Dead rubber bottom six post-split fixtures were becoming a regular occurrence for the Well. Since 2016/17, Motherwell have finished in the bottom six in 7 of 9 seasons (78%), which is in stark contrast to the decade that came before - where they were top six regulars, including finishing 2nd (twice) and 3rd (twice).

Nearly 25 years ago, Motherwell entered administration in 2002/03 and went on to finish 12th; being spared relegation on account of Falkirk falling foul of the SPL regulations requiring a 10,000 seater stadium. From the following season (2003/04) until 2015/16, Motherwell finished in the bottom six in only 3 of 13 seasons (23%). It’s quite a swing to then go from that to 7/9 seasons in the bottom half.

However the context to Motherwell’s decline in league finishes would be that the financial landscape has changed significantly over the last decade. The return of Rangers reduced the number of top six spots available straight away. But more than that, I wrote last summer about the growing gulf in the Scottish Premiership between the ‘big five’ and the rest of the league. This highlighted how the financial gap has widened between ‘smaller’ clubs like Motherwell and the ‘bigger’ clubs; Hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen. Despite the ‘Well seeing a 74% growth in revenue since 2016/17 - more than Aberdeen’s 42% growth over the same period - the actual £ difference between the two has grown from £11.1m to £14.4m.

The gap between Motherwell and Hearts has grown by £10m in less than a decade, with the difference rising from £7.1m to £17.1m. These figures demonstrate that for a fan owned community club - with the 9th highest budget in the division - avoiding relegation is a realistic base target, with anything else a welcome bonus. Breaking into the top six, while (likely) finishing above both Hibs and Aberdeen - is seriously impressive given the financial disparity.

These accounts run to the end of May 2025, just before Motherwell entered the new season under their third manager in six months, hoping they could outperform their budget and reverse this bottom six trend.

Of course one year later and Motherwell are winning plaudits across the country, as they currently sit 4th with 57 points, which is already their highest points total since 2014. Motherwell had five players voted in to the PFA team of the year - more than any other club, which is testament to the club’s performances this year.

While on the park things have had an almost extraordinary upturn, the current season was built from a relatively healthy set of financial accounts last year, which will now be analysed in considerable detail, including:

• Revenue: SPFL, cups, UEFA solidarity & the fans

• Expenses: a high wage/revenue %, but a small overall wage bill

• Player Trading: reliant on this to break even, a potential risk

• Future outlook: small loss likely to turn profit in coming seasons, thanks to Lennon Miller sale last year and improvement on the pitch this year

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REVENUE

Motherwell list two revenue figures in their report, the standard turnover figure used by most clubs, but then an additional overall income figure which includes both other income & profit made on player sales. As far as standard turnover goes, this was a record season for Motherwell as they brought in £7.3m, a significant £1.3m (21%) increase from the previous year.

For overall income, their figure of £8.7m wasn’t quite a record year as it can be beaten by the £10.5m recorded in 2020/21 - the behind closed doors season where they registered £0m in gate receipts.

The 2020/21 number was thanks to

• £1.5m from a £2.95m Scottish Government loan appearing as revenue (the rest went to the balance sheet)

• £2.29m of business interruption insurance due to covid-19

• £2.8m of transfer income (the bulk of which was from the the club record sale of David Turnbull)

The growth in income in 2024/25 was welcome for Motherwell, and comes despite the fact that the main driver of financial growth amongst Scottish clubs has not been seen at Fir Park since 2022 - European football. Furthermore, Motherwell not only finished in the bottom six once again, missing out on one lucrative Old Firm visit to Fir Park, but they were also the unlucky team given just 18 home matches instead of 19, due to the SPFL’s post-split fixture balancing.

Despite the growth last season, Motherwell still had only the 9th highest turnover in the division, and so their 8th place finish was about as the finances would ‘expect’. It also makes the incredible upturn in performance in the current campaign (2025/26) all the more impressive.

The rise in turnover was driven by various different revenue streams, and we will now review the three biggest earners for Motherwell, 1.) prize money, 2.) solidarity payments and 3.) the fans.

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1.) PRIZE MONEY EARNED

Although the performance levels last season under Stuart Kettlewell and Michael Wimmer weren’t as high as has been seen under Jens Berthel Askou this season; Motherwell’s league position still improved from the year before. SPFL prize money increases by league position and so Motherwell’s 8th place finish - one higher than the previous year’s 9th - meant a greater financial prize. The SPFL have continued to grow the overall pot year-on-year and so Motherwell earned £1.93m for finishing 8th, an increase of nearly £200k from the £1.76m received a year earlier for finishing 9th.

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Motherwell state that broadcasting income rose by £278k, thanks to the increase in SPFL club fees laid out above, but also due to the new income stream from the Premier Sports facility fees - which I calculated to be worth £75,000 + VAT per club.

In the domestic cups, the League Cup was relatively successful as the Steelmen reached their first Semi-Final since 2017/18, where they lost out 2-1 to Rangers, after leading 1-0 at half time through an Andy Halliday goal. This brought a little under £200k in prize money, which comprised their Semi-Final elimination payment (£150k) and the £48k in TV money for their two televised fixtures (Vs Partick Thistle & Vs Rangers).

In the Scottish Cup, Motherwell lost 1-0 at the first hurdle at McDiarmid Park as St Johnstone progressed to the last 16. Their elimination payment from the SFA was only £23,000, with no TV facilitation payment; meaning total domestic cup revenue of £221,000.

The value in a cup run is not just the elimination payments though; the ticket sales from two additional home matches and the Semi-Final gate sharing would have more than doubled this figure. The gate receipts from the two Semi-Finals are pooled and split equally between the four clubs, after costs have been deducted. Therefore, two Semi-Finals of Motherwell Vs Rangers and Celtic Vs Aberdeen are actually ideal for a club like Motherwell, at least from a financial point of view - as it maximises revenue when both Semi-Finals are sold out.

If we look in the current season (to be reflected in next year’s accounts), in which Motherwell again made the Semi-Final of the League Cup, a Motherwell Vs St Mirren tie resulted in 30,000 unsold seats - and so less ticket money for all four sides.

Furthermore, as with most things in football, the costs associated with staging games at Hampden have increased too. More police officers are drafted in for cup Semi-Finals than would be needed at Fir Park for a normal league match for example, and the clubs bear the cost of this. Therefore despite Motherwell reaching the same stage, of the same tournament, playing in front of the same number of Motherwell fans - it’s likely Motherwell generated over £100k less this year compared to last.

2.) SOLIDARITY PAYMENTS

One of the biggest boosts to turnover was the money received from UEFA. Firstly, the “UEFA Club benefits programme”, which is money paid to all clubs in Europe for releasing players to UEFA national team competitions. The figure disclosed by UEFA in 2025 stated Motherwell received over €300k, covering two Nations League campaigns, all European Qualifiers and EURO 2024. I previously calculated a payment of €174k to Motherwell, thanks to Liam Kelly signing a short-term contract before re-joining Rangers, to ensure Motherwell would receive the UEFA compensation.

Motherwell account for this under “SFA licensing & IPP (International Player participation)”, which brought in £136,560 in 2024/25. This is the highest such payment since the £264k received in 21/22 when Stephen O’Donnell and Declan Gallagher were in Scotland’s Euro 2020 squad. In the two previous financial years Motherwell recorded IPP of £45k and £78k, giving a three year total of £259k (€300k).

One thing to note however is the €300k received from UEFA will not all be pure profit, as occasionally the clubs don’t always retain all of the payments. For example, if a player is loaned out then a common caveat in any loan agreement would be that the club taking the player on loan would be the beneficiary of any such payments for releasing the players.

Similarly, and especially in the modern game, a players’ agent will always represent the best interests of the player. This may mean that for example in the case of Liam Kelly signing a new contract, a percentage of UEFA’s fee to Motherwell may have gone directly to the player as part of the agreement to sign a short-term deal. Therefore although Motherwell did receive the full €300k payment over three years from UEFA, some of this will then flow directly to other parties.

Even more lucrative than the Liam-Kelly-Scotland-Euro-2024 money was UEFA’s solidarity payments - which are distributed via the SFA to all Scottish Premiership clubs that don’t play in UEFA group stage football. Last year I told that there would be record solidarity payments for Scottish clubs, as part of UEFA’s reformatting of European competition, resulting in two separate payments. This will have resulted in the largest ever solidarity payments of a little over £1m per eligible club.

