Interview: Gary MacKay, former Hearts footballer

Published Date: 02 October 2011
By Moira Gordon
IN MOST walks of life there is a line. The often fine line that divides acceptable from unacceptable, right from wrong, opinion from libel.
In May of this year most people would agree that Vladimir Romanov crossed it. Gary Mackay was the focus of the malicious comments in a statement which was released by the Heart of Midlothian FC board of directors and endorsed by the club's majority shareholder and inveterate loose cannon, Romanov. People waited on the legal action. It never came but it was considered.

"It was the use of the word 'paedophile'. The rest of his rant was water off a duck's back. Sticks and stones etc," says Mackay, a diehard fan who made a record 737 appearances for the Tynecastle club. "His opinion of me doesn't keep me awake at night but the use of that word was inappropriate and unacceptable.

"Let's be honest, though, it was a smokescreen and it was a decent one because it helped deflect attention. Hearts are very good at that now. They are a PR machine, they have people in there who come from that background. They do propaganda very well."

It wasn't the first attack on Mackay, who was initially responsive to the Romanov regime but has gradually altered his opinion, frequently voicing concern for the club he still loves. As a consequence, like the media, the Old Firm and the SFA, Mackay has been branded with more names than he cares to recall by Romanov, who is expected to be at this afternoon's game against Celtic at Tynecastle. He laughed off the "parasite" jibe from a previous statement, adamant that people who know him know the time, effort and money he has invested in the club, through the turnstiles, on the pitch and in an ambassadorial role. He shrugged off the besmirching of him and players he has represented, annoyed that their brushes with the law were dredged up simply so the club owner could have a dig at him, but he was dismayed that Romanov would stoop so low as to use a term such as paedophile, especially at a time when emotions were so highly charged and the public had made their opinions known on such issues.

Released in the aftermath of Hearts defender Craig Thomson's convictions for sexual offences against two underage girls, the statement said: "Over a short space of time, four players at our club have been on the wrong end of the law. We note three of them are represented by the same agent - Gary Mackay - who has been so vicious in his attacks against Mr Romanov.

"Taking into account the facts omitted by the media, it can be presumed each of these cases is not a coincidence, but the result of targeted actions of a mafia that wants to manipulate the club and results. Mafia are dragging kids into the crime, in order to blackmail and profit from them. It is not possible to separate these people from paedophiles."

Mackay, who represented Thomson, Lee Wallace and Ian Black, said: "He used the word 'paedophile' and everyone I have worked with through (sports marketing firm] Maximise and the Coca-Cola Sevens, and the thousands of kids I have dealt with every year, everyone I've ever dealt with at Calder Boys Club, at Tynecastle Boys Club, the care school I work at and Show Racism the Red Card - I was as embarrassed for them, as I was disappointed for myself. That's just not on. Over the years, people shouting at me from the terracing, telling me I was hopeless, I could deal with that, because some people will tell you, more often than not I probably was, but that word, no, it's a horrible thing to be called. It's just not appropriate unless you have a knowledge that somebody has these traits in their personality. It can be a hugely damaging word."

But the personal attacks won't stop Mackay voicing his concerns. He still has a massive place in his heart for the Tynecastle club but he, like many others, is scunnered by the way it is run, the lack of stability, the penchant for self-harm and the stream of broken promises.

His biggest fear, though, is apathy. An active member of the Save Our Hearts campaign, where fans joined together to battle the former regime and safeguard the club's future at Tynecastle, he accepts he played a part in helping usher Romanov in and says that is something those involved have to live with. He claims others at the club failed to do due diligence but he could understand why they welcomed him on board. He was a guest of Romanov's in Lithuania back in 2007 and went there with an open mind. "I think we should be open to ideas from other countries but he should embrace more of the Scottish game and more of what it is that makes this club special, it's history, it's tradition. It doesn't have that ethos any more.

"Mr Romanov talked of the need for stability in his management structure and he wanted success on the pitch. Well, at various times we have had that. I think we had relative success under Jim Jefferies and having strengthened the squad, he would probably have improved again this season but didn't get the chance. But, I think even I was two-faced in the sense that so many of us seem to have forgotten about George Burley. That was when the warning bells sounded but it was so early and I think we all just wanted to stick with it and hope it would be OK."

The in-word back then was "Believe".

In the end, the squad Burley assembled went on to secure European football and win the Scottish Cup, but looking back, there is the sense of "what if?".

Looking forward, Mackay feels only trepidation and he is not alone among the Gorgie faithful. Having offered to sit down with people at the club to discuss face to face his concerns for the club, the youth system, the managerial revolving door, the current set-up and the club's reputation in the game, nobody has accepted the invitation. Instead they hurl insults.

It disappoints him that, with former Hearts managing director Campbell Ogilvie now working for the SFA, Hearts have lost their calming influence, administrative guru and totem of respectability within the game.

"He has a standing in the game few can equal and this isn't just hindsight, I have long voiced concern about what would happen to Hearts when Campbell left. He knew what Heart of Midlothian was all about and we are poorer without him. People can take that as a criticism of themselves or realise that what I'm saying is that people like him don't come along very often. As you go through life, you realise that people skills are so, so important. Let's just say that I would doubt the word 'paedophile' would have been used if Campbell had still been at the club."

While he believes more could be done throughout the academy to foster links with the past and maintain the heart, soul and traditions, he also wants better value for money, insisting the conveyor belt of talent should be busier given the money invested.

Continuing to bang the drum, he admits he is worried that fellow fans, while frustrated, no longer have the stomach for the fight. He knows it is more difficult than ever with the debt making a takeover of the club all but impossible unless a EuroMillions winner is declared in Gorgie some time soon. But while there may not be a white knight heading along McLeod Street, he still wants people to have hope. Even if that hope is that Romanov will finally have a Road-to-Damascus moment and alter his approach. But nothing will change unless people demand it.

"It breaks my heart but I go into other directors' boxes, at clubs which I maybe hadn't looked too much at through my Hearts-tinted eyes with any real warmth, but I see they have a sense of belonging and because they are so hands-on they are invested in seeing things work on and off the pitch. You don't get that same feeling at Hearts. In my opinion, there are too many people now at Hearts just picking up a wage. For them it's a job and they don't really care about or know what the club is truly about."

He lists the franchising of retail matters, of hospitality and catering as things that should be covered in-house where it means more to those involved. "Maybe I'm wrong but I would like to discuss it. I think as someone who has Heart of Midlothian in my heart, I'm entitled.

Every fan is entitled to a view on the way their club is run." Mackay, now an agent, leaves negotiations with the Tynecastle club with his business partner Bert Logan as the behind-the-scenes reality at the club depresses and angers him too much.

Away from the club he immersed himself in for decades, he champions equality and fairness through his work with Show Racism the Red Card and focuses on his volunteer efforts with youth teams, and his work a local care school. But while the enthusiasm for the club in its current state has waned, his emotional attachment has not. Which is why, regardless of what insults are hurled at him, he won't sit quietly in a corner.

His life's greatest learning curve was under the managerial guidance of Alex MacDonald.

"When you get stick as a football team and you know you have not done enough to look yourself in the mirror - and that was the Alex adage - you have to accept you are one of the guilty parties. Whether on the football pitch or in life, it's the same thing. At the moment too many people at Hearts are hiding."

Sticks and stones may break some bones, and names may sometimes harm him. But Mackay can still look himself in the mirror and know that at least he isn't one of them.

Taken from the Scotsman