Hearts will survive vows Ann Budge
● Owner insists her tough stance on wage cuts will help steer the club through football’s long shutdown
Moving to shutdown persistent rumours that her club are teetering on the brink due to the coronavirus crisis, Ann Budge has insisted that “Hearts will survive”.
The Edinburgh businesswoman, who rescued the Gorgie side from administration in 2014, was widely criticised when, responding to the football shutdown, the club were the first in Scotland’s top flight to announce swingeing wage cuts.
That early response also provoked concern among some fans, many of whom had dug deep to save their club and were worried that they would have to bail them out again.
Stuck in a precarious position at the foot of the Premiership and staring the possibility of relegation in the face, the size of the playing squad also intensified the concern, with some interpreting Hearts’ refusal to offer wage deferrals instead of cuts as a sign that they were struggling financially.
But, Budge, who is poised to hand over ownership to fans’ group Foundation of Hearts, has moved to shut down the negativity.
“One of the first things I had to deal with when I first took over was £1 million of football debt in unpaid wages from the previous regime and I am not going to build that problem in for anyone else, if I can avoid it. That is why we responded so quickly.
“It was obvious what was going to happen – that there will be no football until August – so we looked at the financial issues, looked at the costs and how we could stretch things out until football is restarted.
“We have got a plan that will see us through to August or September. If we get there and they are saying there will be no football till January, I don’t think we will be the only club who see that as a different kind of problem. But, no, I am not worried. Hearts will survive.
“We will go through the tough times like everyone else is at this moment but once we all come through this, I want us to be in a position where we can really motor and not have anything hanging over us for weeks or months.”
But she admitted that the need to furlough staff and manage without usual revenues has made the past few weeks the most testing of her tenure, with more uncertainty and frustration caused by the league clubs’ disparate views on how to tackle the remainder of the season and address the issue of league reconstruction.
While she has also not ruled out legal action, should they be
condemned to the Championship without the opportunity to save themselves through the fulfilment of all league fixtures, she admitted that there may come a time when she feels it is no longer worth taking it any further.
“But I have said from the beginning that we will absolutely take legal advice,” Budge reiterated. “If the legal advice is that we aren’t going to win then I will let it go. But we haven’t reached that point and we are still looking at where we go from here.”
The SPFL has recommended clubs pass are solution calling for the immediate termination of the three lower divisions. The Premiership could follow if, as likely, the remaining games cannot be completed.