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After finishing sixth in 2023 - their best top flight finish since 1985 - they went one better in 2024 when they reached fifth; qualifying for Europe for the first time since 1988. Last season’s sixth place finish was then secured ahead of Hearts and Motherwell, meaning St. Mirren became the only team outwith Rangers and Celtic to finish in the top six in each of the past three seasons.

It’s a remarkable performance on the park, but it’s clear even from the layout of the annual report that this isn’t the only focus of the club. Have no doubt, St. Mirren are serious about helping their community.

Most Chairman’s Statements begin with a review of the results on the pitch, or highlight any financial success stories off the park. Instead, St. Mirren’s John Needham starts by reiterating their desire to become “the best community centred development football club in Scotland”. St Mirren’s strategy has three pillars; Paisley, People and Performance; with performance mentioned last.

Financially, the Buddies are a well run club that lives within their means. and this analysis will now examine the accounts in more detail including:

• Revenue: SPFL, cups, UEFA & the fans

• Expenses: rising but under control

• Player Trading: consistent but not transformative

• Profits: record profit, unlikely to be repeated

• Robinson’s parting gift: A trophy & Aberdeen compensation

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REVENUE

St. Mirren have posted record revenues for the fourth straight year now - a welcome trend in Scottish football that several clubs are achieving post-pandemic. The turnover of £8.6m was a massive 34% increase from the £6.4m recorded the year before.

While very impressive turnover figures for a club of St. Mirren’s size, it’s a number unlikely to be repeated in the short term. As I’ll show in this article, much of the increase was driven by UEFA payments that will be significantly reduced in the next set of accounts.

However, even with turnover which was inflated above what St. Mirren can expect in a ‘normal’ season, finishing in 6th ahead of Hearts (who had triple the turnover) was still a fantastic achievement.

SPFL prize money increases by league position and so St. Mirren achieving a third straight top six finish was hugely beneficial financially. The SPFL have continued to grow the overall pot year-on-year and so St. Mirren’s 6th place finish was worth £2.19m - only a slight decrease on the £2.27m received for the fifth place finish in 2023/24, thanks to the growth in the SPFL pot.

Although St. Mirren’s league campaign yet again delivered more than expected SPFL prizemoney, the domestic cup earnings were disappointing. In the League Cup, St. Mirren were paid just £60k; less than The Spartans, St. Johnstone, Queen’s Park and Airdrieonians. This was because the Buddies had the double whammy of being knocked out in the first hurdle at Tannadice in the last 16, but also the fact that it was a non-televised match.

St. Mirren also fell at the last 16 in the Scottish Cup, losing at home on penalties in a televised match against Hearts. Their last 16 elimination payment from the SFA was £52,000, while they received a further £24,000 TV facilitation payment; meaning total domestic cup revenue of £136,00.

Of course the main driver of a record year of turnover in Paisley was European football. Despite ultimately falling 4-2 on aggregate to an impressive Brann side from Norway, the enjoyable 4-1 victory over Icelandic side Valur earned St. Mirren over £800,000.

This was a drop in the ocean compared to the gigantic sums Celtic (£40m) and Rangers (£17m) earned from European football, but it shows how even featuring in the qualifiers is huge for a club like St. Mirren.

Although failing to reach the group stages was disappointing, it meant that St. Mirren were also eligible to receive UEFA’s solidarity payments. These are distributed via the SFA to all Scottish Premiership clubs that don’t play in group stage football. Last year I told that there would be record solidarity payments for Scottish clubs, as part of UEFA’s reformatting of European competition, resulting in two separate payments. This will have boosted St. Mirren’s revenue significantly as the solidarity payments were worth around ~£1m.

The risk to St. Mirren is that the UEFA cheques will definitely be reduced in the next set of accounts in a years time, for three reasons. Firstly, St. Mirren didn’t play any European football this season and so that €900,000 Conference League elimination fee won’t be repeated.

Additionally, the solidarity payments rise with a nation’s coefficient ranking and increase further if one of its clubs reaches the Champions League phase. Scotland has been ranked as high as 9th recently, and such a high coefficient meant the Champions were guaranteed direct entry into the Champions League for three straight years.

Unfortunately though, Scotland’s coefficient has since fallen and both Rangers and Celtic were eliminated in Champions league qualifiers this season. This means solidarity payments to Scottish clubs will be reduced this season by around a third, because of our lower ranking and no club in the UCL.

Reviewing all of the above shows that over £5.5m of St. Mirren’s income can therefore be traced to prizemoney for their performance on the field and the revenue from UEFA. However with total income at nearly £8.6m, the importance of the club reaching and connecting with it’s loyal fanbase cannot be understated. The fans are - and will always be - the single most important revenue stream to the club; regardless of on field performance.

THE FANS

At the start of the current season, the cheapest price for an adult renewal at The SMiSA Stadium was £360, which was the 4th cheapest in the division, beaten only by the two promoted clubs and Hearts. Under 12s could get a season book for thirty quid, which is an essential strategy to ‘future proof; the club. The low price was even despite the 7.46% increase from 2024/25, and it’s that season which falls into the financial accounts under review.

With a core season ticket base of around 4,500, St. Mirren’s attendances have been impressive for several years now; in 23/24 they had the least empty seats in the division, as a % of the capacity. This is despite the club restricting away fans to one stand, a move which the Black and White Army showed actually increased home support by 53%.

Regularly recording attendances of 7,000, coupled with the two home European games resulted in 24/25 matchday revenue of £1.64m - a club record.

The recent UEFA landscape report stated that the Scottish Premiership’s percentage of income that comes from ticket money (36%) is by far the highest in Europe, considerably more than the likes of England (14%), Germany (14%), Portugal (13%) and Denmark (11%).

With the fourth lowest season ticket base in the division, St. Mirren’s ticket sales will contribute slightly less to their total income than the 36% national average. However, when St. Mirren’s money generated from commercial revenue (£665,000) and sponsorship (£464,000) is well below many teams in the league, the value of the fans is huge.

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EXPENSES

What St. Mirren have done better than many clubs in Scotland is effective cost control. Their revenue has risen steadily since returning to the top flight in 2018, but the expenses never ballooned out of control. In 21/22 when the gap between revenue (£4.3m) and expenses (£6.3m) was too big, adjustments were made to bring the costs down for the next year.

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In my analysis of Hibs’ annual report this time last year, which covered the previous season in which they finished 8th, I described a club with their highest ever revenue (£15.87m) but also their highest ever wagebill (£12.7m) and highest ever operating loss (£9.2m). Then Chief Executive Ben Kensell had previously predicted that those results would be “healthy”. He left the club three weeks before they were released.

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In last year’s analysis I anticipated that the next set of Hibs accounts for season 2024/25 (released on Tuesday this week) would also be a season in which financial losses were endured. The wage bill last season was too high relative to the revenue - and Hibs had not qualified for any European football. Even playing in two or three qualifying rounds before elimination adds another £1m to the revenue column, such is the size of the UEFA money pot.

This year, the prediction has borne true, with Hibs again making a heavy loss - although this has reduced from the previous year. Despite the losses, there are still many positives for Hibs fans to take and this analysis will now examine the accounts in detail, covering the good and the bad, including:

• Revenue: SPFL, cups, UEFA & the fans

• Expenses: consistently rising, but wages curbed

• Player Trading: Sales were declining - up until January 2026!

• Losses: heavy but reducing; and covered by the Gordons

• Future Outlook: Bowie sale, hunt for Europe, stadium investment

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REVENUE

Hibs have posted record revenues for the fourth straight year now - a welcome trend in Scottish football that several clubs are achieving. The turnover of £16.8m was a 6% increase from the £15.9m recorded the year before.

While Hibs have consistently grown their revenue since the covid-19 pandemic, they are yet to break through the £20m barrier - something which both Hearts and Aberdeen have done in recent seasons. Hibs will rightly point out that those two clubs have shared the guaranteed European group stage football prize over the past four years, which massively grows turnover.

However Aberdeen still reached £21.7m in turnover last year - even without any European football. It’s worth pointing out too that Hibs have only now recorded turnover of £15m+ within the last two seasons, something Aberdeen achieved over 10 years ago in 2015, and so the Hibees have been playing catch up for several years, partly due to the years spent in the Championship. Still, a turnover of £20m should be an achievable target for Hibs in the next 3-5 years; with the SPFL’s renegotiation of the TV deal in 2029 likely to be key.

