Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell has said that his club do not need Rangers in order to be financially healthy.

The Parkhead club has published interim results that reflected a decrease in bank debt from £7m to £2m but also saw profits fall from £7m to £180,000.

With city rivals Rangers facing an imminent decision on their tax tribunal, which could have a huge impact on the Ibrox club’s finances, Lawwell said that Celtic’s position was not reliant on anyone else.

The chief executive told the BBC that in the event that Rangers were to go into administration or worse it "would have no material effect on Celtic".

Lawwell stressed that the newly published results were healthy and that future finances would not be affected by other clubs.

"We look after ourselves," Lawwell told BBC Scotland. "We don't rely on any other club. We are in a decent position, we're very strong.

“Our aspirations and horizons are to dominate in Scotland but also beyond that; we want to compete at the highest level again in Europe.

"We have a stand-alone strategy, a stand-alone financial plan and a robustness hopefully that will take us through that.”

Lawwell also hinted that Celtic would make comment on Rangers’ situation once the tax dispute between the Ibrox club and HMRC is settled.

"Times are pretty tough,” he said. “I don't think it's appropriate for us to talk about any individual club, these things are hypothetical at the moment.

"I think we've a view, a very strong view on certain circumstances but we'll only share that at the right time.

"In terms of Scottish football, I'm disappointed to look at the performance of Scottish teams in Europe and the effect that that has on co-efficient.

"I'm disappointed to see that financial constraints and problems in other nations as well."