Foundation of Hearts Outline Purchase Plans

The supporters’ group behind the bid for Scottish football club Hearts have outlined their plans to buy the Edinburgh club.

Foundation of Hearts (FoH) were awarded preferred bidder status last week and the group has now said they aim to use capital raised by the business community to complete the purchase of the club through a company voluntary arrangement (CVA).

Ian Murray MP, chairman of FoH said 6,700 pledges had already been received, worth between £10 and £500 per month.

The money will be paid back by contribution from supporters to deliver fan ownership according to a report on the BBC.

The full transition of ownership is predicted to take three to five years and all of those who contribute will have an influence in the running of the club.

Murray explained: “They are all Hearts fans and they are all doing this for no absolutely financial gain.

“They are putting in the money to buy the club, which is essentially to deliver a CVA.

“And it will be given back to the fans over a period of time using the pledges that come in.

“We were always requiring a capital sum and this is the strongest way to do that.

“This gives us the opportunity to purchase the club via a CVA route and also gives us the help of some tremendously experienced businessmen.”

Hearts have been in administration since June and joint administrator Trevor Birch of BDO said ‘there is still some way to go’ before the club can exit administration.

Birch added: “At the moment we cannot put a timescale on the process as a number of negotiations with various parties still need to take place and we are waiting for the appointment of administrators to UBIG (Hearts’ parent company) to be ratified.

“However, we can ensure that collectively we make as much progress as possible on our side so we are able to finalise the matter quickly once the opportunity presents itself.”