SPFL prize money increases by league position and so Hibs’ revenue growth was boosted by a third place finish, a massive improvement on the previous season’s eighth place. The SPFL have continued to grow the overall pot year-on-year and so Hibs’ 3rd place finish was worth £2.89m - a full £1m more than the £1.85m they received for finishing 8th in 2023/24

Similarly, Hibs were drawn to face Celtic at Parkhead in both cups. Such a draw is a double edged sword as it provides a significant financial boost, but an obvious sporting disadvantage - Hibs lost both games by 2 goals. However due to the revenue sharing agreements for cup matches, these two ties will have increased Hibs’ revenue by over £500,000 - double the combined prizemoney Hibs received from both cups! Including fees for having their matches televised, Hibs earned £108,000 for elimination in the last 16 of the Scottish League Cup and £158,000 for losing in the Quarters of the Scottish Cup.

Last year I told of record solidarity payments to be paid to Scottish clubs by UEFA as part of their reformatting of European competition. This will have boosted Hibs’ revenue significantly in the absence of European football, however that ~£1m solidarity figure will be reduced in Hibs’ next set of accounts in a years time. Solidarity payments rise with a nation’s coefficient ranking and increase further if one of its clubs reaches the Champions League phase. Unfortunately though, Scotland’s coefficient has fallen and both Rangers and Celtic were eliminated in Champions league qualifiers this season, meaning payments will be reduced this season by around a third.

Around £5m of Hibernian’s income can therefore be traced to Hibs’ performance on the field and the prizemoney described above. However with total income of more than treble that figure at nearly £17m, the importance of the loyal fans cannot be understated as the single most important revenue stream to the club; regardless of on field performance.

THE FANS

More than a third of Hibs’ revenue will come directly from their fans, through tickets, hospitality and shirt sales. The recent UEFA landscape report showed that the Scottish Premiership’s percentage of income that comes from ticket money (36%) is by far the highest in Europe, considerably more than the likes of England (14%), Germany (14%), Portugal (13%) and Denmark (11%).

Such was the feel-good factor around Easter Road in the current season - in what is their 150th anniversary - Hibs were able to sell a record number of season tickets (over 13,500); as they set a modern-day record home attendance in August 2025. “The season ticket league table” has Hibs in fourth place:

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UEFA’s European Club Finance and Investment Landscape report is published annually, with a detailed analysis of the money involved in European football, covering 700+ clubs. The main takeaway from this year’s 112 page report will be of no surprise; revenues are at record levels - but so are costs.

Even though the clubs are generating more money than ever before, nearly half are unprofitable. A point underscored by the fact that Celtic are once again one of the most profitable clubs in Europe, despite playing in one of the smaller European leagues.

Andrea Traverso, UEFA Director Financial Sustainability & Research:
“Improvements in wage control and record transfer profits mean that more than half of Europe’s top-division clubs reported a profit before tax in 2024, the first time since before the pandemic. The combined top-division losses before tax decreased to €1.1bn in 2024, with a similar level projected in 2025.
Regrettably, the lack of consistent domestic-level financial regulations will likely prevent European football reaching pre-pandemic levels of profitability”

This analysis will review the report in detail from a Scottish point of view, similar to my review last year, while also comparing the figures to the top 20 leagues across Europe. You can also find an in depth look at several Scottish clubs in the financial reports section, with more to be added in the coming weeks.

In UEFA’s report, there may be some accounting period and currency discrepancies, as all of UEFA’s figures are presented in Euros whereas our clubs obviously all report in GBP. As with most financial analysis, the figures are largely already out of date (2023/24), however 144 clubs in 37 countries clubs do provide UEFA with “early 2025 financial data” used by UEFA in formulating this report. Some of the figures are therefore from 2024, while other figures will come from 2025, for the early reporting clubs. It’s also worth remembering that for the Scottish aggregate figure in each category, a large chunk will always be generated by Rangers and Celtic.

In Scotland, five clubs provided early data to UEFA in preparation of this report; Aberdeen, Celtic, Dundee United, Hibernian and Rangers. There were nine English clubs which did so, and it was reported last week that some were unhappy that their ‘early data’ provided to UEFA was released to the public without warning. For example, Chelsea’s record loss of £355m had not yet been released by the club themselves as they hadn’t yet published their 2024/25 annual report!

This article is very detailed, probably best read over a number of visits. It’s broken down into five main areas:

• REVENUE

  • Ticket money

  • UEFA prize money

  • TV deal & Scotland’s imbalanced distribution model

  • Commercial income including shirt sponsors

• EXPENSES

  • Wages & Operating Expenses

• PLAYER TRADING

• PROFIT

• INVESTMENT

  • Multi club investment and American ownership

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REVENUE

UEFA breaks down the revenue for each country into gate receipts (matchday tickets and hospitality), domestic TV revenue, UEFA prize money and commercial revenue (sponsorship, merchandising and other commercial activities). At an aggregate league level, Scotland’s Premiership clubs generated €378m total revenue in 2024, an increase of 6%, which ranked 11th out of 55 UEFA member associations for total revenue.

What sets Scotland apart from most other leagues is where that money comes from. As a league we are very much ‘attendance-dependent’ with any major total growth normally attributed to an increase in UEFA prizemoney. Whereas the English Premier League for example would be much more ‘TV dependent’; a drop in attendances or UEFA prize money wouldn’t be felt at the aggregate level as much as it would in Scotland.

GATE RECEIPTS

Across Europe, total gate receipts reached a record €4.4bn, a 16% rise from last year - thanks in part to a 22% growth in hospitality sales. Ticket sales is Scotland’s most impressive metric, where we are ranked 8th in Europe. The Scottish Premiership brought in a total of €137m through ticket sales, which is 36% of our total revenue figure of €378m.

This once again demonstrates how dependent our clubs are on the match-going fans. Scotland’s percentage of income that comes from ticket money (36%) is by far the highest in Europe, considerably more than England (14%), Germany (14%), Portugal (13%) and Denmark (11%). In fact no other nation is above 30%, and only seven are over 20%. The combined €137m our clubs earned from ticket sales dwarves the likes of Norway (€24m), Denmark (€25m), Poland (€39m), Austria (€66m) and even Portugal (€78m) and Belgium (€107m).

With this in mind, while most supporters likely back the idea and the theory behind a price cap on tickets - this is much harder to implement in a league that is so dependent on ticket money. The German Bundesliga is always regarded as the gold standard for ticket pricing with clubs financially looking after their fans. But when only 14% of your revenue comes from ticket sales, and 29% comes from the TV deal - as it does in Germany, this is much easier to achieve. A price cap in Scotland would not dramatically increase attendances - we are the best supported league in Europe per capita, but it would decrease the clubs revenue.

CELTIC AND RANGERS - GATE REVENUE

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Brian Wilson, Celtic Chairman: “The decline in revenue compared to the same period last year is primarily due to Europa League participation as opposed to Champions League participation”

On Friday evening Celtic PLC released its six months interim report, for the six months to 31st December 2025. Celtic are the only club in Scotland that release this 6 monthly update, because they are the only club in Scotland that is listed on the AIM of the London Stock Exchange.

There is currently an ongoing protest against the board of directors, organised by several Celtic fans groups and so it is perhaps understandable that this report was not released on social media, and instead only on the club’s website.

The headline figure is a 29% drop in revenue of £24.1m, down from £83.5m to £59.4m

This significant reduction in revenue is obviously concerning to Celtic fans and board members alike, especially given the majority of the drop cannot be explained away by timings of payments or any other anomalies. For example, season ticket money is paid up front by fans at the start of the season, and recorded as “deferred income” on the balance sheet. This revenue is then ‘recognised’ after each home match is actually played. Had Celtic played significantly less matches in the 6 months to 2025 compared to last year, then that could account for some of the drop.

Unfortunately for Celtic though, the numbers of matches played are similar in both years and in fact Celtic played one more home matches in all competitions to December 2025 (15) compared to the 14 played by year end in the previous year.

A 30% drop in revenue is monumental, but will be no surprise to those of you that are interested in the finances of Scottish football. Earlier in the week I included a segment on Celtic’s UEFA earnings through the years when looking at overall SPFL prize money so far this season, showing a near €30m (£26m) drop in UEFA prize money this year.

