Celtic overpaid for land at centre of '˜State Aid' saga

Glasgow City Council has revealed that Celtic paid three times more than the market value for the piece of land at the centre of the '˜State Aid' saga.

Celtic purchase land around their Celtic Park stadium in 2009. Picture: John Devlin

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The club purchased the Westthorn site, beside Celtic Park, for £739,500 in 2009, with some accusing the council of selling the land for a cut down price to benefit the Parkhead club.

Glasgow City Council’s legal fees topped £280,000 as they successfully defended themselves when the European Commission dismissed the allegations.

They’ve now revealed that the land was worth £200,000 and, rather than getting a deal, Celtic were forced to pay over the odds.

The council have decided to put all of the documentation online in the hope of showing transparency to those who continually question the deal.

On their website, they state: “What did Celtic pay for Westthorn: The disposal figure was agreed at £675,000. When the sale was completed in April 2009, an inflationary uplift was added to this sum giving an actual sale price of £739,500.

“The retrospective independent valuation carried out in 2014 concluded that the site was actually only worth £200,000.”