Hearts are 'the best of the rest'

The authoritative Swiss Ramble reviews the 2021/22 accounts of Hearts: https://swissramble.substack.com/p/hearts-finances-202122

Hearts have come a long way since the club was placed into administration in 2013, deducted 15 points and then relegated to the Scottish Championship. Much of the credit is due to Ann Budge, who took ownership in June 2014 in partnership with the Foundation of Hearts, following the misguided Romanov regime.

This culminated in Budge signing over 75% of her shareholding to the Foundation in August 2021 , making Hearts the largest fan-owned club in the UK. The club described this as “Heart & Soul Day”.

This approach has served the club well, though the model going forward is likely to still require the support of benefactors.

Hearts once again posted a pre-tax profit, though this fell slightly from £2.0m to £1.7m. Revenue shot up by 90% from £7.7m to £14.6m, as the club returned to “business as usual” following the significant impact of COVID, further boosted by promotion to the Premiership.

Hearts figures have been significantly impacted by exceptional items, especially £25.1m donations in the last six years, including £6.0m in 2021/22 (benefactors £4.5m, Foundation of Hearts £1.5m).

Since its inception, FOH has contributed almost £14m of funding. These donations clearly give Hearts a financial advantage over other Scottish clubs.

Hearts £14.6m revenue was the third highest in the Scottish Premiership, just ahead of Aberdeen £13.9m, but nowhere near Celtic £88m and Rangers £87m. To place Hearts’ financial challenge into perspective, both Glasgow clubs earned around six times as much as them.

It is clearly extremely difficult for any Scottish club to compete financially with Celtic and Rangers, but Hearts seem to be on the right track to be the “best of the rest”.