Football was my Hearts DESIRE
McKinlay quit golf hierarchy to rekindle love for Beautiful Game
It WAS a return worthy of the Godfather. Just when he thought he was out, they pulled him back in. andrew Mckinlay is, of course, no criminal mastermind but he spent the best part of a decade in Scottish sport and some would suggest that surviving in the maelstrom of football administration makes the mafia look like a crèche in comparison.
He has now been the chief executive of Hearts for a year and his appointment followed the hit of relegation, the battles in the courts and the war with other Scottish clubs.
His tenure has encompassed a Scottish Cup final defeat, a loss to Brora rangers in a Scottish Cup tie, the subsequent pressure on the manager and the continual and changing problems with Covid restrictions.
‘It’s great to be back,’ he says without irony. Mckinlay, a lawyer, stepped aside from his role as chief executive at Scottish Golf amid cost-cutting measures.
Previously he had been at the SFA for six years, starting as director of football governance in 2012 but briefly becoming interim chief executive when Stewart regan left.
‘It has been a strange year,’ admits Mckinlay. ‘But I have enjoyed it.’
Hearts are now on the cusp of fan ownership and play their first game back in the Premiership tonight, against Celtic at tynecastle
It is a testing time but Mckinlay does not shrink from discussing the lessons of the past.
He accepts mistakes have been made, recognises the right of Hearts fans not to forgive some Scottish clubs, insists the board will, in contrast, move to draw a line under the acrimony, and frankly labels the defeat to Brora as ‘one of the worst — if not the worst — in the club’s history’.
In a wide-ranging interview, he is open about the turmoil of the past and the challenges of the future. He occupies a seat so hot he could be forgiven if he checked it was plugged in. So why did he come back to football?
‘the golf job was fine for a couple of years. But I remember going to a game at Hampden and Neil Doncaster (SPFL chief executive) asking me if I was missing football. and I replied: “Do you know what? Yes”. You miss the higher-profile events but these are the things that bring the greater stresses and strain.
‘It is a different level of stress. Football in Scotland is everything. It’s good to be back in.’
Mckinlay came in on the back of the rift between Hearts and the SPFL that ended in the Court of Session after the Gorgie club was relegated when the season was cut short. He knows this has left a degree of anger among the support.
‘Don’t get me wrong. I am sure our fans won’t forget and I don’t blame them,’ he says. ‘there will be certain clubs they won’t forgive and might not want to go there as away supporters. that’s entirely their choice.
‘as a club, we have taken the view that it is more important to us to be involved in the decision-making of Scottish football to avoid those sort of things happening in the future. So, for example, I am one of the SPFL representatives on the Sfa professional game board next year.
‘It’s important for Hearts to get back into those sort of positions. Some individuals will never forget, I get that — but we need to move on.’
the club is in the process of moving ownership to the fans. ‘It is imminent. It will be done this summer,’ he says. ‘the only thing that is holding it up is a few legal niceties we have to sort out.’
He adds: ‘It’s well understood that fan-owned doesn’t mean fan-run. You have to have a board that runs the club.
‘the big thing for me is the protection of the club. It means you don’t have the romanov-type things happening. You don’t have any suggestion of trying to move from tynecastle as others have tried to do or changing strip colours. these sort of things are fundamental to the fans and they can stop anything of that sort happening in the future.’
ann Budge, the leading financial saviour of the club, will stay on as chair. the businesswoman has not escaped flak for a series of decisions.
the appointment of Ian Cathro as head coach, the subsequent adoption of director of football and first-team coach Craig Levein and then recruiting Daniel Stendel to rescue a plummeting team all were choices that proved unsuccessful.
‘ann has shown incredible resilience,’ says Mckinlay. ‘I get annoyed when anyone
throws personal abuse towards her because, firstly, she put a lot of the money up to come out of administration but, more than that, she put more money in and has never taken a salary. Yet you had some outrageous things directed at her.
‘She will admit that she learned things over the past few years. Ann has admitted that she maybe let some things go one for too long, made mistakes.
‘But she has also been incredibly resilient and keen for us to re-establish ourselves properly as one of the real forces of Scottish football.’
Head coach Robbie Neilson, too, came in for criticism, particularly after the defeat to Brora Rangers. McKinlay addresses the background openly, saying: ‘Part of it goes back to Robbie leaving the club (in 2016). Some fans were unhappy he left and even Robbie admits he did that too early.
‘Some fans hold a couple of results against him. One is that we were 2-0 up at Tynecastle in the Scottish Cup against Hibs in 2016. Hibs pulled it back, won the replay and went on to win the cup.
‘Now, Hibs’ failure to win the cup in more than 100 years was a big thing that Hearts fans had over them but it’s hardly Robbie’s fault that Hibs won it.
‘I found some of the criticisms last year a bit over the top. The result up at Brora was shocking. It was one of the worst — if not the worst result — in the club’s history. We then lost to Queen of the South. We haven’t lost a competitive game since. We haven’t lost a goal since then in 11 games.’
He points out that several players came in during Covid and needed time to adjust in difficult circumstances.
There are clubs our fans won’t forget. They might not go there as away fans