Involvement in the Champions League group stages boosted Scottish Premiership side Celtic's revenue by almost 95% and "underlined the financial gulf which the rest of Scottish football is struggling to bridge," according to Greig Cameron of the LONDON TIMES. The club brought in £61.2M ($76.6M) during the six-month period to the end of December, an increase from the £31.4M during the same part of '15. In contrast, the combined annual turnover for Aberdeen (£13.4M/$16.8M), Rangers (£22.2M/$27.8M) and Heart of Midlothian (£10M/$12.5M) is around £45.6M ($57.1M), according to the most recently available figures for each club. In a release to the stock exchange, the Parkhead club said that it made a pre-tax profit of £18.6M ($23.3M) between July and the end of the year, up from £11.9M. On "an underlying basis, stripping out the impact of transfer fees paid and received," the profit was £21.4M ($26.8M) compared to £1.6M. The "bumper revenue in the half-year was primarily driven by money from" TV, multimedia and other commercial activities which "trebled" to £29.9M ($37.4M). Home games against Man City, Barcelona and Bundesliga side Borussia Mönchengladbach "helped to lift match day and stadium revenue" 52% from £14.8M to £22.6M ($28.3M). Merchandising was up 16% to £8.7M ($10.9M) (LONDON TIMES, 2/7). The BBC reported Celtic recouped £2M ($2.5M) from Stefan Johansen's move to League Championship side Fulham, while £9.5M ($11.9M) was spent on summer transfers, with Manager Brendan Rodgers bringing in Moussa Dembele, Scott Sinclair, Cristian Gamboa and Dorus de Vries. The "latest figure is higher than group revenue for the whole of last season," £52M (BBC, 2/6). In Glasgow, Craig Swan reported Chair Ian Bankier is "thrilled at the progress, but insists Celtic will keep pushing." He said, "Within the period reported, we have achieved our key objective of qualification for the group stages of the UEFA Champions League and we have won the League Cup. We also currently sit 27 points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership, whilst we continue to progress in the Scottish Cup with the prospect of winning our first domestic treble since 2001." Bankier insists the club will "back" Rodgers' visions for producing talent and said, "We continue to pursue our strategy of investing in the youth academy" (DAILY RECORD, 2/6).
