It has to BE HIBS!
Budge eager for city rivals to join Hearts in Premiership
THE question begs an obvious and emphatic answer but Ann Budge is at pains to delay her response. Like the perfect television game-show contestant, the Hearts owner mulls over the three multiple-choice options, talking through the merits of each and adding to the suspense with a sigh and a cock of the head.
It’s all an act, of course, as Budge couldn’t be clearer on her preference that fierce rivals Hibernian join her title-winning club in the Premiership next season .
Although there is no guarantee that a second Championship team will ascend through the play-offs, Budge dearly hopes that both Edinburgh sides are restored to the top flight next term.
Diplomatically, she makes a case for both contestants in this weekend’s play-off quarter-final, but her final answer is delivered with conviction.
‘I have a soft spot for Queen of the South because they have been brilliant this season and given the top teams a hard time,’ she said. ‘And after what Rangers have been through in recent years, you can only hope they move things on positively.
‘But, if pushed, Hibs coming up suits Hearts and the city of Edinburgh better. There would be a financial impact of the derbies, because they’d be sell-out matches. From a Hearts perspective, it’s better if Hibs win the play-offs.’
Her loyalty to Scotland’s capital is underscored by a sense of kinship with the Hibs hierarchy that has perhaps been all too lacking in the past.
To describe Budge and Easter Road chief executive Leeann Dempster as close friends would be stretching matters but the two have established much common ground during their shared first year in situ. Lately, they have also started to operate in tandem.
The pair’s pincer movement helped spur an SPFL U-turn over the scheduling of the final round of Championship fixtures and prompted much comment on the new wisdom at play in the both boardrooms. Although Hibs’ proposal to change the rules regarding distribution of play-off gate income was less successful, the fact Hearts were prepared to back up their city rivals’ stance was equally significant.
‘I tend to think of it as the bigger picture,’ continued Budge. ‘If something we do can be beneficial to Hibs and doesn’t cause us any problems or detract from what we have, why shouldn’t we both benefit?
‘It’s just good common sense and I’ve discussed this with Leeann a couple of times. Clearly she has her own pressures and problems to deal with, but I met her before I took over. I’d gone to visit her when she was at Motherwell to pick her brains on running a football club and she was very open.
‘She explained the challenges in every aspect of running the business, dealing with supporters, the authorities, etc. It was a good insight. So we had that initial contact and we’ve met a few times since.’
Budge may preach football ecumenism but her credentials as a Hearts fan are unquestionable. Before volunteering to provide the business vehicle that would allow the club to exit administration last year, she had long been a season-ticket holder at Tynecastle, dutifully joining her grandchildren in the Wheatfield Stand every second weekend.
Much earlier in life, her father James, a Hibs fan, had taught her that with Celtic and Rangers so powerful in the west, their Edinburgh equivalents need not be bogged down by the same entrenched hatred of each other.
‘Even as a youngster, that made sense to me,’ she explained. ‘I had a lot of Hibs and Hearts fans in the family and, as I was growing up, they would go to the football together. There weren’t the same things that go on now sometimes.’
Budge’s sense of civic responsibility shone through as she took both her own and Celtic’s supporters to task over crowd behaviour at a Scottish Cup tie at Tynecastle earlier in the season.
Her clear-headed approach to the job and ability to cut through the melodrama and mania that so often surrounds Scottish football has prompted calls from some, not least her director of football Craig Levein, to tout her for a position at Hampden.
She already sits on the SFA council but might advancement to the association’s professional game board or even the league’s top table hold appeal?’ ‘I don’t think it’s about being on the board, really,’ she said. ‘There are two things we need to address — improving communication and consultation. I don’t care about sitting on boards, it’s more about how we can improve the decision-making process. Turning up to a meeting and having a resolution put on the table which essentially you have not seen before is not good for anyone.
‘From the beginning, I’ve felt that if a job was worth doing, it was worth doing properly. No one has ever said this to me but I know people must think: “God, she’s only been in the game five minutes, what makes her think she can do this or say that?”.
