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Hibernian supporters to launch a takeover bid

Lyle Lanley

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Lyle Lanley

Lyle Lanley

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AN umbrella body of Hibernian supporters are to launch a bid on Tuesday to take the club back into community ownership.

The campaign group, which has the backing of the Hibernian Former Players’ Association, the Supporters’ Association and Supporters Direct Scotland (SDS) among other organisations, will invite current owner Sir Tom Farmer to enter negotiations to sell to them as a single package the club itself, Easter Road, and the training centre at East Mains outside Tranent.

Former Hibs captain Pat Stanton will head the campaign and be present at the launch, where organisers will reveal the name of the group.

They plan to fund a takeover in the same way as the Foundation of Hearts did at Tynecastle, with individual fans pledging a monthly amount and one or more business people committing a lump sum.

Farmer and Hibs chairman Rod Petrie have appeared unwilling to negotiate with recent potential buyers, but a spokesperson for the new group said they hoped for constructive talks, with the aim on both sides of securing the long-term future of the club.

“We want to buy all the assets together - the club, ground and training ground,” the spokesperson said. “We will ask Tom Farmer to name his price and tell us what he wants for the three assets.

“We’re offering a positive exit for him, one that allows him to give the club back to the community, and to leave the club on a positive note.

“This is about uniting the Hibs support to get one group driving positive change. We plan to raise the money via a mixture of individual subscriptions, with fans pledging a monthly sum, and funds from Hibs-supporting business people.”

The new group, which has been working on its plans for several months, concluded from a survey conducted with SDS that there was a willingness among the Hibs support to try to take the club back.

More than 4,000 people replied to the survey, with a sizeable majority supporting more talks on community ownership.

The group hopes that they will get backing from Hibs fans on a scale that allows them to say the community is behind them. They will also be keen to remind Farmer that when he took over the club nearly 25 years ago he said he had done so for the community.

“It’s common knowledge that Hibs’ current owners have had discussions with some potential purchasers of the club, and that in every single case they’ve said it’s not about money,” the spokesperson continued.

“Well, if it’s not about money, put the club into community ownership and walk away.

“What we’ll say to Tom Farmer and Rod Petrie is: ‘We’ve got a structure here. We’ve got everything set up. You keep saying to people who have put in bids for the club or been interested in doing so that they’re not the right people. Other than Hibs supporters, who are the right people?’

“We don’t know how much they want for the club. But if it’s not about money ... So we’re saying to them either give us a price and work with us, or come out with plausible, proper, fresh plans for investment.

“We’re going to ask people to pledge now, but we won’t take any money from them until we have a deal. It will be very much like what the Foundation of Hearts did.

“I’d be keen to sit down with [Hearts owner] Ann Budge to discuss our plans. In fact, at the last Edinburgh derby one of my colleagues had a short discussion with her, and she seems quite keen to help. I’m sure there are things we can learn from her.

“I would urge all Hibs fans to work with us and get together. We’re more than happy to work together with anyone for the benefit of the club.

“There have been previous attempts get the club back into community ownership, and in many ways this is the last throw of the dice for us. We either do it this time - or we walk away and leave Hibernian at the mercy of the current owners.

“This will be a positive campaign. The owners have a goal, and it must be to get out. We have a goal to get the club sold to the right people.

“That goal is surely the same. If we work together, we’ll surely achieve it far more quickly and easily.”

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SodjesSixteenIncher

SodjesSixteenIncher

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Not trolling but I just can't see the Hibs support backing this with serious numbers.

4k max.

Tbh, I don't massively see the point. Although I'll pay attention to this, in case a good case is made.

Hearts were going down the tubes and the fans stepped in because they had to. What exactly would be the benefit of Hibs fans owning the club, other than staving off some kind of financial doom, which isn't going to happen?

Also, correct me if I'm wrong but Ann Budge put up the money for the CVA, no? Are we expecting someone to lend us the cash (who will pretty much own the club) or are we expecting Farmer to give it to us on a "we're good for it" basis?

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Guest

Guest

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I don't understand what they're hoping to get out of this?

Is it all to do with taking power away from Rod Petrie? Petrie has made awful decision after awful decision, but just about the only option worse than him is having the fans in charge. It's a well established fact that most football fans are irrational, reactionary and thick as f**k, and Hibs fans aren't exempt from that.

Can you imagine the Hibs.net types calling the shots? "GET HIM TAE f**k" after every disappointing result, with every good result followed by "WE CAN'T REST ON OOR LAURELS, WE MUST SPECYOOLATE TO ACCYOOMULATE TO CONSOLIDATE OOR POSATIV POSISHON!"

We'd be liquidated by the end of the season.

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Mr Romanov

Mr Romanov

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Tbh, I don't massively see the point. Although I'll pay attention to this, in case a good case is made.

Hearts were going down the tubes and the fans stepped in because they had to. What exactly would be the benefit of Hibs fans owning the club, other than staving off some kind of financial doom, which isn't going to happen?

Also, correct me if I'm wrong but Ann Budge put up the money for the CVA, no? Are we expecting someone to lend us the cash (who will pretty much own the club) or are we expecting Farmer to give it to us on a "we're good for it" basis?

