Hearts fans urged to rally round the Tynecastle crisis club as it teeters on the brink of oblivion

Gordon Parks

15 Jun 2013 09:57

MORE than 300 fans hear Save Our Hearts speaker Iain Macleod bring the house down with an emotional speech. Supporters are calling for radical action as the clock ticks down towards possible oblivion.
Tynecastle Stadium Tynecastle Stadium
SNS

THIS is my story, this is my song. Follow the Hearts and you can’t go wrong – the closing words from Save Our Hearts speaker Iain Macleod brought the house down.

As over 300 fans gathered last night in the Tynecastle ground’s Gorgie Suite to try to find answers to the club’s current plight, emotion swept through the room.

But the message from the those in attendance was that talk is now cheap, with calls for radical action as the clock ticks down towards possible oblivion.

After 139 years as one of Scottish football’s proudest institutions, Macleod delivered a powerful speech that left no doubt their darkest hour has arrived.

Fans have been asked to pledge between £10 and £200 a month to try to bolster a rescue bid. And the stakes could not be higher as Jambos were even urged to put their hard-earned pounds before the weekly pint.

Macleod said: “It’s our last chance. If we don’t do it then we don’t dare think what could happen. Ten pounds a month, it’s less than three pints a month in the last chance saloon. Surely Hearts versus three pints is a no-brainer.

“But the 4000 fans who have so far pledged is simply not enough.”

This struggle was born in Lithuania and could see the club die due to Eastern European liquidators and administrators abroad. Vladimir Romanov’s reign has reached the end game and if they didn’t know it before the Gorgie fans being asked to put the battle before their bevvy was enough to shock them into silence.

Jambos legend Gary Mackay then rose to his feet and backed the Foundation of Hearts and their leader Ian Murray and his respect for the MP was emphatic.

He said: “I would trust Foundation of Hearts with my life. I have looked into Ian Murray’s eyes and I felt his passion.

“This club is bigger than all of us but it’s about all of us making sure we are proud of this football club.”

The former Tynecastle midfielder then let loose with a frank assessment of the current regime and those officials who suggested on Thursday that the blame for the escalation of the crisis can be laid at the fans who have failed to buy season tickets.

He said: “The people who aligned themselves with some statements should be disgusted with themselves.”

Wishful thinking and goodwill only go so far in football currency, especially for a club that has been technically insolvent for several years.

MP Murray has managed to bridge the gap between being a fan and being able to sift through the stark financial realities where the worst-case scenario of going to the wall exists.

But he believes there needs to be more clarity as to just how bad the Jambos balance sheets look so he can assess the size of the job the rescue group have on their hands.

He said: “Nobody wants to liquidate any company, that is a disaster, particularly for a football club, but it has happened in the past.

“These things happen but it is not our role to speculate – our concern is to have a bid on the table to take forward to any administrator, liquidator or owner.
Administration is something that is completely outwith our control. We are working as hard as we possible can, a group of 12-20 people working in our spare time trying to get something together.

“The progress we have made is significant and all we can do is get something together as quickly as possible.

“Anything that clears up the ownership of the club certainly helps. But nobody wants the club to go into administration, there is a significant human cost.

“People tend to think football clubs are about scoring goals – but there are 150 staff in these buildings and we don’t want them to suffer administration.

“Even the liquidator of Ukio Bankas does not know what the position is with UBIG so perhaps some clarity would help.

“Recent events do not really affect anything in the sense that it is pretty much the inevitable end game of what has been going on for some time.

“Some clarity has been provided, what it might do is give a little bit of impetus for people to pledge who might have been reluctant. We are now in a position to say, ‘If you didn’t think the club was in trouble, now you know’. It is time to move forward with this stuff.”

Tynecastle legend Walter Kidd ended the night by offering his own memories of better days down Gorgie Way.

Never one to shirk a tackle on the pitch, he spoke with a honest hope of survival against the reality of the plight facing the club.

He said: “I can’t say if Hearts will be around next season, I just hope they are.”

Hearts, Hearts, glorious Hearts. It’s down at Tynecastle they bide – but for how much longer?

Taken from the Daily Record