League to Artmedia Bratislava, new manager Gordon Strachan will oversee a healthy rebuilding programme at the club as Martin O'Neill's successor.

"The business must be based on the success of our football team," said Quinn. "Under the management of Martin O'Neill, Celtic enjoyed dominance in Scotland and re-emerged as a European force. The squad needs significant refreshing and we have begun the challenging job of rebuilding, a task that cannot be rushed and which has to be accomplished, if possible, without an appreciable drop in standards.

"Our performance on the football field was mixed [last season]. The team again participated in the Champions League group stage and won the Scottish Cup. However, the title was surrendered in the final minutes of the last day of the season, a very disappointing ending to a long and taxing championship."

Quinn goes on to state that "careful management of costs, particularly players' contracts, is essential if unpopular at times" but will raise eyebrows with his claim that Celtic "are now applying best practice in this area". The four-year deal on a 28,000-a-week salary with a get-out clause awarded to Bobo Balde and the failure to give former captain Jackie McNamara a new two-year contract for around a third of that wage will not strike many people as constituting best practice.