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The Scotsman 31/01/1994
By Hugh Keevins
THE five-man consortium headed by the multi-millionaire, Fergus McCann, who tried to take over Celtic last month are ready to try again. The group considers the Scottish Cup defeat at Motherwell to have serious financial implications and will now wait to see if the end of the season finds the Celtic board left with no option but to concede they can no longer carry on.
Celtic have had no revenue since they played Aberdeen on 18 January and are not due to play at home again until 26 February against Kilmarnock. The club's wage bill and operating expenses are thought to come to 140,000 per week and the cost of servicing their overdraft is a further 8,000. Celtic's debt therefore will have risen by more than half a million pounds before they earn a penny through the gate.
There are only seven home matches left to be played before the end of the season and none of them could be described as meaningful. There is no Scottish Cup or European matches to provide financial comfort, either. Even the final Old Firm game of the season is to be staged at Ibrox with Rangers as the sole beneficiaries.
Talks involving McCann and the other members of the consortium took place at the weekend and it is understood the Montreal-based McCann believes that it has to be now or never where his bid for control of the club is concerned. McCann's fear is that many more months of operating at a severe loss will make Celtic too much of a financial risk. when creditors have to be taken care of, along with the bank, and both the team and the ground need considerable sums of money spent on them. In what is a cash flow business, the Scottish Cup result is likely to have the effect of further reducing already declining attendances. In spite of speculation that a Glasgow-based group were also willing to buy out the shareholding of individual members of the Celtic board, nothing has happened. McCann's proposition would not result in personal gain for any director but would provide the funds to re-capitalise the club. McCann has told his fellow investors that he will not become involved in a Dutch auction for the club. A proposed meeting of the consortium in the Cayman Islands earlier this month did not take place but a gathering is expected soon. as Celtic go into that period between now and the end of the season that will make or break the club.
Lou Macari, Celtic's manager, repeated his request for money to improve the team before he left Fir Park on Saturday night but at a time when the manager has been forced to put down 75,000 for a goalkeeper, Carl Muggleton, and pay the rest of his 150,000 fee on an instalment basis his prospects of receiving a windfall do not look good. "When we're at our best, we're good enough but being just good enough is not good enough for Celtic," he said. The manager's view is shared as far afield as North America, from where developments are being watched with interest.