‘They’re right to do so but what I can do is, maybe not so much ask new questions, but revisit things which were discussed before and found to be inappropriate.
‘It’s been a big l earning curve. I understand just how complex the whole business is now, certainly more than I did 12 months. I do think the game is all about the supporters and it’s about trying to get the reputation of football back again.
‘We’re still tarred with this negativity and I’m not sure it’s justified. I think we should be trying to do something about it.’
Budge has indicated that she will at least be willing to assist the authorities as working groups are established to assist in the proliferation of fan ownership.
Yet while Budge’s collaboration with the Foundation of Hearts has been a resounding success, she admits the business model which sees 8,000 Hearts supporters pay a direct debit is not feasible at the majority of Scottish clubs.
‘I think you do need the critical mass of supporters to make this sort of thing work. I don’t know what the right model is for clubs with fewer supporters but getting fans re-engaged is fundamental.
‘The underlying problem regarding attendances comes from a lack of that.’
Dialogue is important to Budge and underpins her relationship with both Levein and head coach Robbie Neilson, While she chuckless at the suggestion she might exert a Vladimir-Romanov-style influence over team selection, Neilson is required to give her a weekly report.
‘Robbie comes to see me every Friday and explains what they've been doing all week and why,’ she stated. 'He'll go through his game plan, tactics and I might ask why we are playing a player instead of another and he always has the answer.
‘I definitely don't insist on a certain player being involved but I do ask questions because I want to understand. I’m sure Robbie’s thinking: "Gosh, I told her her this three weeks ago".'
Such thoroughness explains why Budge made such a success of her IT business, thereby establishing the means with which to fund the rescue plan for Hearts following the collapse of the Romanov regime.
While Romanov directed affairs from his banking HQ in the Lithuanian city of Kaunas, Budge is very much hands on and is a constant presence at Tynecastle.
‘I am probably working about 60 hours a week. Craig is the same, Robbie, Stevie (Crawford), Jack (Ross), everybody. Nobody
I picked Leeann’s brains about running a club. It was a great insight and we’ve met since fRIENDLY fOE: Budge can relate to Hibs’ Dempster (left)
clock watches. I usually leave at 7.30pm but I am not always the last one out.’
Although she was initially reluctant to step into the limelight at Hearts, she has become more comfortable with the media attention as the season has worn on.
‘I am now used to it,’ she admitted. ‘I found it strange to begin with, you know, the cameras flashing all the time but then found I was able to just ignore it. I am not frightened of it any more.’
Nevertheless, as a family woman who cherished her weekend outings to Tynecastle, does she never gaze out from the directors’ box and pine for her old seat on the opposite side of the stadium?
‘I could make a trite remark and say every time I have to dodge round that pillar to see what’s going on,’ she joked. ‘But no, it is quite a different experience. I was never into jumping up and all that sort of stuff but, when you are in the middle of a group of people who are doing that, it does create a certain atmosphere.
‘In the Wheatfield, everyone is quick to tell you who is playing well, who is playing badly, who should be taken off. Whereas, in the directors’ box, it is all rather quiet.’
Budge insists she will not waver from her five-year plan to transfer ownership of the club to the FoH but admits there is a possibility she could remain as a figurehead at the club, if asked.
‘I hope at the point the shareholding changes hands, it’s a bit of a damp squib,’ she reflected. ‘It won’t be for the fans of course, what I mean is that life will just carry on because everything is running smoothly. If that was happening and the Foundation or supporters asked me to carry on, I don’t see an issue with that, other than the fact I am getting awful old.
‘I do feel I am looking after the club on behalf of the fans. That’s why I got involved in the first place. The 8,000 or so, it’s amazing and nobody believed it would work.
‘There were people who thought that once the club was stable that everyone would cancel but I do not think that will happen.’
The feel-good factor engendered by Budge’s takeover, allied to a near flawless league campaign has kept the fans sweet. The club’s Premiership return has been celebrated, but the prospect of a few sore results might ensure the greatest test of the fans’ loyalty lies ahead.