Super elite club status or as we are?

[Winter]

Something I'm sure many, like myself have thought about A lot. If there was some interested Arabian Prince or Thai billionaire, even a company , red bull for example. If you were given the choice, would you prefer to see Celtic retake its place (it's rightful place) at the top table of elite clubs by selling out to ..lets just say Coca Cola Celtic? In return we would have access to EPL style financial muscle, brand new stadium and training grounds. No one batting an eyelid when Celtic buys a defender for £30million. I'm curious how many folk would want that? I look at spurs and their spanking new stadium, champions league finalists, some of the world's best players at their disposal. All very appealing especially given the behemoth that is Celtic without all that, the potential for Celtic backed up financially by the likes of the ENIC group in spurs case or coca cola for us say, the sky's the limit. What cost though? Spurs haven't won anything for a decade or more not even a cup final though that could change in Madrid but I doubt it. I think Liverpool will win but the point is does it matter in this day in age who or what owns the club? To me yes it does, I dont want to be an English hand out club for the sake of it. Still, season by season i get more and more infuriated that clubs such as spurs or Bournemouth even can attract better quality players due to their financial situation. Bournemouth and Celtic in a bidding war for a player would be like Celtic and Airdrie battling for a players signature. Bournemouths stadium has a 10thousand capacity. Ridiculous. It seems as though the only way back to the top is to sell your soul (your club). Of recent a lot of parallels have been drawn between Celtic and Ajax, but what Ajax have done (Europa league final and champions league semi final in 3 seasons) that success has cost Ajax the best of their squad to the elite clubs like Barcelona and PSG. I want success for our club but not at any cost. Champions league final will again have no champions compete the final. There's no end in sight. Years now I've heard that the bubble will burst. It won't unless you're Portsmouth or rangers these big 5 leagues won't be allowed to fail. Should Celtic, Steaua Bucharest, Red Star do the same?

 

[The Shamrock]

Something I'm sure many, like myself have thought about A lot. If there was some interested Arabian Prince or Thai billionaire, even a company , red bull for example. If you were given the choice, would you prefer to see Celtic retake its place (it's rightful place) at the top table of elite clubs by selling out to ..lets just say Coca Cola Celtic? In return we would have access to EPL style financial muscle, brand new stadium and training grounds. No one batting an eyelid when Celtic buys a defender for £30million. I'm curious how many folk would want that? I look at spurs and their spanking new stadium, champions league finalists, some of the world's best players at their disposal. All very appealing especially given the behemoth that is Celtic without all that, the potential for Celtic backed up financially by the likes of the ENIC group in spurs case or coca cola for us say, the sky's the limit. What cost though? Spurs haven't won anything for a decade or more not even a cup final though that could change in Madrid but I doubt it. I think Liverpool will win but the point is does it matter in this day in age who or what owns the club? To me yes it does, I dont want to be an English hand out club for the sake of it. Still, season by season i get more and more infuriated that clubs such as spurs or Bournemouth even can attract better quality players due to their financial situation. Bournemouth and Celtic in a bidding war for a player would be like Celtic and Airdrie battling for a players signature. Bournemouths stadium has a 10thousand capacity. Ridiculous. It seems as though the only way back to the top is to sell your soul (your club). Of recent a lot of parallels have been drawn between Celtic and Ajax, but what Ajax have done (Europa league final and champions league semi final in 3 seasons) that success has cost Ajax the best of their squad to the elite clubs like Barcelona and PSG. I want success for our club but not at any cost. Champions league final will again have no champions compete the final. There's no end in sight. Years now I've heard that the bubble will burst. It won't unless you're Portsmouth or rangers these big 5 leagues won't be allowed to fail. Should Celtic, Steaua Bucharest, Red Star do the same?

Full of pros and cons, Winter. The funding that kind of sponsorship would bring would be immense for us but we still have to play cup games that involve cold, dark, wintry night in Brechin etc so I still don't think we would attract the cream of the crop.
I, too, thought the bubble would have burst by now but it's showing no signs and even if it did the gulf between what the EPL clubs with their larger population can bring would still exist.
There's also the fear that it would feel much too corporate and no longer 'a club like no other'.