When UEFA revenue falls by £26m, the half year report showing a £24m drop in revenue is obviously unsurprising. As always though, the detail is slightly more complicated than that. In this article I will attempt to analyse Celtic’s:

• Profit

• Transfer activity

• UEFA prize money

  • Including associated reductions

• “Not another penny”

• End of year figures

PROFIT

Celtic’s 6 month profit before tax dropped from a Scottish record £43.9m to ‘only’ £13.2m. This £30m reduction is gigantic, however the combined profit figures of all other Scottish clubs will not amount to £13m. It’s still hugely impressive to record this level of profit in Scottish football, and they remain lightyears ahead of everyone else, financially. Furthermore the bank balance sat at £67.4m, which is an increase from the £65.4m held at this time last year.

The most concerning impact for Celtic of failing to reach the Champions League is the effect on profit before player sales are taken into account (discussed next). This profit before player trading figure fell from £26.9m to £4.2m, which again is still very impressive for a football club. But it means that without taking into account their transfer business, Celtic ‘only’ have £4m of profit after half a year, compared to nearly £27m last year and £32m the year before.

The operating profit (which includes player trading), was £11.1m, which again is a fantastic number. But it’s a steep decline from the £42m recorded this time last year. Celtic’s operating costs remained relatively stable at £55.2m, down £1.3m from £56.5m last season. The end of year operating expenses for Celtic were a whopping £117.1m last season and so it’s likely this figure will be down by several million come the end of year.

Celtic are in great financial health, of that there is no doubt. The drop of profit is still concerning for Celtic though. Much of it is attributable to the drop in UEFA prize money (discussed in detail later), however player trading also effects profit, which we will now discuss.

TRANSFER ACTIVITY

In the transfer market, Celtic spent £13.7m in the summer on 9 players (Yamada, Doohan, Osmand, Inamura, Balikwisha, Tounekti and Iheanacho + loans for Simpson-Pusey and Saracchi). That’s a near £15m less than the £28.1m invested in the purchases of Engels, Idah, Trusty, Bernarndo, McCowan, Sinisalo, Schmeichel in summer 2024.

I previously wrote a deep dive on Celtic’s transfer strategy over the past decade, and my article predicted a drop in spending this year, even before accounting for the lack of Champions league football.

An extract from that article:

As for player sales, the “profit on the disposal of player registrations” is calculated by how much the club sold the asset for, minus the remaining net book value (NBV) of the player. The profit on player sales was £14.1m for the 6 months to December 2025, namely for the summer sales of Nicolas Kühn, Gustaf Lagerbielke, Marco Tilio and Adam Idah. This is down £7m on the £21.5m profit recorded for the sales of O’Riley, Lawal, Iwata, Johnston, Kobayashi, Kelly & Oh in summer 2024.

The same is true for last year, where a profit on player sales of £21.5m was recorded. Brighton were reported to be paying £25m for Matt O’Riley, two years after Celtic signed him for around £1.5m. Given the profit recorded on all of Celtic’s sales last summer was only £21.5m, it’s likely Celtic have several ‘contingency’ payments or add-ons built into the O’Riley sale.

Therefore, Brighton’s recent recall of the player from his loan spell to Marseille could be good news for Celtic, as gives him more chance of hitting the appearance milestones to trigger some further payments to Celtic. Were Brighton to sell O’Riley in the summer, this is unlikely to be good news for Celtic. That’s not only because he may leave without achieving the appearance and success add-ons, but also because sell on clauses are almost always on the profit of the player. If there is no profit for Brighton then Celtic will receive no sell-on.

Celtic made less profit from player sales this year, which contributed to the reduction in profit. This wasn’t the main driver though; it was the failure to beat Kairat Almaty on penalties that had the biggest impact.

UEFA PRIZE MONEY

Similar to the recognition of season ticket cash, we can safely assume Celtic will only record UEFA earnings once it has actually been paid by UEFA.

Celtic F.C annual report: “an estimate of such revenues cannot be used as a basis for revenue recognition once the performance obligation has been completed.”

UEFA have specific dates for each of the payments it sends to the participating clubs. The bulk of the money is paid early in the season, and will be received by the end of the November - so would be included in these interim reports. But crucially, not all of it:

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A new report released a couple of weeks ago by the Fraser of Allander Institute (FAI) examined how much professional football contributed to Scotland’s economy in the 2023/24 season. The FAI are an independent economic research institute, who were commissioned by the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), Scottish Women’s Premier League (SWPL), and Scottish FA.

The study comes at a time when Scottish football is on the rise. Domestically, top flight clubs are posting record turnover figures while playing in front of record crowds. The TV deal continues to rise while the clubs are able to command higher transfer fees for their assets than in previous years. At a national level, the men’s team has qualified for its first World Cup in 28 years, two years before Glasgow will host UEFA Euro 2028 matches.

The headline figure is an £820m gross economic contribution, supporting over 14,000 jobs in Scotland. As the season examined was 2023/24, the data is already two seasons out of date. However it’s still useful for highlighting just how important our national game is - not just from a social perspective - but from an attempt to quantify the economic importance. While earlier studies of this nature often focused only on the men’s SPFL, this FAI report takes a comprehensive view of Scottish football - covering men’s and women’s leagues and cups, plus international and European matches.

Of course, those in Scottish football will want to paint the picture of our game as positively as possible - but this is not a report written by the clubs or the governing bodies themselves. Yes, it was commissioned by the football authorities, but it was done ‘at arm’s length’ and the FAI, of Strathclyde University is respected for rigorous economic analysis.

This summary article will delve into the key points, under five headings:

• Record attendances

• How is the economic impact measured?

• The Key Findings of the Report

• Where does the money go?

• Limitations of the report

RECORD ATTENDANCES

In collaboration with yours truly in September 2024, the SPFL reported how Scotland has by far the highest per-capita attendance of any top division in Europe, with about 18.2 attendees per 1,000 population each week (around 75% higher than the next closest country, Portugal):

In total, over 6.8 million fans went to matches in 23/24 involving Scottish professional clubs or the national teams. The Premiership alone contributed more than half, with a total attendance of around 3.76 million.

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Kilmarnock’s accounts for year ending May 2025 have been released to shareholders, ahead of the AGM on January 29th. They cover a year where Derek McInnes guided Killie to a 9th place finish - seven points clear of the relegation playoff place. They exited both cup competitions at the first hurdle, which can partly be attributed to an unfortunate draw. They were handed away matches against Premiership opponents in both competitions, firstly losing 1-0 AET against Motherwell in the League Cup before a narrow 2-1 defeat in Glasgow against Celtic in the Scottish Cup.

This poor domestic showing resulted in a reduction in prizemoney of £742,387. Their £102k earned from domestic cup competitions was a drop of £144k, while the £1.8m earned through league position prizemoney was a £598k reduction.

However, a decline in domestic prize money was mitigated by the fact Kilmarnock qualified for Europe, playing six matches. They were unbeaten in all three home fixtures, with credible score draws against Cercle Brugge, Tromsø and Copenhagen. Their only victory was away from home in the return leg against Tromsø, which was enough to secure progression to the Conference League playoff round. Unfortunately, Killie just fell short of the promised lands of the league phase - and an even bigger payday - after losing 3-1 on aggregate to Copenhagen.

The 9th place finish in May of 2025 resulted in SPFL club fees of £1.8m - which matches my own calculations, a reductions from the nearly £2.5m they received the previous year after achieving a 4th place finish.

It’s a familiar story to last year’s accounts for Killie as another loss was posted. However turnover increased significantly, while the loss made has decreased from previous years. This article examines the numbers in more detail, before providing an opinion on the future risks facing Kilmarnock.

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The SPFL accounts have been released for the year ending May 2025, with the highlight being company turnover hitting a record high of £48.7m, an increase of 10% from the previous year’s £44.3million. This follows the 6% increase in the previous year; meaning SPFL ‘company’ turnover has risen from £41.9m to £48.7m in just 24 months.

Since the SWPL joined the SPFL group in 2022/23, the SPFL reports both ‘company’ (SPFL) and ‘group’ (SPFL & SWPL) turnover. The below chart includes all group turnover.

WHAT IS THE SPFL?

The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) is the organising body responsible for running professional league football in Scotland, namely the SPFL and the SWPL. It is not the overall governing body of the sport, as that is the Scottish Football Association (SFA) who oversee rules, referees, discipline, and national teams.

The SPFL are responsible for “commercially exploiting” Scottish football, including broadcast and sponsorship deals, before distributing these revenues to its member clubs.

