Gary Mackay: Hearts supporters have been hoodwinked

Just a year after captain Marius Zaliukas lifted the Scottish Cup, Hearts are in turmoil. Picture: SNS

The celebrations of these two nights are short-lived, while the impact of yesterday’s news has a long-term effect on a lot of people at Heart of Midlothian Football Club.

The supporters have been hoodwinked. What happens to the money from people who have already paid their season ticket money, does that become null and void? These are the same good, hard-working people who bought shares in the club last season, and for which they did not get share certificates. It has been a catalogue of deceit.

Motherwell came back from administration; Dundee came back. But none of these clubs’ supporters had their financial wherewithal diluted to the extent Hearts fans’ have. Since the share issue last November, that is what happened. The supporters have paid out a fortune. And that disgusts me. People have aligned themselves to these different schemes, but for what?

I still think that if the people who run the football club knew administration was inevitable, then would it not have been better going into voluntary administration two months ago, rather than waiting until now? That’s an aside. Now the administrators are coming in. Hearts have been through situations like this in Wallace Mercer’s time and in Chris Robinson’s time, which led to Vladimir Romanov coming in.

The Lithuanian-based businessman was the only person who came to the party back in 2005. And I met him, and I do now feel a bit contradictory, because I know how badly I wanted him to be the real deal. But it’s not happened, it’s not worked out.

It is deeply unfortunate for us. However, resilience is in Hearts fans’ DNA. There is unconditional loyalty. I am on holiday in Tenerife so I won’t be part of it for a week, but hopefully by the time I get back next week, there will be things in place that will allow us to regain the pride and dignity that this football club was once famous for. I know I will put my shoulder to the wheel and do whatever is required.

In adversity, people pull together, and positives come out of it. But at this moment in time, there are a lot of good people losing their jobs, and that’s hugely unfortunate. I don’t take any joy in being proved right, but I have said before that if one or two people at the club could have done a bit more, and been more helpful to supporters, then it might not have come to this.

I feel for Gary Locke, but he and his Hearts-supporting family have seen the trials and tribulations over the years, in the late Seventies and early Eighties, when the club was on its knees, and then into the Nineties, with Robinson.

This is a new frontier, a new challenge. If there were five or six bidders ready to put money on the table before administration, then let’s see if these same five or six bidders come to the table now the club is in administration. And let’s see if we can all come together again. You need resilience to be a Hearts fan – and we are not going to lose this fight in the long term.

It is another kick in the nether regions. But we have to re-group. There are things that happen in all our lives that you do not want to happen. As I said last week, while it’s nothing so serious as the loss of a life, it is a big emotional attachment for a lot of people, and to sustain that emotional attachment we need to make sure we resurrect what we possibly can.

The football club is 139 years old – I just hope to see the 140th year start.