 

[JamSam67]

Financial Fair Play was supposed to make things even. Aye right FIFA And UEFA are again pretending one / two transfer window bans so what these clubs are still hoovering up Cash. Ban them from the Competition
Mm then maybe see a difference. But no again let’s change the system so even more money pours into these clubs.
It’s now fixed within 4/5 years if not sooner
The Champions League will be invite only.
They’ll even stop teams who have good seasons in the big leagues from getting in.
But we’ll still be Celtic. keep your sugar daddies cash.
Celtic are a club like no other with sound principles. Good morals. And a great Family
That’ll do me mon the Hoops.

HH

 

[The Shamrock]

Dead right, Sam. It's the fans that keep the club afloat financially along with the board, even although we complain about the lack of spending. When all is said and done Celtic are on a robust financial footing and unlike Skintco F.C. with their mountains of debt, we will never die.

 

[boab1916]

Celtic only need to reach a bigger audience and we are seeing strands of this with the Athelitico memorial, the adulation from top players etc, sooner or later a major player will see the advantages on a bigger scale and it will happen, there will be no takeover, just business exploiting a finacial sleeping giant in a new game. IMO before people go mental.

 

[Winter]

Full of pros and cons, Winter. The funding that kind of sponsorship would bring would be immense for us but we still have to play cup games that involve cold, dark, wintry night in Brechin etc so I still don't think we would attract the cream of the crop.
I, too, thought the bubble would have burst by now but it's showing no signs and even if it did the gulf between what the EPL clubs with their larger population can bring would still exist.
There's also the fear that it would feel much too corporate and no longer 'a club like no other'.

That's what I meant by the sell your soul (club) part. The new spurs, juventus stadiums and there are many more on the way. These aren't paid for by the clubs, though they probably pay something. I can live with spurs being an elite club , they have got a European pedigree, first British club to win a European trophy. Not the big one but still they've won European honours in their history. It's the Bournemouth, stoke, Leipzig, and even PSG have only ever won the UEFA cup and the inter-toto cup (I dont think the toto cup should count unless I saw the rains down in Africa ?) these are the clubs that annoy me, or rather the system that allows a club like PSG to try to buy the champions league in a season, fail, but still carry on like nothing happened, it's only the best part of €300million it cost for neymar and Mbappe. That's enough to fund a small country. Clubs like PSG can't generate that kind of income alone so sky sports favours the big 5. It'll take some revolution in television technology like the firestick but more complex an idea than mine to blow Murdoch and the Emirates, Etihad out of the game

 

[Winter]

Celtic only need to reach a bigger audience and we are seeing strands of this with the Athelitico memorial, the adulation from top players etc, sooner or later a major player will see the advantages on a bigger scale and it will happen, there will be no takeover, just business exploiting a finacial sleeping giant in a new game. IMO before people go mental.

I guess that would have to entail an audience out with Scotland. No one can deny the pull Celtic has in the states, Australia, Canada and Asia. The CL is heading for a closed shop definately. Ironically the first Champions cup was invitation only, hibs took part but it was a different game not governed by finance and business. I heard or I read recently talk of UEFA thinking about reintroducing the 3rd European club tournament again. I could see a breakaway happening similar to the premier league's breakaway from the FA's

 

[Bridie Bhoy]

Financial Fair Play was supposed to make things even. Aye right FIFA And UEFA are again pretending one / two transfer window bans so what these clubs are still hoovering up Cash. Ban them from the Competition
Mm then maybe see a difference. But no again let’s change the system so even more money pours into these clubs.
It’s now fixed within 4/5 years if not sooner
The Champions League will be invite only.
They’ll even stop teams who have good seasons in the big leagues from getting in.
But we’ll still be Celtic. keep your sugar daddies cash.
Celtic are a club like no other with sound principles. Good morals. And a great Family
That’ll do me mon the Hoops.

HH

Sam - FFP was trumpeting as evening things up, but the reality was it was designed to halt the cyclic nature where dominating teams came and went. It tried to freeze the status quo so that the teams that happened to be top at the time could continue to invest at higher levels than those below to stop any up and coming upstarts with sugar daddies pumping in silly money to try to join the elite. It has failed to an extent as Man City still managed to circumvent (or allegedly break) the rules to become a dominant team - at least domestically.

You are right that the Champions League will soon become a near closed shop to stop big boys like Man U missing out the CL gravy train. Plebs like Celtic won't be welcome.

To answer the original question, I should say "no" of course I wouldn't want us to sell our soul to become a major player in Europe, but the reality is that I'd celebrate our rise and successes as much as anyone if it did happen. Really what is the difference between being owned by an Irish tax avoiding billionaire who doesn't put too much money into us or an Arabian prince who ploughs in stupid amounts of cash? There may be ethical grounds that we would hate about the owner, but lets be honest - there are very few billionaires that are squeaky clean when it comes to how they hoarded their $s?