The SPFL are also responsible for three domestic cup competitions, the Scottish League Cup, the Challenge Cup and the SWPL League Cup (not the Scottish Cup, as that is the SFA’s). One of the key responsibilities is to ensure the tournaments generate as much money as possible, and as part of that ensuring all tournaments have title sponsors, which is currently the case:

• The William Hill SPFL

• The ScottishPower SWPL

• The Premier Sports Cup

• The KDM Evolution Trophy

• The Sky Sports Cup (SWPL League Cup)

WAS IT A GOOD YEAR?

Neil Doncaster, SPFL group chief executive: “We’re extremely pleased to be able to announce the strongest turnover and total group distributions in the history of Scottish league football. These figures are by some distance the best financial figures in the 12 years of the SPFL”

Revenue and club distributions are at record levels. Attendances are higher than ever at over 5 million per season (including cup matches); the best supported top flight in Europe on a per capita basis. It’s not just those that go to the games, as more than 15 million people watched SPFL games on Sky Sports. Across 47 matches the average viewership is around 320,000 per match, up from the previous year’s average viewership of 285,000; a further increase from the 228,000 of two years ago. In April 2024, Rangers 3-3 Celtic became the most watched Scottish game on record - 1.44million viewers watching legally through Sky Sports.

Although the “average viewership” number is down from the pre-covid years, this can be attributed to the fact a wider variety of matches have been selected for broadcast in recent seasons. Although this may have brought the overall average viewer number down, there is the obvious greater benefit of providing coverage to more teams - raising the profile of the league as a whole.

The SPFL are a small company in terms of number of employees, just 18 people employed in the last financial year. They operate not to generate profits for shareholders, instead solely to distribute funds to clubs, which falls under the accounting term “cost of sales” (£45.6m). The distribution pot is finalised after the reduction of SPFL costs such as administrative expenses, which for the SPFL group now sit at £3.99m, a small increase from the £3.78m recorded in the previous year. This nearly £4m in expenses encompasses legal fees, marketing, advertising and PR, referee expenses, and the “significant investment” in match production; 6 cameras per non televised match instead of 4, to improve the VAR system.

This article will delve into the detail behind the TV deals and where the money in Scottish football comes from and then how it is distributed.
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THE RISE IN INCOME - THE TV DEALS

SPFL income is at record levels firstly down to the recent increase in sponsorship revenue, but last year’s rise was mainly due to an increase in TV rights; the existing improved Sky TV deal and a brand new Premiership TV deal with Premier Sports - who showed 20 matches last season.

The new Premier Sports deal is worth around £3.2m per year, running alongside the existing Sky Sports deal worth around £30m per year.

With around 15 million total viewers of men’s Scottish football on Sky Sports last season, Sky’s £30m deal means they pay an average of £2 for every viewer received, before the women’s game is factored in. This is an approximation, and is of course not a ‘unique viewer’ number, merely the total number of views over the season. The contract allows Sky to show up to 60 of the 228 Premiership matches, valuing the ‘price per game’ at £500,000.

This ‘price per game’ metric is often referenced by the SPFL’s Chief Executive Neil Doncaster when challenged on the value of the TV rights deal. Other similar sized nations may earn more money through their TV deals, but often this is to broadcast more (or all!) matches in a season, substantially reducing their own ‘price per game’. Those that believe the current rights deal undersells Scottish football would argue that the total amount received is all that matters, and that the price per game is irrelevant - especially when Sky once again did not take up their entire quota of matches (showing 47/60 in 2024/25 and 41/48 in 2023/24).

As part of the new Sky deal, the 12 clubs can sell only five home matches per season through their own PPV channels (60 games total). Other games beyond this cannot be shown, and so critics of the deal would argue that it is therefore a deal for a lot more than 60 matches - as the remaining 88 games can’t otherwise be shown elsewhere. When only 9% of total revenue in to Scottish football comes from broadcast deals (the 2nd lowest % in Europe), it could be argued that allowing the clubs to sell all the matches not shown on TV would be a step forward for the clubs’ own revenue generation.

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Click here for all other financial analysis articles, however at the start of each 2025 article I will link directly to the financial analysis of other clubs:
Rangers, Celtic, Dundee United F.C, Queen of the South, Premiership Radars (2024) , Celtic’s player trading strategy, The SFA, The SPFL (prizemoney), Motherwell F.C (2024), Hibernian(2024), Aberdeen (2024), Hearts (2024), Rangers (2024), SPFL (2024)

REVENUE

Aberdeen have recorded £21.7m in revenue, breaking the £20m mark for only the second time in their history. Excluding the Old Firm, only Aberdeen (twice) and Hearts (three times) have ever recorded that level of revenue in Scotland. Alan Burrows was appointed Aberdeen CEO in February 2023 and so to achieve this revenue growth in his two full seasons at the helm is an impressive achievement.

Of course in Burrows’ first year, part of the growth can be explained by the £5m+ in additional revenue guaranteed by Conference League group stage qualification, a sharp rise from the £331,000 in UEFA solidarity payments received the year before (22/23).

However, given the financial year in question (24/25) had no European football, it means that Aberdeen’s non-European revenue actually rose by £3.5m. This is a very impressive increase in Scottish football terms, and we can also expect that next year’s turnover - which will contain a return to Conference League phase football - will rise to a new record high.

Although their 5th place Scottish Premiership finish was ultimately a disappointment, it was actually an improvement on the previous season’s disastrous campaign in which the Dons finished 7th. A higher league finish means more prize money from the SPFL, and so Aberdeen earned an estimated £2.4m for finishing 5th compared to the £1.9m they’d have earned for finishing 7th a year prior.

The growth in non-European revenue mainly came from commercial gains - with Aberdeen growing their official partnerships by 20% year on year.

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Rangers have released their accounts for the most recent financial year, ending 30th June 2025. On 1st July 2025, Rangers re-registered from a public company (PLC) to a private company (LTD). The requirements for filing the annual report for a LTD are within 9 months of the year end, compared to just 6 months for a PLC. As a result of this, several LTD football clubs (including Leeds United), release their statements by the deadline of the following March.

Today’s release in November may be a conscious decision by the club - as fans have come to expect the statements at this time every year. However it remains to be seen if this will be the case next year, especially given it is not a requirement of an LTD club to file before the following March.

The headline figure with these accounts will naturally be that it is another heavy loss for Rangers (-£14.8m). However this figure alone does not tell the whole story of their financial year. There are definite signs of financial progress in amongst these heavy losses, which I will now examine.

This article will look at the club’s revenue, losses, wage bill, player trading, compliance with the UEFA FSR regulations - and more.

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Peter Lawwell, Chairman, September 2025: We recognise and share the frustration and disappointment of our supporters with respect to the timing of some of the incoming acquisitions (11 summer signings). We will always look to improve how we operate and overcome challenges where possible.

On the evening of Friday 19th September Celtic released their annual report for the year ending 30th June 2025 to the London Stock exchange. A release on a Friday night would often be associated with companies looking to bury bad news. It’s quite the opposite for Celtic, as the numbers involved are not only record-breaking, but quite frankly astonishing for a Scottish football club. However, the release came amidst the backdrop of severe fan unrest and the mobilisation of several fans groups in calling a vote of no confidence in the board, following the botched summer transfer window. The annual report reveals that Celtic, once again, had £77m cash in their bank account at the start of the 2025 summer transfer window. Rather than being a point of pride or celebration - as may have been the case in previous years - this instead angered many Celtic fans. This is because the financial announcement came just two weeks after the board’s failed attempt to placate the fan base by issuing a statement implying that Celtic’s transfer spending was capped by UEFA Sustainability regulations. The full release of the annual report was not until Tuesday 28th October, less than 24 hours after the bombshell that Brendan Rodgers had resigned as manager.

The finances of the richest club in Scotland can be simply broken down in a few short sentences. £144m of revenue in 12 months, and £61m of that comes from Celtic Park - £50m from the fans buying tickets and £10.5m from stadium operations. A further £30m is generated from merchandising - i.e. the fans buying shirts, while UEFA paid Celtic £40m. However, if you are interested in a much deeper dive into the finances behind the current Scottish Champions, including an estimation of Celtic’s compliance with UEFA’s Financial and Sustainability Regulations (FSR) then this article is for you.

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Dundee United, October 2025: “The accounts show a continuation of the positive trend that has prevailed since the restructuring of Senior Leadership at the club in 2023 and also represent the club’s desire for long-term financial sustainability.”

Dundee United have today released their annual financial report for the year ended June 2025. This was a largely positive release, with several good news stories - as highlighted by the infographic released by the club.

