Celtic chairman won´t risk club´s future for short-term gain

Celtic chairman John Reid told shareholders on Friday that he has no intention of risking the Scottish club’s long-term financial future for short-term success on the pitch.

Reid and chief executive Peter Lawwell met shareholders at the club’s AGM at Parkhead and gave a passionate response to accusations that failure to buy new players in January had cost the club their fourth successive Scottish Premier League title.

Reid pointed to the financial difficulties currently being suffered by Glasgow rivals Rangers, who are reportedly around 30 million pounds in debt, and also highlighted Celtic’s own money problems of 15 years ago.

“I say look around you, great institutions are falling apart or finding themselves in hock to others, from banks to commercial concerns and governments,” he said.

“You become controlled by a financial institution and utterly dependant on it if your level of debt to that institution is greater than you can afford.

“You can’t just borrow endless amounts of money to try and make up for the financial advantages that your competitors have.

“That way lies ruin. The vast majority of fans and shareholders know that.

“You have to make sure you don’t fall in to the populist trap of trying to buy an easy ride for the next few months by selling the future of the club and that is what we won’t do.

“The experience of being three hours from bankruptcy and administration, as we were in 1994, is something that those of us whose hearts belong to Celtic will never forget.

“We have learned our lesson in the past. If you spend money you don’t have to such an extent that you get debts that you can’t afford, then you lose control of your own destiny.

“This board is going to do everything we can to make sure that never happens again to Celtic.”