Foundation of Hearts pleased with bid to unite fans

The two largest groups, the Federation of Hearts Supporters’ Clubs and the Heart of Midlothian Shareholders Association, are now working closely with FOH, and other groups have also agreed to co-operate.

But at the same time, serious obstacles remain. The Hearts Supporters’ Trust have yet to make a formal alliance with FOH, as they are part of Supporters Direct Scotland, whose head, Paul Goodwin, has been advising the club on how to conduct a sale. And the club’s directors are also sceptical at best about FOH, whose only previous bid, for £450,000, was rejected as being unrealistic.

“Uniting the fans’ groups has been a priority for the Foundation, and we are delighted with the progress that has been made,” FOH chairman Alex Mackie said. “We’re working very closely with the two largest organisations, the Federation and the Shareholders’ Association, and both now have representatives on our steering group. We also have supportive alliances with Save Our Hearts and the 1874 Fighting Fund and have established a good relationship with the Youth Development Committee.”

Mackie is sure that many members of the Trust are in broad agreement with FOH’s aims and will make a formal alliance if Goodwin’s talks with Hearts do not produce any concrete plans. “We have an emerging relationship with the Trust and share with them our strategy and information.

“Clearly we share with Supporters Direct the objective of fan ownership and we respect the work they have done in a number of clubs. At the moment, they are in discussions with Hearts about models which might achieve this objective and we are awaiting the outcome of these discussions with great interest.

“Supporters Direct is a government-backed organisation which is not set up to make any bid for the club. So at some stage a fan ownership bid will, we very much hope, have to be tabled, and that is what the Foundation, with the support of the fans and the fans’ groups, is set up to deliver – if the fans want it.”

For his part, Goodwin is also awaiting a response from Hearts to the discussions he has had with them. “We’ve got detailed proposlas for a fan-ownership model,” he said. “They were discussed by the board late last year and we’re waiting for the board to come back to us.”

According to club sources, the Hearts board are disinclined to deal directly with FOH. They already have quarterly meetings with the various fans’ groups, which collectively they call “the G10”, and do not see the need for the Foundation to set up an umbrella group of its own.

FOH accepts the desire of the Hearts board to agree a takeover which can leave a legacy for current owner Vladimir Romanov to be proud of, but it does not believe that the new owners should be saddled with the club’s debt of more than £20m.

“We believe that if Mr Romanov passes the club on to the fans debt-free, offering a fair and realistic price package, his legacy will be more than intact,” Mackie added. “He will be remembered not only for the Scottish Cup wins which have been achieved at the club under his guardianship but also for the manner in which he handed on this great institution.

“The only important issue in this whole saga is for Hearts to survive and to be able to look forward to a positive future. The notion of legacies can’t dictate the future, no, but looking at a scenario as we have outlined, we firmly believe that everyone – including Mr Romanov – can emerge with credit.”

If serious negotiations ever begin between FOH and the Hearts board, disagreement over how to treat the debt could prove a major stumbling block. For the time being, the two parties have at least found one stance on which they agree – the club’s statement that former Livingston owner Angelo Massone, who bid £4.5m late last year, is not the right person to take over Hearts.