With Dundee United returning to the Premiership after a season in the Championship, many of these figures were always likely to show improvement. Even so, this is an encouraging set of accounts that highlights genuine progress since the club’s senior leadership changes over two years ago. The following analysis takes a closer look at Dundee United’s 2024/25 finances, comparing key metrics all the way back to 2015.

As most of the Premiership clubs are yet to release their figures for the financial year 24/25, this article will mainly compare Dundee United to their own previous financial performance, rather than to the rest of the league. However for a look at the previous financial year, you can go to the Scottish Football Radars to see how the clubs compared for some key financial metrics for last season 23/24.

This article will cover in great depth:

• Record turnover

  • Increased football income & commercial income

• Ten consecutive years of losses…

  • …But down on previous years

• Wages

  • A top six wage bill & United’s second highest ever

  • Vastly improved wages/turnover ratio

• Player sales & youth players

  • Reliance on youth academy

• Ownership

  • Money owned to the owner up from last year

• HMRC R&D Tax claim

  • Provision made

  • This year’s post-tax loss affected

TURNOVER

Throughout the article, all charts will have an asterisk after the year if it represents a Championship season rather than Premiership, e.g. 23/24*.

Dundee United broke the £10m turnover barrier for the first time in their history. It’s a substantial 64% increase from the £6.4m they brought in during their Championship winning season, and up on the £8.1m and £8.3m they recorded in their final two years in the top flight before relegation. It puts the Tangerines firmly in the top six in terms of income amongst Scottish Premiership clubs, but as explored in detail on this website - they will still significantly trail the top five clubs. Their record revenue is still less than half the recent turnover figures of both Aberdeen and Hearts.

Dundee United’s income can be broken into three broad categories:

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A brief history of Dykes career now follows, before an explanation of FIFA’s solidarity mechanism in transfer fees, and how these payments have risen over 200% in recent years.

AUSTRALIA TO SCOTLAND…TWICE

Lyndon John Dykes was born and raised in Australia to parents hailing from Dumfries. Lyndon lived in Australia for first 19 years of his life before moving to Scotland to sign for the Doonhamers. Remarkably, Dykes didn’t start playing football until he was around 13 years old, preferring instead Rugby League and Aussie rules. In 2019, when asked about a possible call-up to the Scotland national team, Dykes stated:

“My parents are Scottish. They are from Dumfries. My dad is from just outside Dumfries, a small town called Moniaive. I have got all my family in Scotland. I have got Scottish blood. I would have to see if I ever got the opportunity.”

He first joined QOS in 2014 as part of their under 20s team, playing around 15 matches before returning to Australia in January 2015. Eighteen months later he returned to Scotland to sign for Queens again in June 2016, four months short of his 21st birthday.

After a successful spell in Dumfries - alongside the legendary Stephen Dobbie - Dykes signed for Livingston in the January transfer window in 2019 (remaining on loan to Queen of the South before joining Livi permanently that summer). As is the norm, the transfer fee was not revealed, but we can expect it to be a modest fee, well under £100,000.

THE FIRST LIVINGSTON SELL-ON CLAUSE

After a successful 18 months in West Lothian, Livingston sold Dykes to Queens Park Rangers in August 2020, for what was reported at the time to be £2million. However the then Livingston CEO John Ward stated:

“I’ve seen £2 million being bandied about, but our share of that will be less than half in terms of an up front payment. Queen of the South will also be due a cut of that money as well, that’s the way it’s structured. There are some nice incentives if QPR are promoted or if he plays for Scotland and appearances and stuff. It’s a really well structured deal in terms of add ons and future opportunities. Whatever the final fee is, I think we get about 60 per cent of it.”

After the Livingston-QPR transfer was announced, Queen of the South stated they would be due a six figure fee as part of the deal. Assuming QOS inserted around a 5-10% sell on clause, when selling him to Livingston, then the QPR purchase would be worth anywhere from £100k-£200k to Queen of the South.

This six figure fee was absolutely critical to Queen of the South, to the point it allowed them to continue to operate as a full-time club during the covid-pandemic, with the club remarking that:

“We were significantly boosted shortly after the year end when Lyndon Dykes was sold to Queen’s Park Rangers by Livingston and called up to the Scotland squad. Clauses included in the deal when he moved to Livingston saw the club entitled to receive a significant six figure sum as a result, and this allowed us to keep the club playing full-time football behind closed doors, even before later significant government support was announced at Christmas.”

The most interesting part of that same 2020 statement was Queen of the South stating that the Dykes deal had the potential of being a new club record fee received - as it could eventually eclipse the £250,000 they received when selling Andy Thomson to Southend in 1994. We therefore know that in 2020, both the original fee from his sale to Livingston plus the sell on clause from his move to Queen’s Park totalled less than £250,000 - but the clauses inserted allowed for further monies to be received in later years.

So how is it their record sale now, five years later?

FIFA SOLIDARITY MECHANISM

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Last week, he released his own financial football radars - based on existing football stats radars which are used to illustrate a player’s quality compared to their peer group. It was a truly brilliant idea, and he has sought out some expert guidance to help him perfect the computer code to allow him to create very detailed financial radars, such as this for Manchester United:

THE POUNDLAND SWISS RAMBLE

I was genuinely impressed and instantly felt inspired to come up with my own concept for the Scottish Premiership. My 50,000 social media followers and 500 subscribers pale in comparison to , and it’s fair to say anything I created would be “the Poundland version” of Kieron’s output.

Firstly I have a football hating brother (how can someone be that weird), who “works in IT” - that’s all I know. So I asked him if it would be possible for me (or rather, him) to replicate something based on Kieron’s idea. We didn’t get far.

That avenue turned out to be a dead end and so from there, I decided to instead look to the online Scottish football community, to seek help from someone who knows their way around a football radar. For me there was only one candidate, Kai Watson.

Like myself, Kai is a freelance writer who has built up a five figure following on social media. He has a BsC in sports coaching and performs consultancy work for many clubs, and is a scout for the professional Finnish team, SJK Seinäjoki. However, you most likely know him from his viral threads on twitter, where he evaluates and recommends players based on data and video analysis. His output is now instantly recognisable as a blue radar illustrating the percentile stats for the player, with the detail laid out on on the left hand side.

Myself and Kai have chatted online on occasion over the years, so I slid back into his DMs to ask if he would be interested in helping me out. I’m delighted to report that he instantly said yes, and kindly created 12 separate radars for me - based on data I provided for him. My thanks go to Kai, and I would suggest you follow him if you are interested in data and player analysis - he posts regular content covering all Scottish clubs. My thanks also go to , for firstly inspiring me to create my own football radars, but then for being kind enough to allow me to copy his idea when I asked for permission!

FOOTBALL RADARS EXPLAINED

A “football radar” chart is simply put a visual way to display how “well” a player has performed, across many different areas of their game. The further out the ‘slice’ or the ‘point’ from the centre, the better the player ranks for that attribute, compared to everyone else in that position.

A well rounded, extremely high quality player would be strong in all areas, with their slice/point for each metric far away from the centre. As an easy comparison to help illustrate the point, here is the radars for Nicolas Kühn of Celtic compared to Greg Kiltie of St. Mirren for last season. Without knowing which player is which, we could instantly guess which player would be the one sold for £16m+ this summer, based on the radars alone.

The numbers shown represent the player's percentile ranking — not how many times they performed that action. For example, in the above radar, Kühn didn’t have 95 assists, rather the number of assists he had were higher than 95% of the players in that position.
In contrast, while Kiltie didn’t score or assist, he completed more crosses than 77.9% of the sample. He was in the 77.9th percentile, while Kühn was in the 59th percentile.

Radars of course don’t tell the whole story, and in player recruitment they may be one of many tools used to narrow down a large field of targets, to then be supplemented by actual video analysis and scouting of a player. A ‘poor’ looking radar doesn’t necessary mean the player is a poor performer. For example, while Kiltie’s radar from last season might not be as impressive as Kühn’s, Kiltie wasn’t playing for the best team in the country! He still played 30 matches for St. Mirren, and Saints manager Stephen Robinson said he has been an “integral part” of what the team has achieved in recent years. Last month Kiltie, rejoined Kilmarnock with new manager Kettlewell stating “Greg is a player I've admired for a number of years and he's one I'm confident will fit in well with our squad.”

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THE METRICS CHOSEN

Unlike SwissRamble’s radars, which were produced for the financial behemoth that is the English Premier League, the radars in this article will NOT focus solely on financial metrics. This is partly because the accounting requirements for smaller companies mean that not all clubs produce reports that have all the data I would need to exactly replicate Kieron’s idea.

