Celtic cash may not stop Clyde boss Danny Lennon facing budget cuts

The money earned from February’s fifth round tie, broadcast live on Premier Sports, will, help the club post a profit this year.

But as the impact of the coronavirus shutdown continues to be felt, the club is still facing a financial shortfall.

Aclub statement issued this week revealed that while the Celtic cash means the club is not in any immediate danger, the financial benefits of the Bully Wee’s cup run mask its underlying operations.

A club spokesman said: “We expect to deliver a profit for the season, which will be our best result for many years. That is the positive side of where we are at the moment.”

Thanks to government measures around the virus and support from sponsors, Clyde will also lose less money in the final three months of the financial year by not playing their final eight fixtures.

But the club statement continued: “Each year the directors make decisions as to how much should be committed to the playing budget. Those decisions are based around assumptions of commercial income and donations as well as assumptions for other more predictable revenues.

“The last two years have seen losses of £93k in 2019 and £68k in 2018. Without a cup run and Covid-19 this year we would have lost somewhere in the region of £35k. All of these numbers are supported by substantial generous donations from a few individuals which would otherwise have resulted in far larger losses.

The club is unable to continue to sustain losses and therefore cannot maintain the playing budget without donations from supporters.

“To set in context of the current squad costs, the club requires to fill a donations gap of approximately £110k if it wishes to retain the same level of expenditure into the next season.

“The club has discussed with the manager the prospect of reducing the budget by around 22 per cent.

“Even with that scale of reduction it still leaves a gap of £50k to be bridged which could result in a weaker squad.”

The club has also received its final placing payment, following last week’s SPFL vote to end the season.

However, contrary to some assertions, it won’t make a massive difference.

Payments are spread in four instalments over the course of a season, meaning the amount received by Clyde last week was just £8,221 plus VAT.