Peter Lawwell's Celtic address in FULL as Champions League cash proves vital and end of season target set

Peter Lawwell has released a lengthy statement as part of Celtic's latest financial report.

The Hoops boast a staggering £67million in the bank with £32million profits and revenue at £82m as part of the club's interim report. The club chairman has also opened up on the frustrations of the January transfer window that ended with Brendan Rodgers only bringing in two players. Adam Idah arrived on loan from Norwich City on deadline day with Nicolas Kuhn a £3m addition from Rapid Vienna to boost the wide area. Lawwell has opened up on the "disappointing'"winter window and insists it was NEVER the intention of the club with identified targets unavailable to push through deals for.

He also outlined the priority between now and the summer with Rangers and Celtic fighting it out for the Scottish Premiership title and the Scottish Cup still up for grabs to Rodgers and his troops. The champions trail Philippe Clement's league leaders by two points with 12 games to go in the current league campaign. The statement reads: "The results for the six months ended 31 December 2023 show revenues of £85.2m (2022: £76.5m) and a profit from trading, representing the profit excluding other income and player-related gains and charges, amounting to £32.0m (2022: profit of £28.1m). The profit before finance income & expense and taxation amounted to £28.5m (2022: £33.8m).

"We benefited from Champions League qualification in both 2022 and 2023 and increased underlying revenue by £8.7m to £85.2m in the first half of 2023 relative to the same period last year. The key factors in this were higher UEFA distributions this year alongside a general incremental upturn in trading across almost all revenue streams. A significant portion of this revenue