 

[Winter]

Nail - head right there BB to us supporters one billionaire is the same as another but still there are dangers, scheisters like the ones who conned Portsmouth and other clubs. It's amazing to think that Dundee utd and Aberdeen were super powers in the 80s appearing in European finals and semi finals regularly. I constantly heard through the late 90s how no Scottish club would ever compete in a euro final again then seville and Manchester happened within a few years of each other in the naughties and how the games changed in the last decade.

 

[Sandman]

PSG mentioned in a few posts.

Their time may have come - Quatari owners looking to invest in England - Leeds mentioned.

Bored, according to rumour with the lack of competition in France. So if they get into England, you can be sure PSG funding levels will drop dramatically.

That's what happenens when you deal with the devil. Celtic have an unusual and almost uniquely fortunate position in that OUR billionaire owner also has an emotional tie to the club through Irish heritage.

It's something that will hopefully prevent us ever being 'culled' for the sake of financial efficiency.

Sure, I'd like to see him chuck a few extra bucks our way but that's something we may see in coming years as he winds down to retirement and attends more games; spend some of your pension on the pitch, DD.

However, when you look around at the sheer cut-throat chaos of the big leagues, then Celtic is definitely a case of sit tight, stay well run and prominent, and wait for evolution with our hat in the ring; better the Devil you know in our case.

 

[Winter]

PSG mentioned in a few posts.

Their time may have come - Quatari owners looking to invest in England - Leeds mentioned.

Bored, according to rumour with the lack of competition in France. So if they get into England, you can be sure PSG funding levels will drop dramatically.

That's what happenens when you deal with the devil. Celtic have an unusual and almost uniquely fortunate position in that OUR billionaire owner also has an emotional tie to the club through Irish heritage.

It's something that will hopefully prevent us ever being 'culled' for the sake of financial efficiency.

Sure, I'd like to see him chuck a few extra bucks our way but that's something we may see in coming years as he winds down to retirement and attends more games; spend some of your pension on the pitch, DD.

However, when you look around at the sheer cut-throat chaos of the big leagues, then Celtic is definitely a case of sit tight, stay well run and prominent, and wait for evolution with our hat in the ring; better the Devil you know in our case.

Makes you wonder if they threw that final they just lost? Get what you're saying sandy it's deeper than that though sky are the biggest culprits imo owners come and go but sky Italy, sky Germany,England, France and Spain. I dont pretend to know if they are ploughing the same amounts into those leagues but i think why wouldn't they? I'll never subscribe to sky they have f@*d us over big time. Before the intro of android boxes and firesticks Scotland the country amounted to something like 20% of sky uks income revenue but only invested something like 9% my figures might be out but you get the jist it's the reason why the box and stick are so popular, not just for what they do but many folk making a conscious decision to boycott the sky contract so more power to them. Will it male a difference? Doubt it unless Murdoch says oh give them more. Can you imagine what 5million to Dundee for getting relegated from the spl would do for that club ?

 

[Winter]

Financial Fair Play was supposed to make things even. Aye right FIFA And UEFA are again pretending one / two transfer window bans so what these clubs are still hoovering up Cash. Ban them from the Competition
Mm then maybe see a difference. But no again let’s change the system so even more money pours into these clubs.
It’s now fixed within 4/5 years if not sooner
The Champions League will be invite only.
They’ll even stop teams who have good seasons in the big leagues from getting in.
But we’ll still be Celtic. keep your sugar daddies cash.
Celtic are a club like no other with sound principles. Good morals. And a great Family
That’ll do me mon the Hoops.

HH

FFP was and is no more than FIFA and UEFA pretending to do something when it was no more than a band aid on an open razor slash. They blatantly allowed PSG to cheat with the Mbappe loan , not really a loan , call it a loan just now. They say they'll punish Chelsea by putting a transfer embargo on the club. Guess what UEFA Chelsea are way ahead of you its the reason why Chelsea have over 20 -30 Of Europe's top young talents out on loan at almost every club in Europe's competitions so that even if They are hit with an embargo then just recall our loanees -simple

 

[Millsy]

''Our billionaire owner'' ...we don't technically have an 'owner' , DD is the largest shareholder ( 34.9% ) , true, but doesn't own Celtic .

HH