Hearts in mouths but over nothing

AFTER Ukio Bankas rejected the initial offer for Hearts people sounded the death-knell for the Tynecastle club but stories of impending doom were jumping the gun.
31 Jul 2013 12:47

THE announcement on Monday morning from Gintaras Adomonis, the liquidation administrator of Ukio Bankas, that he had rejected the initial takeover bids for
Hearts sounded the panic alarms.

Once again the internet – and Twitter in particular – went into meltdown, like the opening scene of Apocalypse Now with “This Is The End” by The Doors playing in the background, as if somehow there would be no tomorrow for the Tynecastle club.

But when you look at the statement in the cold light of day and given what both Trevor Birch and Bryan Jackson said when they arrived in Edinburgh, that it would likely be a long, drawn out process, then this is unsurprising.

Rarely has a football club, in administration or not, been sold at the very first bid. This is a process of negotiation with proposals followed by counter-proposals, but unfortunately in the attention deficit disorder world of Scottish football, everyone jumps to an immediate conclusion.

The rush of people to pick out certain parts of Adomonis’ statement, such as if negotiations with the two remaining bidders parties wasn’t a success, then they would move the club into liquidation.

That threat’s been hanging over Tynecastle for over a year but using those words has led to a feeding frenzy of wild suggestions without any real basis.

After the news that an administrator was keen to liquidate UBIG, another one of Hearts’ main creditors, being able to finally talk to real people, rather than look into a black hole, will hopefully mean that coming out of administration will be made simpler.

And with BDO’s statement confirming that they will continue to talk to interested parties, The Foundation of Hearts and Angelo Massone, it can only be good news.

They realise that the only way to get the best possible value for creditors is to sell Hearts as a going concern because no property developer in this financial climate is going to even look at Tynecastle. It may have been true nine years ago that Cala Homes were willing to offer £20m for the stadium, but a lot has changed.

Given that it is now just down to two, the Foundation of Hearts are clear favourites.

They offer exactly what the creditors are looking for, while also making sure that it will be a smooth process from administration back to solvency.

Massone can’t do this unless he is backed by someone willing to kick the Italian to the curb and front the bid.

With that unlikely, the SFA need to announce that a Massone takeover is not welcome.

That would clear the way for fan ownership of Hearts.

Taken from the Daily Record