Hibees fans tried to de-rail Jambos survival
Former Hearts director Ian Murray has revealed how letters from troublesome Hibs fans to the Lithuanian President pushed the Tynecastle club to the verge of extinction.
Speaking at the launch of his book, This Is Our Story: How The Fans Kept Their Hearts Beating, Murray concedes supporters of their bitter rivals were determined to derail their exit from financial uncertainty.
Hearts plunged into administration in June, 2013, with most of the £28.4-million debt owed to then owner Vladimir Romanov’s collapsed companies, UBIG and Ukio Bankas.
Ann Budge, with the help of the Foundation Of Hearts (FOH), eventually took over as majority shareholder in May, 2014, after a company voluntary agreement (CVA) was agreed in a £2.6m deal in May, 2015.
But former FOH chairman, and MP for Edinburgh South, Murray, has recalled how then Lithuanian President, Dalia Grybauskait, intervened before the handover after some Hibs fans claimed the Baltic state was being defrauded.
Murray said: “Lots of Hibs fans were hugely appreciative of what we were trying to do. It was only a very small minority who thought they would try and make life even more difficult.
“The club was just about to duck their head over the finishing line to get this done.
“But the night before, letters from Hibs fans landed on the desk of the Lithuanian President. He then stopped the administration process from concluding, and asked for explanations of what is going on.
“Things like that were extraordinary. “There were a few fans who were overly vicious.
“It was a tiny number, but the disproportionate trouble they caused was huge, and could have ultimately cost the club its very existence.
“The Lithuanians didn’t appreciate that opposition supporters could do something like that.
“One letter, which is printed in the book, was given to the President that said that a fraud was being perpetrated in the country.
“It said politicians were conspiring against the Lithuanian government to defraud the Lithuanian people of their hard-earned tax revenues, and that the club was worth £15 million.
“It added that anything short of that price, and they were being defrauded.”