‘Something is rotten in Easter Road’ claims Hibs protest leader

Keith Sands was one of a gathering of agitators calling for the removal of chairman Rod Petrie outside the stadium prior to the club’s annual general meeting on Tuesday night. The banner they held up made the point that “eight managers in ten years can’t all be wrong Mr Farmer”.

Sir Tom Farmer, the Hibs owner, took the floor to make an impassioned defence of Petrie at the end of the meeting, but Sands believes this isn’t enough. He wants fans to register their disapproval or otherwise via a poll which canvasses the views of all Hibs supporters and not only shareholders.

If it shows that the majority are against him and his push for a change of board then he will happily stand down. But until then he has already started up a website at hibsforchangeeasterroad.co.uk and claims to have the backing of former Hibs players and investors. Sands claims also to have recruited as many as 150 people to his cause already.

“If the fans say to me: ‘No, we don’t want this’, then I will drop it,” Sands, 42, told The Scotsman. “But I want to know what the fans want. The fans never get a say. The fans want answers. We have eight managers in ten years – ten if you include interim managers. Whether you are a success or failure, your life-span is 13 months. There is something rotten within Easter Road itself.”

Sands was refused entry to the agm on Tuesday night because he is not a shareholder. He was, however, invited to Easter Road yesterday to meet managing director Fife Hyland.

“To be fair to the board, I have been speaking to Fife,” said Sands. “Fife gave me the opportunity to come in and speak to him today [Wednesday]. I had to decline because I had other commitments. But I did say: ‘Why don’t you let me into the agm as an alternative group?’ I am not there to cause trouble. I can see whether there are any positives from the board and I can relay that back to the people who are supporting me.

“I was told I could not [come to the agm] because it is only for shareholders. But they allow the media in – why can’t they let in one guy with a season ticket in? I was told I could not do that, but I could come in the day after. But if I can’t hear what’s been said at the agm, what’s the point in going in?”

Sands has called on Petrie to resign and wants owner Sir Tom Farmer to either up his financial input or put the club up for sale. “Let’s have a poll for Hibs fans to vote – either say ‘yes for change’ or ‘yes for the board’. If the majority of Hibs fans are not with me I would drop it. I do not have a personal vendetta,” he added. “I am just sick of the same old, same old.”

He wants fans to demand answers to questions that were not all asked on Tuesday night.

“When Tom Farmer came in 22-23 years ago, it was fantastic for the club,” he said. “But you can’t dine out on that forever. You have to re-invest. We are now losing money.

“The club is tied up in knots with holding companies and the like. We are 4,000 season tickets down on last year. Why? Because we are not producing on the park. We have got a beautiful football ground, but the standard is not good enough on the park. There were 300 people there [at the agm]. We should have 10,000-plus in that stadium every two weeks. Every agm is the same. One more chance. For the past ten years, it’s been one more chance. How many more chances can they get?”