Swiss Ramble latest to take Celtic to task on false claims

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The Celtic Star

·10 settembre 2025

Swiss Ramble latest to take Celtic to task on false claims

On Saturday night at around 9pm, Celtic released ‘that’ lengthy statement…

Celtic Park. 17 May 2025.. Photo Vagelis Georgariou

“It’s one thing saving for a rainy day but it looks like Celtic are saving for a monsoon,” Swiss Ramble

We assume it was supposed to reassure. Instead, it highlighted almost all of their own out of touch, self-congratulatory, cocooned views on how to run a football club, and led to a massive backlash from the fanbase, coupled with significant concerns for the club going forward.

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The statement was long in words but short on clarity. Where fans were looking for the professionals running the club to comment on another Champions League qualification round exit, and a pig’s ear of a transfer window, Celtic instead offered us the delusionals.

For those who weren’t worried before, soon pants were on head and pencils were up the nostrils — much like those who drafted the statement in the first place.

Michael Nicholson, Chief Executive of Celtic FC looks on from the stands prior to the William Hill Premiership match between Celtic FC and St Mirren FC at Celtic Park on May 17, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Indeed, it was very much a ‘poor us, it’s affy hard’ approach to running a football club. Kinda like Randall Graves in Clerks – “This job would be great if it wasn’t for the… customers.”

In Celtic’s case, they added – UEFA’s Financial Sustainability Regulations, the transfer windows, those pesky other clubs, agents, players demanding wages, the need to strategise for stuff, the expectation to prepare for eventualities, being asked to do what other football clubs do, not being allowed to set our parameters against our basket-case city rivals, keeping up with inflation, spending vast reserves, and — heaven forbid — explaining ourselves.

Celtic v Kilmarnock – Celtic chairman Peter Lawwell and CEO Michael Nicholson during the cinch Premiership match at Celtic Park on Saturday February 17, 2024. Photo Andrew Milligan

It really was the kind of statement that shareholders should pay close attention to, perhaps even dropping an email into the CEO’s inbox asking – ‘Did you just outline all your failings in a statement designed to excuse yourselves? Please explain.’

Given the reaction, the always entertaining ‘RGC Podcast’ reached out to football finance expert Swiss Ramble, who hardly needs any introduction given his reputation. His verdict on the club’s statement, particularly the FSR comments, was, as expected, blunt.

Here’s the text we kindly received from @SwissRamble in full as we’ve been asked if we could post it by a few of the lazy lads. 😀
– mercoledì 10 settembre 2025

“I’m very familiar with the Celtic statement, as my Twitter timeline blew up on Saturday night. One of my mates is a huge Celtic fan and he also contacted me, suggesting that I take a look. I’d love to write about it, but I’ve got a To Do list longer than Bohemian Rhapsody!

“Anyway, suffice to say, the statement is nonsense. Or more accurately, it’s basically correct, but spectacularly misses the point. It’s true that cash does not play a part in UEFA’s FFP assessment, but so what? The fact is that Celtic are well within both elements of UEFA’s regulations.”

Peter Lawwell, Brendan Rodgers and Michael Nicholson. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

He backed this up with a breakdown of the 2023/24 accounts –

“The last time I reviewed Celtic, based on the 2023/24 accounts, they had a huge profit, which is a combination of the reported profit plus deductions for ‘healthy’ expenditure, i.e. infrastructure, academy, community and women’s football. So they were absolutely fine for the financial sustainability calculation.

“They were also comfortably OK for the new squad cost control ratio, which compares squad costs (player wages, player amortisation and agent fees) with total revenue (including profit from player sales). Based on 2023/24, I estimated Celtic’s ratio as 43%, which is miles below UEFA’s 70% target. Of course, things can change, but Celtic’s 2024/25 accounts will be boosted by even more money from the Champions League, plus the sales of O’Riley and Furuhashi (amongst others).”

Perhaps most striking of all was his assessment of Celtic’s reserves –

“Coming back to the cash, here’s some stats for you. Celtic had £77m in June 2024, which was around five times as much as the rest of the Scottish Premiership put together. In fact, only one club in the mighty Premier League held more cash than Celtic.

It’s one thing saving for a rainy day, but it looks like Celtic are saving for a monsoon. The price of excessive caution was clearly seen by the Champions League elimination. Spending money is obviously not a guarantee of success, but it sure helps.”

Malcom McKay and Peter Lawwell are seen during the Premiership match between Celtic FC and Hibernian FC at Celtic Park on May 10, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Celtic are financially strong — stronger than any rival in Scotland and many clubs across Europe. But instead of projecting confidence, and reassuring the support, the board issued a statement absolutely drenched in self-pity and exhibiting either a worryingly weak understanding of UEFA’s financial regulations, or a willingness to gaslight the support.

Celtic supporters are rightly frustrated by that statement and the earlier attempts via the tabloid press to try and deflect blame to Brendan Rodgers.

Peter Lawwell, Michael Nicholson and Chris McKay applaud during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Livingston at Celtic Park on August 23, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Significant shareholders should probably be concerned too. Because rather than explaining strategy, Celtic’s board chose to attempt excuse themselves. And in doing so, they may have revealed more about their failings than they intended.

Missing Attachment

Niall J

Celtic in the Eighties – Out Now!…

Celtic in the Eighties by the late, great David Potter is out now on Celtic Star Books. Celtic in the Eighties is now available in the Celtic superstore and all other club shops. And don’t forget that you can still purchase your copy directly from Celticstarbooks.com for same day postage.