Secondly, the money involved in Scottish football could reasonably be described as insignificant when compared to English clubs, and so a lot of the metrics simply would not be relevant. Many of our clubs might only buy or sell players for actual transfer fees on a very rare occasion, while most have cash balances almost always close to £0. Detailed financial breakdowns are also typically not provided by lots of Scottish clubs.

The annual reports that Rangers and especially Celtic produce are absolutely fantastic, very detailed and provide all the specific financial details I would need. However those two clubs are so far ahead of the rest financially that a comparison to the rest of the league using a broad set of detailed financial metrics would be pointless. A more meaningful exercise might be to compare the Old Firm to similarly sized clubs in other mid-tier European leagues, providing a more relevant European benchmark.

Therefore, instead of a purely financial angle, I have chosen only 12 metrics, covering a variety of different topics, broken down into three main sections:

• FINANCES

• FANS & SUCCESS

• EUROPEAN PERFORMANCE

THE DATA EXPLAINED

• FINANCES

  • Revenue: The revenue reported for 2023/24.

  • Pre-Tax Profit: The profit/loss reported for 2023/24.

  • 10 Year Profit: The 10 year accumulated profit/loss for 2015-2024.

  • Total staff costs: The total amount spent on labour in 2023/24 (includes first team players, youth team, analysts, ground staff etc)

  • Total Wages/Revenue %: The above total wages number as a % of revenue.
    I.e. if total wages are £70m and revenue is £100m = this is 70%.

• FANS & SUCCESS

  • Turnstile attendance as a % of Capacity: The actual average numbers of fans that attended according to Police Scotland as a % of the stadium capacity.
    I.e. if Police Scotland were told 7,000 attended in a 10,000 seater stadium = 70%

  • Paid Average Attendance: The average attendance numbers as released by the clubs, which include season ticket holders that did not attend.

  • Major trophies won: The total number of top tier leagues, Scottish Cups, League Cups & European trophies the club has won.

• EUROPEAN PERFORMANCE

  • European Last Eight: How many times the club has been one of only eight clubs left in any European competition.

  • European Finals: How many times the club has reached a European final.

  • European Trophies: How many times the club has won a European trophy.

  • Coefficient Cup Winners: Not a real metric - included for fun. If the team contributed the most points towards Scotland’s Coefficient in any season since 1955, then they are awarded the make-believe “Coefficient Cup” for that season. There have been 70 seasons of European football, however in some seasons the imaginary coefficient cup was shared and so there are 74 coefficient cup winners in total.

Video: The official Coefficient Cup trophy lift

Without further ado, I am delighted to reveal to you the Scottish Football radar for each of last season’s Scottish Premiership clubs. Figures are from the most recent set of accounts (so DUFC is from a Championship season.)

Celtic’s analysis is up first, giving the most in-depth explanation of the metrics, with the rest of the clubs following, in order of last season’s league position.

CELTIC

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1.) THE ORIGINAL INVESTIGATION

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After months of pursuing the then out of work former Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe, Celtic eventually took what was viewed at the time as a ‘gamble’ on a largely unknown quantity in Ange Postecoglou, joining Celtic from Yokohama F. Marinos.

Of course, the ‘gamble’ was a monumental success in Glasgow, as Ange steamrolled his way to five trophies in two years, before leaving for Tottenham Hotspur where he delivered Spurs’ first trophy in 17 years - the Europa League.

Stephen McGowan speculated in The Herald last week that Rodgers may leave Celtic when his contract expires at the end of this season, primarily due to lack of spending by the Celtic board. McGowan’s column piqued my interest in what is a growing sense of disquiet within some sections of the Celtic support. There’s now at least a smattering of fans worried the hierarchy may not be appropriately backing Rodgers in the transfer market, preventing the club from kicking on to the next level. But how exactly has Celtic’s player trading evolved over the last five years? This article will discuss in detail:

• The Charlie Nicholas window

  • “Laxalt isn’t an inspirational signing”

  • Neil Lennon and his brave face

• The Spend since 2021

  • Net spend under Ange

  • Net spend under Rodgers

  • Net spend since 2012

• The Players Traded

  • Every in and out since 2012

• The Contingent fees

  • Merry Christmas, Virgil van Dijk

• The Celtic Strategy?

  • “It depends on your ambition”

  • “We still need reinforcements, that’s evident”

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When looking at league football, as a basic example - the SFA train and provide the referees and deal with any appeals against wrongful dismissal, even though it’s an SPFL league match. Meanwhile, the SPFL are responsible for commercially exploiting the Scottish game, so for example will negotiate the TV deal for selling SPFL league matches. The SPFL set the fixtures for the league season, and will seek sponsorship for the SPFL Leagues as well as the League Cup - but are not involved in the Scottish Cup, as that is managed by the SFA.

THE SFA’S INCOME

The SFA has unfortunately not provided a detailed ‘annual review’ since pre-covid, which gave real insight into the previous year - including where they get their money and what they spent it on. This is unfortunate, and instead we can only go with their less informative financial accounts made up to year end 31st December 2024.

The SFA’s turnover is mainly derived from TV & radio deals and payments from UEFA and FIFA. While the SFA sell the broadcasting rights for the Scottish Cup matches to the media, this is not the case for Scotland international matches. UEFA has had an agreement with its member nations since 2014 to take on a centralised responsibility for selling the rights to all UEFA international matches.

At long last, the SFA also receives prize money from UEFA for qualifying to major tournaments! A large chunk of the SFA’s revenue is also generated from ticket money; for Scotland matches at Hampden as well as 5% of all ticket sales from all Scottish Cup matches. Concerts held at Hampden raise money for the SFA too, as does any sponsorship agreements. This article will delve deeper into the finances of the SFA, explaining a number of metrics while comparing them over the past 30 years, including:

• Turnover

  • Where the increase comes from

  • Record profit

  • Euro 2024

• Hampden Park

  • Events: football & non-football

  • Debenture holders

• Outgoings

  • Admin expenses

  • Wages

  • CEO Salary

• “Future risks” - fan behaviour

  • Now Vs 30 years ago

• Other aspects

  • Transition report of 2024

  • Euro 2028

  • SPFL - parachute payments & rent payments

  • UEFA solidarity payments (restatement)

• Community initiatives

  • Pitching in campaign

  • Grassroots

  • Facilities funding

TURNOVER

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This lengthy end of season article will detail the:

• exact prize money distributed last season 2023/24

• expected prize money figure for each club for this season 2024/25

• where the rest of the SPFL money goes

• SPFL distribution model, and give evidence as to why this is one of the ‘least fair’ models across all of European football.

• costs of VAR borne by each of the 12 Premiership clubs

• other prize money each club can expect (including parachute payments)

THE PRIZE POT - REVIEWING LAST SEASON (2023/24)

The SPFL release their annual accounts in around the November of each year, therefore the exact figures each club will receive for season 2024/25 will not be publicly known for another 6 months. At that point I will do my own analysis of the accounts in the finances section of my website. It must be noted that I am not a qualified accountant, however I have two separate degrees in accounting and finance and - as you can probably tell - an unhealthy interest in football finance for the last couple of decades.

Despite the fact this season’s figures are as yet unknown, we can still make a reasonable estimation of the size of the SPFL pot. In 2024, the SPFL reported a 6% increase in turnover from £41.9m to £44.3m. From this £44m there was £38m left for distribution to clubs after the deduction of all expenses. These include staff costs, marketing, advertising, auditing, referee costs, and introducing more cameras at every ground to improve the standard of VAR across the division (no laughing at the back).

Last season, The SPFL distributed that remaining £38m through 5 streams:

1. £33.7m to the 42 SPFL clubs based on league position

2. £2.9m for the League Cup

3. £592,000 for the Challenge Cup

4. £389,000 to the Scottish Women’s Premier League (SWPL)

5. £360,000 in parachute payments to relegated clubs

THE BREAKDOWN BY CLUB FOR THIS SEASON 2024/25

The SPFL accounts for last season (2023/24) showed that the league prize pot for the 42 clubs was £33.7m, which was a £2million increase (6%) - for the second consecutive year. My expected 2024/25 figures are hopefully on the conservative side, as they are based on another £2m (6%) increase only, to take the distributable pot to £35.7m.
This season the SPFL should report increased revenue due to both record sponsorship & an additional TV rights sale; Premier Sports are now paying at least £2m per season for the rights to 20 pre-split matches. Therefore, the pot could see a greater than £2m increase, and so the figure for each team would rise proportionally.

