Hearts legend Donald Ford: Our club WILL live on.. but it's going to be a long road to recovery

Gary Ralston

19 Jun 2013 08:06

FORD admits the crisis which the Jambos currently find themselves mired in has been coming for a long time but he is adamant his beloved side will survive administration.

DONALD FORD didn't need his qualification as a chartered accountant to work out that Hearts have been heading for financial disaster for the best part of two decades.

The former Tynecastle favourite believes his beloved Jambos will survive but it will take years to recover fully under the intensive care of their own support.

It's not just the Gorgie club. Sadly Ford, now an accomplished photographer, casts his well trained eye around the landscape of Scottish football and sees far more shadow than light.

At his pomp in the sixties and seventies, striker Ford played in a boom time for the Scottish game and even went to West Germany as part of Willie Ormond's squad for the World Cup in 1974.

He doubts those days will ever return as he expressed sympathy for Hearts players, staff and fans as the club teeters on the brink.

Ford said: "This has been coming for a long time, not just the last six months. It's become fairly clear the financial state of the game, and not just at Tynecastle, is in dire straits.

"Hearts were relegated in the late seventies and early eighties and people's lives were affected but we weren't talking about the potential death of the club and parent company and we're pretty close to that now.

"There are a lot of loyal people at Tynecastle who are losing their posts when their hearts are in the club and their jobs and that's very sad.

"In saying that, I can't see Hearts dying. But the game in this country is in such a state it's impossible to say if Hearts will recover their status of the fifties and sixties when it was such an exciting time to play and watch.

"The public now have countless other ways to spend their time and money and the game hasn't helped itself in terms of a spectacle to watch.

"It's going to be a long road back and my hope is the fans and those in charge of the club grab the chance this presents. From every disaster comes opportunity."

Ford, 68, was one of the first men the Foundation of Hearts turned to when they were established in 2010 to safeguard the future of the club for supporters.

He sees the umbrella group of various fan interests as pivotal going forward as they bid to piece the club back together from the wreckage of Vladimir Romanov's regime.

Ford added: "Hearts supporters have been absolutely fantastic, not least their response to the share issue six months ago. It was ridiculous to ask them to continue to dip into their pockets to fund a rescue operation.

"However, the Foundation of Hearts is different. It's about supporters becoming the eventual owners of the company, which has never happened before.

"The problem at the moment is no one knows the size of the financial hole created. Supporters are desperate to know their money is not going to disappear into a trough, as the last lot did.

"However, the hope is the funds will be for the ownership of the club in the longer term.

"I still don't know what drove Romanov to invest in Hearts. In retrospect, what purpose did his speculation serve? Was it a marketing exercise, with a view to eventually establishing Ukio Bankas in Scotland? Was it a punt with some spare millions?

"I learned long ago Eastern European nations have a different ethos when it comes to business and business models and I also know, from my involvement with the Foundation, it's been difficult to find credible information from Lithuania.

"Even then, when we did receive it, we didn't know whether we could accept it at face value or take it with a pinch of salt.

"It's a confusing mess and so hard to find elements of credibility among it all.

"It would be lovely if the club fell into the hands of supporters because the love of Hearts and the football knowledge of the people involved with the Foundation is second to none.

"If it came to pass they would make it work but whoever was involved would need a minimum of four to five years to get the club back where it should belong.

"It's impossible to say where exactly Hearts will be by then because it's impossible to look beyond the next seven days at the moment, never mind any further.

"I hope financial stability is restored and a stable company is created that is run by people with the club at heart."

Hearts are just the latest in a line of Scottish clubs to face up to administration, following on from Dunfermline, Rangers, Motherwell, Gretna, Dundee and Livingston.

Ford rues the failure of Scottish club chairmen and other directors to face up to the old business maxim that what goes up must also come down.

He reckons Hearts are just the latest example of a club living high on the hog, mistaken in the belief that lines of credit would always be available to bail them out of their financial mishaps.

Kilmarnock fans are threatening to starve chairman Michael Johnston of funds for the new season, which would have disastrous consequences for the Rugby Park outfit.

And First Division outfits were so desperate to cling to the
financial lifeline they believe will be thrown by the SPL they even signed up for the new SPFL without full due diligence of the top flight's books.

Ford added: "The game's been unsustainable financially for the last 20 years. There was a period of boom in the late nineties and early noughties when borrowing was unlimited and went through the roof.

"But the point is always reached when the arrow stops sloping upwards and no one has done anything to prepare for that.

"The sad thing is that huge amounts disappeared from the game in those boom years in
salaries and other fees, instead of being spread around all the other clubs in terms of transfer fees.

"It disappeared into the pockets of individuals and was spent. It wasn't sustainable. All we needed was a TV contract or a major sponsorship deal not to be renewed and the whole pack of cards would come crashing down."

Taken from the Daily Record