Hibs chief rejects Hearts comparison and vows: 'Foley deal gives us edge over rivals'

Bill Foley is not James Anderson. Hibs are not Hearts. And, if most clubs wouldn’t mind a benefactor willing to gift them multiple millions every season, nobody at Easter Road is about to admit defeat in all attempts to overtake their city rivals. On and off the field, should regular European group stage football become a factor in their annual accounts.

Hibs CEO Ben Kensell, raising his eyebrows when asked if billionaire Bournemouth owner Foley would be following Hearts benefactor Anderson’s example by a throwing a couple of million into the pot on a yearly basis, quickly pointed out: “It’s more than a couple of million. Hearts have their own model and I have no issues with their model whatsoever, every club does things differently.

“This is our way of doing it with the support and investment of the Gordon family and now the support, investment and partnership of the Black Knight Football Group. I don’t have a question on any other club, they do things the way they want to do things and we will do what we want to do - but we still have to remain competitive in this unbelievably competitive league.

“I don’t know Hearts. I know their business model, but I don’t care for Hearts, I don’t think about them as a business, I only think about Hibs.

“What happens next is we’ve now just ratified a significant investment into the football club. Now it’s about how we work through that – and we’ve already done a lot of work behind the scenes and how we’ll work in partnership.”

What no-one at Hibs seemed keen to discuss in detail, at last week’s AGM which saw shareholders approve the Foley buy-in, is whether the American will be spending anything on top of the £6 million laid out to acquire a 25 per cent stake in the club. He has spoken publicly about requiring relatively minor sums to establish Hibs as the undisputed third force in Scottish football. What does that actually mean, in pounds and pence, to a guy whose Stanley Cup-winning Las Vegas ice hockey franchise is estimated to be worth around a billion dollars, US?

Asked if there had been detailed discussions about precisely what it would take, beyond access to Bournemouth’s fringe players and young FC Lorient prospects, to give Hibs an edge in a competitive transfer market where player wages are still on the up, Kensell said: “Firstly it was discussions in its infancy, we were discussing Scottish football in general, we were discussing facilities, European group stage football for the first time in this club’s history and the fact that Aberdeen and Hearts have recently secured group stage football - and how important and lucrative that is.

“It was not around specifics to what we need, do we need X, do we need Y? We went over there (Vegas) to broker the deal and finalise the deal, which for the equity that has now been approved. There have not been any other further conversations.

“We’ve got a big summer ahead of us. We have players out of contract. We know what our ambitions are, in terms of European football, going deep into cup competitions; that hasn’t changed since the Black Knight investment.

“But there haven’t been any further discussions apart from the purchase of equity. Because you can’t move forward with discussions until you have the partnership ratified, which has only just happened, so I can’t talk to anything in the future.

“Obviously we have board members who are being brought onto the board for our next board meeting, and they’ll be pushing that agenda forward. They want us to be as successful as we want to be, as quickly as possible.”

Pushed on whether Hibs would have been condemned to playing catch-up on the likes of Hearts and Aberdeen, had Foley not stepped in, Kensell insisted: “No, that’s not right. What I mean by edge is effectively, yes there is an investment for the equity that is sizeable. We know the cash figure.

“The edge of the multi club network, that’s the edge for us. It’s the ability to trade and understand what other clubs are doing within that network and potentially get players either on loan or from within the network - and utilise other recruitment strategies and best practice. That is what I mean by edge, not financial.

“I think the game sells itself here. The passion from the fans, the competitiveness of the league, from top to bottom, the quality of players now in the SPFL, the history. 

“Look at the ownership of most clubs in the SPFL Premiership and it’s quite international. So I don’t think there is an issue with the game at all. 

“I just think it presents an opportunity for further investment. And, even on a smaller level compared to down south, that can give you a big advantage. And that’s why salaries are going up and turnover is going up. The game is growing in Scotland - and it should do.”