VAR COSTS AND PARACHUTE PAYMENTS

From the Premiership clubs prize money, there is a cost which must be deducted - this goes to the SFA to cover the operating of VAR in the division. It was reported to cost £1.2m per season when first introduced, with the costs divided based on league position - in the same proportion as prize money is awarded. Therefore, assuming a £1.2m cost, Celtic as champions will pay the most to cover the cost of VAR, 16.29% (£195k) while relegated St. Johnstone will only have to pay 5.47% (£65k) towards VAR.

After being relegated last season, Livingston will receive the year 1 Premiership parachute payment of around £300,000. If they lose the Playoff Final against Ross County they will receive an additional £125,000 next season in the form of year 2 parachute payments. The only other parachute payments are two separate payments paid to teams relegated from League Two, in their first two seasons outside the SPFL (£40k then £20k),

OTHER INCOME

On my website Www.ScottishFootball.info, I cover both UEFA prize money and UEFA solidarity payments in detail throughout the season. However, UEFA Club benefits is a newly disclosed payment this year - this is the money paid to each club for releasing players to UEFA national team competitions. This includes two Nations League campaigns, all European Qualifiers and EURO 2024. While qualifiers are covered, the bulk of this money will come from Euro 2024 due to the length of time the players are away. I previously compiled a breakdown of UEFA payments to the clubs for all of the 23-man Scottish Euro 2024 squad:

Adding the expected SPFL prize money, UEFA prize money, solidarity payments, club benefits, and deducting the VAR expenses we can get an estimated total expected prize money for each club for 2024/25 (not including the league cup and Scottish Cup payments).

This figure will come to over £100m for the first time in history. However, of that £108m, over 61% (£68m) will go to Celtic and Rangers combined. I described in detail how it may just be possible for a Tony Bloom inspired Hearts to disrupt Scottish football through incredibly smart recruitment and compete with the top two. However, the financial gap - deepened by UEFA prize money - really does seem insurmountable.

On a brighter note, the UEFA club benefits payments did also reach the Scottish Championship. For example, Dunfermline received a £6k payment from UEFA due to their now former goalkeeper, Owain Fon Williams, receiving a call up to represent Wales. Interestingly Livingston will receive more than double Falkirk’s total, due to their UEFA solidarity payments due from last season, and their parachute payment following relegation.

IMBALANCED DISTRIBUTION MODEL

There are two main aspects when arguing the existence of a financial imbalance in the SPFL. Firstly, the splitting of money between the Premiership and the other 30 clubs, and secondly the distribution amongst the 12 clubs in the Premiership.

The Premiership takes over 82% of the entire SPFL pot.
The Championship receives 12%, League one 3.45% and League Two 2.25%.

The CEOs of lower league clubs would reference this as a huge imbalance and want to see more help - and more money - trickling down the chain.

As for distribution within the top tier, of the 82% (£27.7m) that the Premiership took in 2023/24, the Champions received 16.29% of that pot (£4.5m) - a slice 3 times bigger than that of the bottom club in the Premiership.

According to UEFA, that top tier distribution means we have one of the least balanced TV revenue distribution models in Europe.

For the above graphic, the further to the left hand side the country is, the more balanced it’s distribution model is. The English Premier League has the second most balanced in all of Europe. Further to the right demonstrates more of an imbalance. Only a handful of leagues are more imbalanced than the Scottish Premiership. We can take specific examples from two leagues - the Netherlands and England - to demonstrate this.

Firstly, the Eredivisie in the Netherlands recently changed their distribution model, because the clubs believed that 12.95% of the pot going to the Champions and 2.45% to the team in 18^th did not “strengthen the competitive balance in the Eredivisie”. The Scottish Champions receive 16.29% of the Premiership pot and 2nd place receives 11.67%. By the Dutch metric then, even a reduction of our champions’ slice from 16.29% to 12.95% would still be deemed to weaken the competitive balance of the league.

Secondly, in the EPL it is a markedly different, more balanced, distribution model. All clubs receive an equal share of both the UK and International TV rights, then there’s differing payments depending on how many times a team was shown on TV, and lastly there’s a merit payment based on league finish.

Despite the 6 different revenue streams, overall it results in one of the fairest distributions of prize money in world football – with the Champions receiving £176m, and bottom of the table receiving £110m, last year:

Of course there’s lots more money to go round in England, but their league is considered highly competitive and part of the reason for this is the equitable distribution model. The English Champions received £176m (6.18%), with bottom of the table receiving £110m (3.85%). Comparing that to the Scottish Champions who received 16.29% and the relegated club only took 5.47%.

This isn’t just a Celtic thing, and Rangers fans will be hoping that with their impending takeover it will be them that I am citing next season. But the SPFL had <£38m in total to distribute last season (£33.7m through league placements). Our champions, Celtic, will have earned more than that through Champions League payments alone this season, yet will still receive a near £5m slice of the £29m Premiership pot. It’s not a problem unique to Scotland either, it’s a growing issue where the Champions League revenue UEFA provides now causes a major financial imbalance in small to medium sized leagues like ours.

AN ALTERNATIVE SCOTTISH MODEL

There are arguments to be made that the distribution model doesn’t need to have as wide a gap between the top and the bottom of the Premiership. Yes, the Old Firm are the main drivers for the TV deal, but the competitive imbalance in the league has worsened almost year on year for 40 years - and our distribution model undoubtedly exacerbates this. It can be reasoned that sharing the money ‘more fairly’, would lead to a raising of the standard of the entire division, which benefits the Old Firm longer term. The top two earn up to ten times more money through UEFA competition, which is the true financial reward for finishing first and second in the league.

In a hypothetical new look distribution model, both the top clubs could take a reduction in their prize money, which would have a small financial impact, given the enormous revenues of Celtic (£124m) and Rangers (£88m). Meanwhile an extra few hundred thousand pounds would be a significant uplift to the clubs further down the division, operating under much smaller budgets. Any change in distribution could come with the caveat that the extra money must and be used solely to finance youth academies or player development - again for the good of the wider Scottish game.

An example of an alternate distribution model, following the English example of the narrow % band between top and bottom, gives an example of how the same pot could be split differently. The top four clubs all have the access to the real money pot - in the form of UEFA qualifiers. The top four could therefore all take a cut in prize money, or there could be a different model where only the top two reduce their % share of the pie. This is just a quick example to demonstrate how a cut at the top positively impacts the rest of the league.

The redistribution of funds within the Premiership could just be the first step as part of a wider financial change in the country. Dutch top flight clubs agreed that some of the UEFA solidarity payments should continue to go to the second tier of Dutch football, to be spent on youth academies in order “To further strengthen the competitive balance in Dutch professional football as a whole”. This was an option that was open to the Scottish Premiership clubs - but the clubs voted against sharing any of the UEFA solidarity payments with the lower tiers. Colour me shocked.

A more radical change would be the introduction of some form of “UEFA tax” which could also help improve the overall quality of the league, if everyone bought into the ‘rising tide lifts all boats’ philosophy. They seem to have done just that in the Eredivisie, as the Dutch topflight clubs once again voted to continue their policy where clubs playing in Europe give up 3.75% of their UEFA revenues to be distributed to the non-European playing clubs (previously was 5%).

If there was a 5% UEFA tax for last season (2023/24), Celtic would have given €1.8m of €36.5m Champions League money back to the SPFL, while Rangers would have given €1m of €20m UEFA earnings. If it was applied to all teams in the group stages, Aberdeen would have given €250k of €5m back to the SPFL. The €3m funds raised in that example could be used to either re-distribute amongst only Premiership clubs, or to be redistributed down further to help the lower tier clubs. Several of which have either entered, or come close to entering, administration this season.

The Netherlands, for seven years, put their ‘UEFA tax’ into a fund to support clubs transitioning from artificial to natural grass pitches, to again improve the overall standard of the league. In 2023 they then voted in a rule change that all top flight clubs must play on natural grass as of the 2025/26 season, with a fund in place to support this. The following year, the Scottish Premiership introduced the same rule, which will come into effect at the beginning of the 2026/27 season. This means that the coming season (2025/26) will be the last that Kilmarnock, Falkirk, and potentially Livingston will be able to use their artificial surface in the top flight. Of course, there has been no fund set up in Scotland to support the clubs with the extra financial burden created by this rule change.