Peter Lawwell has revealed for the first time Rangers’ demotion has cost his club £30 MILLION!
The Celtic Chief Executive has been heavily criticised for failing to splash enough cash on new players. He’s always maintained the Parkhead club could survive without their city rivals and insists that is still the case.
But he has conceded the loss of Rangers from the Scottish Premiership has hit the club in the pocket.
Lawwell said: “When Rangers went down, we took £100 off the season tickets. So that is £4 million for two years. The loss of games against Rangers has cost us at least another £3m.
“Then there is a perception among our supporters that there is no competition, and that you are going to win anyway, so you don’t go to the game. So we could have lost £10m a year, quite easily, on the back of Rangers going down.
“How we have coped with that is by seeing that coming. The strategy, as I said at the time and over a 10-11 year period was to be successful on the park, and stable off it.
“In that time, Hearts and Rangers have gone bust and yet we are still getting it.”
There are now fresh fears over the long-term future of Rangers, with the news that an unsuccessful share issue could leave them in big trouble.
That wasn’t welcomed by Lawwell.
So is the fact English football is getting richer and richer while Scottish clubs are finding it tougher than ever to operate.
“It does concern me, and shows the challenges we face,” said Lawwell. “Rangers couldn’t raise £10-million, and they are going out for £4-million. Therefore there is a chronic lack of investment in the game.
“If Rangers can’t do it, who can do it? But I wary of being pessimistic and talking the game down.
“There are facts that are not good signs. Colonisation of the Premier League is a concern.
“The English Premier League bus is going full pelt, but we are at the bus stop. If we don’t get on the bus, we don’t know where we’ll end up.”
In general, Lawwell believes the criticism from Celtic supporters isn’t justified and admits there will come a time in the future when he will move on.
“I don’t think it is fair, and I don’t think it is rational,” he said. “It is reactive to a bad, bad result.
“In this job you can’t do it forever. There will come a point but it isn’t now.”
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