Peter Lawwell reckons Celtic have the potential to be among the biggest clubs in the world. The Parkhead chief executive made his assertion after contextualising Celtic’s earning potential at today's packed annual general meeting. Lawwell insisted that the 40,000 season tickets sold for this season was only bettered in Great Britain by Manchester United and Arsenal. And Lawwell informed shareholders that winning the Scottish Premiership earns Celtic £1.8m, while clubs relegated from the English top flight can rake in £65m. At a press conference in the Celtic Park boardroom afterwards Lawwell expanded on the theme by explaining that if the club had access to the broadcast monies available to the top clubs in England, Celtic would be peerless.
He said: "I believe that. If you go back 25-30 years and compare us to Manchester United before the media and TV boom, there probably wasn't much in it. I think our story is unique, it is rich - it is the best. We have a potential fan-base of Scots/Irish diaspora around the world to support that and we have fantastic, strong fan-base in Scotland. I don't see any barrier if you compare Celtic to Manchester United or Arsenal, the top clubs down there. I don't see any barriers if we were getting the same media values as they are getting regularly. Similarly. The media values in England will outweigh the media values or be similar to the top in Spain or Germany. Therefore if it is a level playing field with our strong fundamentals. I don't see any reason why we couldn't be."
Lawwell hinted moves were afoot all across Europe for clubs in a similar situation to Celtic to increase revenue potential, having earlier mentioned regional leagues or supranational leagues. Lawwell said: "We are not alone. Other leagues and nations are suffering the same problems and there needs to be a solution, and I think more than ever UEFA are open to a solution. There are no concrete plans, but it is getting to become more of a discussion item."