Celtic are quite comfortably the richest club in Scottish football with the club’s most recent financial results confirming an annual turnover of £90.6 million.
A large chunk of that financial superiority comes from the manner in which the club is able to make huge profits from its participation in European competition each season. And although Brendan Rodgers’ side are competing in the Europa League this time around, last season’s foray in to the Champions League provided a huge amount of revenue for the Scottish champions.
New figures released today by UEFA confirm that the Glasgow club made £32.47 million from making it to last season’s Champions League group stages. A figure that makes up no less than 35 per cent of Celtic’s annual revenue and enables a number of the club’s vital budgets.
Sitting at the top table
Like even the biggest clubs across Europe, Celtic have identified UEFA’s premier competition as a perfect way of making substantial fortunes whilst playing the biggest clubs from around the world. And as such the Glasgow giants suddenly lose their notable size and influence compared to English, Spanish and Italian giants that enjoy revenues four or five times the size of the Parkhead club’s own, impressive figures.
Last season Celtic’s £32.5 million windfall sat just seventeenth in the grand scheme of things, with more successful clubs making more and more from their continued involvement in the competition past the group stages. In fact, last season’s finalists, Real Madrid and Liverpool, made an impressive £88.7 million and £83.8 million respectively for going all the way.
Yet, that’s not to say that Celtic’s own figures should be smirked at. When we narrow down the list of clubs to those that never made it past the group stages, the Scottish champions actually sit fourth among their European peers.
Indeed, only Monaco, Napoli and RB Leipzig were able to make more from last season’s Champions League than Celtic. Yet Rodgers’ side still managed to pip comparable clubs from larger leagues like Borussia Dortmund, Atletico Madrid and Spartak Moscow when it came to making money from UEFA’s top competition.
A Scottish advantage
Although Celtic fans may deem their role as a Scottish Premiership club as a comparative disadvantage against the rich clubs of the English Premier League or German Bundesliga, they do have a slight advantage in UEFA competitions when it comes to money made from television revenue.
The way UEFA breaks down the money it awards to clubs that reach the group stages of the Champions League means that 15 per cent of the total pot of money is allocated based on which television market pool the specific club is part of.
Since Scotland doesn’t have its own television deal with UEFA (i.e we watch our games on English broadcasters BT Sport and Sky Sports before that) Celtic actually gain a notable advantage as they then get a slice of the TV pot allocated for British clubs as a whole - which means Premier League money.
As such, a massive 50 per cent of Celtic’s revenue from last season’s Champions League comes as a result of the British TV pool, with Peter Lawwell & Co. earning an impressive £16.145 million for simply being placed in Glasgow.
To put that in to context, Celtic earned almost four times as much from their TV market pool revenue than Belgian counterparts Anderlecht and even made more through this source of income than clubs from much larger leagues, such as Dortmund, Atletico and Olympiacos. The Scottish champions even made £2.65 million more than Manchester United through such means.
Indeed, while Celtic may be limited by their domestic TV deals, they actually benefit hugely from not being part of a Scottish-specific broadcast deal with UEFA. And each time they take part in the Champions League and reach the group stages or further they get to enjoy a large slice of a British pool that provides a substantial fortune to the club.
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