Celtic have revealed a huge revenue drop of £24.2million since the start of the season – with the club counting the cost of their failure to qualify for the Champions League.
The Hoops entered the play-off round of the Champions League only to be dumped out by Kazakhstani outfit Kairat Almaty on penalties following dismal performances across the two legs.
It came off the back of a summer transfer window where the Premiership champions failed to secure key targets, and less than three months into the season, Brendan Rodgers’ announced his shock resignation.Tensions between supporters and the hierarchy boiled over at November’s Annual General Meeting, where former chairman Peter Lawwell was forced to adjourn the meeting well ahead of schedule because of the fury from punters.
Celtic fans were once again left frustrated by last month’s January transfer window, where the club recruited five new players all on loan deals. But despite the noise around the club, interim boss Martin O’Neill – who returned to his post following a doomed stint under Wilfried Nancy – has restored some parity, closing the gap on league leaders Hearts to just six points with a game in hand.
He has guided Celtic into the knockout rounds of the Europa League where they will face Stuttgart and will also be hoping to go all the way in the Scottish Cup, with bitter rivals Rangers standing in the way of a semi final spot.
In their interim report, Celtic have announced that revenue has decreased by £24.2million from £83.5million to £59.4million. They have however confirmed a profit before taxation of £13.2milliion, which is down from their previous figure of £43.9million. They add that their period end of cash now stands at £67.4million.In their statement, Interim chairman Brian Wilson said: “We witnessed a great deal of change and disruption in the six months to 31 December 2025.
After winning our 4 th successive league title last season and the 13 th in 14 seasons, we were looking forward to the next campaign with positivity. We had no prior warning of the resignation of our then first team manager.”Our exit from the Champions League in August 2025 was a bitter blow. Following the departure of Brendan Rodgers in October 2025, stability was restored by Martin O’Neill and his backroom team before we appointed Wilfried Nancy in early December.
Appointing a manager in mid-season inevitably comes with challenges and regrettably the implementation of Wilfried’s style and ideas did not achieve our immediate objective of winning games and we took the difficult decision to part company with Wilfried in January 2026.”We again turned to Martin, Shaun Maloney and Mark Fotheringham and their backroom colleagues to steer the Club through to the coming summer and are pleased to have seen Celtic return to winning football matches in early 2026. We owe them and the players, who have also had to deal with change and uncertainty, a great debt of gratitude.
“Participation in the Champions League carries great financial as well as footballing significance.
The results for the six months ended 31 December 2025 show revenues of £59.4m (2024: £83.5m) and a profit from trading, representing the profit excluding player related gains and charges, totalling £4.2m (2024: £26.9m). Operating profit, which includes player transactions, amounted to £11.1m (2024: £42.0m).
“The decline in H1 revenue compared to the same period last year is primarily due to Europa League participation as opposed to Champions League participation, which we had last season.
This reflects the lower media rights values associated with the competition along with lower ticket pricing.”The reduction in profit from trading was driven almost entirely by the reduction in revenue.
There was also a lower level of net gains from player trading, with £21.5m in the prior period compared to £14.1m in this one. The latter figure included the disposal of Nicolas Kühn, Gustaf Lagerbielke, Marco Tilio and Adam Idah. The reduction in operating profit also included an increase in amortisation over the previous year from £6.4m to £7.1m reflecting the investment in the first team squad.
“We went into the January 2026 transfer window with the objective of strengthening the squad to give Martin, his backroom team and the players the best possible opportunity of retaining the SPFL title, progressing in the Scottish Cup and making an impact in Europe.
Funding was available for new signings and we introduced six players to enhance thequality of the squad. We were pleased to acquire the temporary registrations of Julián Araujo, Tomáš Čvančara, Benjamin Arthur, Joel Mvuka, Junior Adamu and the permanent registration of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
“Some of these players brought in on loan were acquired with the option to acquire them permanently, which is an approach that has served the Club well in previous transfer windows including current first team players Cameron Carter-Vickers and Jota. We also look forward to the return of our long-term injured players to the squad.
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