Finance expert Adam Williams has told 67 Hail Hail that Celtic will have plenty of cash available to deal with any financial penalty that comes their way from Rangers.
Their chairman, Andrew Cavenagh, has claimed that they will be looking for compensation in relation to the damage inside the Broomloan Stand after Celtic beat Rangers at Ibrox in the Scottish Cup quarter-finals.
Rangers claim that £1.3m worth of damage was done, with Cavenagh saying: “We think the damage caused by their supporters is roughly £1.3m. We have asked them to pay for that, there’s a dispute over that, but we won’t get into tit-for-tat via the media.” But Williams has said that there will be no issue to the Hoops.
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Celtic can ‘easily absorb’ possible financial penalty
The outcome of this decision is yet to be confirmed, but it is more than likely that all parties will engage in back-and-forth arguments until a decision has been reached. Whatever the case, Williams believes that the club will not experience any issues from this sort of punishment.
He told 67 Hail Hail: “It’s hard to speculate on liability and whether or not Celtic will ultimately have to pay without knowing the details of the claim from the insider. That said, it is usually the case that the headline number – £1.3m in this case – is a starting point or leverage in negotiations.
“If Rangers are correct in thinking they have a strong case, they’ll use that figure as their baseline and then there might be a negotiated settlement from there. Celtic clearly will fight that tooth and nail and point to the existing rule about liability being limited to £50,000.
“But if it comes down to it, they can easily absorb that kind of shock. They had nearly £67m cash in the bank at the last year-end accounting date and, with European football next season, that figure is only going to continue to grow, so they have the reserves to comfortably pay for something like this.
“The other consideration is to what extent Celtic’s business insurance policies might cover damages to away grounds. Again, I’m speculating there, but I suspect that will be in play to some extent too.”
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