The billionaire American has held a preliminary conversation with the cinch Premiership club about making an investment and while the current Hibs regime, spearheaded by Kit Gordon and her son Ian, do not want to relinquish control of the club, they have entertained the approach from Foley.

Foley recently made his interest in Scottish football known, with the Scottish Football Association looking at changing regulations that currently prohibit an organisation or individual having a controlling stake in two clubs at the one time.

Speaking six weeks ago, Foley said in a podcast. “I’m fascinated by the Scottish Premier League. They play hard, Scots are tough. They play a tough brand of football. And I believe there are opportunities to make one of the No. 4, 5 or 6 SPL teams to get them to No 3 and they play in Europe.

Bill Foley is interested in making an investment in Hibs.

“I believe we can pull that off with not a gigantic investment – and be a minority investor, be supportive of that club. And then work on sponsorship together because we have a whole sponsorship and I know we can help an SPL team. We’re working towards that goal right now with a particular team.

“Then we have our sights set on some other clubs. And I believe we could end up with four or five economic interests in clubs. We would then have a system in place for players to advance and move on to the next club, then the next club. We will have similar analytics staff in place, and technical directors, to look for the right type of players who can ultimately play for AFC Bournemouth.”

Hibs were taken over in 2019 by Peruvian businessman Ron Gordon, who made his fortune in the US. Gordon passed away earlier this year after a battle with cancer and left the club in the hands of his wife and son. The Gordons are understood to remain fully committed to Hibs, having invested substantially on and off the pitch.

Foley, a 78-year-old Texan who specialises in the financial sector, has long held a strong interest in sport and acquired English Premier League outfit Bournemouth in December last year. He also took over a significant minority stake in French Ligue 1 club Lorient in January and holds stakes in football and hockey teams in his homeland. He is also the preferred bidder to set up a new A-League team, based out of Auckland in New Zealand.

Billionaire Bill Foley approaches Hibs over investment - 'I know we can help an SPL team'