Without Mrs Budge and her substantial wealth, it simply couldn't have happened. Will be interesting to see where these guys are going to get the money to pay the price Farmer names (which you'd imagine will be fairly hefty).

Incidentally, the deadline just passed for nominations for the last seat on the FOH board. One person. :lol: I'm sort of hoping we can sweep all this under the carpet and let Mrs Budge run is forever.

All joking aside though, I do think fan ownership with emphasis on being a community club is the way forward for Scottish clubs.

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JamieThomas

JamieThomas

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It's working with Hearts because we came out of admin essentially debt free. I'm not sure how a fan owned club would hope to serve the current debt level at Easter Road. Good luck with it, though. As has been said, fan ownership is the way forward.

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ICTChris

ICTChris

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I don't understand what they're hoping to get out of this?

Is it all to do with taking power away from Rod Petrie? Petrie has made awful decision after awful decision, but just about the only option worse than him is having the fans in charge. It's a well established fact that most football fans are irrational, reactionary and thick as f**k, and Hibs fans aren't exempt from that.

Can you imagine the Hibs.net types calling the shots? "GET HIM TAE f**k" after every disappointing result, with every good result followed by "WE CAN'T REST ON OOR LAURELS, WE MUST SPECYOOLATE TO ACCYOOMULATE TO CONSOLIDATE OOR POSATIV POSISHON!"

We'd be liquidated by the end of the season.

Portsmouth were taken over by supporters and within a year had paid off all their outstanding creditors. It can work.

Having said that you could've put a group of chimpanzees in charge of Portsmouth and it couldn't have been any worse than the people who have owned them previously.

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greyman

greyman

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Introduction - BuyHibs

HIBERNIAN FC FANS LAUNCH CAMPAIGN TO BUY THEIR CLUB

  • ‘BUYHIBS’ CALLS ON SIR TOM FARMER TO OPEN DISCUSSIONS ON FAN OWNERSHIP

11 November 2014: A newly formed fans group called ‘BuyHibs’ has announcedits intention to unite fans with the aim of buying Hibernian FC.

The group, which will headed by Hibernian legend Pat Stanton, is welcomedby the Hibernian Supporters Association, the Formers Players Association,and the Hibernian Shareholders Association who will be meeting with their members to discuss the best way to support the campaign.

The announcement follows open meetings with supporters and a comprehensive fan survey of over 4000 supporters carried out by Supporters Direct Scotland.

The survey revealed that 84% of supporters believed that it is time to look at fan ownership options and to seek a change of direction in the ownership of the club. 80% also stated that they believed Easter Road should be safeguarded as the future of the club and any change to that would require fan approval.68% said that they would be willing to join a membership scheme to provide additional income for the club

The ‘BuyHibs’ campaign has also launched new website – www.buyhibs.org – where supporters can find out more about the group’s proposals and to pledge financial support. A Twitter presence has also been created - @buyhibs – and Facebook – BuyHibs - to allow information to be shared and discussion to happen.

Pat Stanton said: “The ‘BuyHibs’ campaign has the ultimate aim of buying our club. We are in the fortunate position that the motivation for ‘BuyHibs’ has not been generated from an emergency situation through a threatened insolvency like supporters of other clubs have been faced with. We want to be in a position where we can make a positive contribution to the long term position of our club and to be ready to buy the club when the opportunity arises.We are asking fans to pledge to provide funds which will allow ‘BuyHibs’ to drive positive change, and to give an indication of what size of stake is achievable. We are open to work with all Hibernian minded people and groups who share the same goal.

“As a first step, we call on Sir Tom Farmer and Rod Petrie to meet with us to find and promote a positive and sustainable change for the betterment of Hibernian and to provide Sir Tom with a clear and deserved exit from the club he has backed for many years.”

Director of the BuyHibscampaign, Neil Wheelan said “The club are failing on and off the park and the need for change has never been greater; the club needs a new direction with fresh drive and investment coming into the club. The potential within the Hibernian fanbase is enormous and this must be used to take the club forward.”

“The club needs sweeping changes to bring a new and more positive outlook and the required fresh investment. It would appear that the current custodians have no desire to invest to move the club forward so we call on Sir Tom Farmer to remain true to his word and pass the Football Club, Easter Road Stadium and the East Main Training Academy into a community backed vehicle that safeguards the future of all assets. In doing this it will allow Sir Tom Farmer to leave a legacy for the work that has been done during his time as custodian.

“Greater fan involvement is a must as no one cares about their clubs as much as the supporters do. There also needs to be greater transparency and a greater focus on football.We want the Hibernian support to unite behind the drive to bring positive change and to get our club back where it should be. That will mean having a greater involvement and control over the running of our club. It is our club and our responsibility.”

Andrew Jenkin, of Supporters Direct Scotland added, “Supporters are the heart and soul of any football club and the Buy Hibs campaign shows Hibernian have many passionate, knowledgeable and highly skilled supporters who would like to be further involved in the running of the club. Fan owned clubs are shown to have stronger ties with their communities, attract more sponsorship and encourage greater match day spending. Supporters Direct Scotland are pleased to support and assist the Buy Hibs campaign which potentially offers supporters a greater role in governance through democratic processes". 

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