Revealed: Celtic break club record as details of £38m outlay emerge
The £38.39million Celtic owe in transfer instalments and other payables before the end of 2023 is a club record for a one-year period, Football Insider analysis shows.
That figure surpasses the £36.76m the 2021-22 accounts showed that they owed for the 12 months from 30 June last year.
The Hoops’ interim report for the six months up to 31 December 2022 shows that the club’s trade-related current liability debt has risen by £1.63m.
The bulk of the £38.39m figure is made up of transfer instalments, although cash owed to other third parties for goods and services is also factored in.
A further £9.2m in debt for trade and other payables is not due for repayment for more than a year.
The money owed takes into account the permanent signings of 24-year-old right-back Alistair Johnston and 22-year-old centre-back Yuki Kobayashi, who both signed before the 31 December balance sheet date.
The capture of Hyeongyu Oh for a reported £2.5m, however, took place late in the January window and is therefore not accounted for in the £38.39m figure.
Despite the record trade-related debt due in 2023, Celtic’s profit from the transfer of player registrations for the final six months of 2022 stood at £1.8m.
The club, buoyed by qualification for the lucrative Champions League group stage for the first time since 2017-18, also spent in excess of £21m in the summer.
The Glasgow giants reported a substantial £33.9m pre-tax profit for the first half of 2022-23, with revenues increasing by 44.8 per cent to £76.5m.
Recently-reinstated supremo Peter Lawwell warned that the “seasonality inherent in our earnings profile” dictates that the club will post a loss for the second half of the campaign.
An overall profit for the financial year is expected nonetheless.
In other news, Crystal Palace set sights on Celtic star Kyogo Furuhashi.