Heart of Midlothian Football Club
RIP 1874 - ?
This page has been written in advance of the death of Heart of Midlothian Football Club. It is a reminder to all clubs of the folly of spending far in excess of your income.
Huge Debt
Hearts currently have a debt not far short of £40 million pounds. Their turnover is around £10 million per year which is two million less than their annual wage bill. It can only end one way - in tears.
There's a great site which looks at the financial side of Hearts impending doom. The guy has looked into the finances of a number of teams including Hibs and appears to know what he's talking about. It's scary reading for any Jambo.
Vladimir Romanov - "wibble"
Vladimir Romanov
Heart of Midlothian FC had a debt of not much more than £20 million when previous Chairman, Chris "The Pieman" Robinson ditched his plans to sell Hearts' Tynecastle stadium in favour of selling the club to Vladimir Romanov. Since then the debt has near doubled, with no clear plan of how to pay it off. The debt has been taken over by Ukios Bankas, a small Lithuanian bank with a poor credit rating and strong ties to Mad Vlad Romanov. Hearts are in effect paying huge interest payments to the owner of the club. The bigger the debt, the more money he makes.
Hearts' new stand
Romanov has pacified large sections of what can only be described as a gullible support with glossy drawings of a new stand which he proposes to build at Tyncastle at a cost of £51 million. This stand will never be built.
Big team, big debt
When Hearts' house of cards finally collapses, their fans will receive little sympathy from other fans in Scottish football. Over the last few years, Hearts fans have been arrogant in the extreme, proclaiming to anyone who will listen that they are the third force in Scottish football, laughably pronouncing themselves the "big team", sticking their heads in the sand and ignoring the club they claim to love being ripped apart.
Updates on the demise of HoMFC
Updates on Hearts impending doom can now be found on the Hibs Easter Road Blog.