Celtic fans are still waiting on the club to spend any meaningful money in the January transfer window.
With Celtic signing Julian Araujo on loan, the club have yet to spend a transfer fee on any permanent players in January so far.
As it stands, Celtic are 12 days into the transfer window and yet to sign a striker that the first-team so badly needs.
You have £20m to spend in the January transfer window. How are you spending it?
The Celtic board came under fire from the fans for the lack of quality transfers made last summer and with over £70m in the bank, there was no reason for it.
Unless you believe the UEFA excuse Celtic gave for not investing money in the first team. An excuse that has been given a thorough going over by finance expert Dr Dan Plumley.
Dr Dan Plumley says UEFA regulations put Celtic ‘in a sticky spot’, but with a caveat
UEFA‘s Financial Fair Play rules are designed to ensure all its member club spend money within their means so that no club faces financial ruin with reckless transfer spending.
That is the reason Celtic cited for not investing heavily in the Hoops first-team as Dr Dan Plumley casts his eye over the claim.
Plumley told The Herald, “UEFA have now introduced the squad cost ratio, which has replaced financial fair play, to promote sustainability.
“A club’s squad is not allowed to cost more than 70 per cent of their turnover. But that cost covers player and manager wages and all amortisation of transfer fees and agent fees.
“Everything that goes into the transfer market goes towards your squad cost and is matched against revenue. It does put Celtic in a bit of a sticky spot. They can’t overstretch because they can’t fall foul of UEFA’s regulations.
“For the record, they are not even close to doing that. But they still can’t push the envelope too far because if they do then they start to run up against UEFA’s regulations.”
It’s weird to warn against something that Celtic ‘are not even close’ to doing, especially with a transfer window well under way, is it not?
Celtic ‘have to be mindful’ of UEFA regulations
So with Celtic well within the threshold of UEFA regulations, why does the Parkhead club still have to be careful of breaching the UEFA rules?
Plumley continued, “When they then qualify for Europe, which they always do, there will be fines and sanctions incoming if they break them.
“I wouldn’t say the squad cost ratio is more prohibitive than financial fair play. There are similarities. It is sort of an extension of the soft wages to turnover ratio rules that UEFA had before but never really monitored.
“I think they’re a slight improvement on what’s been before. There are regulations around overall losses and what clubs can lose in a three-year rolling period.
“There’s a lot of clubs on UEFA’s radar at the minute. We’ve seen Aston Villa, Chelsea, Lyon and Barcelona all get fined eight-figure sums. So Celtic are juggling with that as well. It is really important.
“It is tricky for them because the fans will always want more. But they have to be mindful of what they do. They aren’t able to attack a transfer market really hard.”
It seems like a bit of a stretch to deliver this kind of warning about Celtic breaching UEFA sustainability rules, especially when Plumley admits that the club are nowhere near breaking them.
Celtic fans won’t buy this if the club comes out of yet another transfer window failing to replace Kyogo after he left the Hoops almost 12 months ago.
All they will see is excuses and another reason to have a go at the board who continually let them down.
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