Manager Gary Locke | Stadium Tynecastle Stadium | |
Chairman Roman Romanov
(until 21 June) Premiership Twelfth place (Relegated) League Cup Semi-final, lost to Inverness Caledonian Thistle Scottish Cup Fourth round, lost to Celtic | ||
The 2013–14 season was the 117th season of competitive football by Heart of Midlothian. It is the club's 31st consecutive season of play in the top tier of Scottish football and the first in the newly established Scottish Premiership, having been promoted from the Scottish First Division at the end of the 1982–83 season. Hearts also competed in the League Cup and the Scottish Cup.
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Financial problems
On 23 May 2013, Hearts held their Annual general meeting where it was revealed the club faced a £2.5million shortfall in funds for the new season. At the AGM a vote was cast on the resolution to reappoint director and chairman Roman Romanov to the board, despite an almost unanimous vote against at the meeting the vote was passed by 99.91% on the back of the majority share holders vote. In early June it was revealed the club had failed to pay a one hundred thousand Paye bill and had been given a deadline of 5pm on 11 June to pay the bill. Hearts managed to pay the majority of the sum owed by the deadline but a sum was still owed to HMRC.
On 13 June, the club released a statement saying that the club was facing a significant shortfall in funding, this was depute large deductions in the playing salary at Hearts. The reasons given by the club were lower than expected season ticket sales, increased costs in relation to the upkeep of the stadium and the club's worst league finish in over 30 years the previous season. The club needed around five hundred thousand just to make it to the start of the season, to pay players and any other outstanding bills and as a result, the clubs entire playing squad were effectively up for sale. The following day staff wages were due to be paid, and a number of players did not receive their salaries. The club was handed a player registration ban, meaning they would be unable to sign any new players until all payments are brought up to date.
Administration
On 17 June, the club announced they planned to appoint an Administrator, having lodged their intention to do so in court. On 19 June, the club formally entered Administration with administrator BDO being appointed, and as a result were deducted fifteen points for the coming season by the Scottish Premier League and banned from registering players until out of Administration. The club were also cited by the Scottish Football Association for breaking their rule Rule 14(g): "suffering an insolvency event by entering into administration". Administrators set fans a target of 3,000 further season ticket sales in order to raise around £800,000 to keep the club running during Administration, with the target being reached by 12 July.
On 27 June, BDO set a deadline of 12 July for bids for the club to be submitted to them. Three bids were received, one from the Foundation of Hearts, one from HMFC Limited backed by American firm Club 9 Sports and former Livingston owner Angelo Massone through Five Stars Football Ltd. On 29 July 2013, HMFC Limited's bid was rejected and the remaining bidders advised that the current CVA offers would need to be increased as they were “not satisfactory” to Ukio Bankas one of Hearts main creditors. On 15 August, The Foundation of Hearts a fan backed group were awarded preferred bidder status.
On 6 January 2014, Bryan Jackson revealed that BDO had tried to get the SFA to lift the transfer sanctions against the club, however this has been rejected. He also backed the manager, despite poor results and the club dropping 20 points behind their nearest rival. He said: "We're sticking with Gary and hopefully Gary's sticking with us. He's shown fantastic loyalty since we went into administration and we have to show the same to him. Commenting on whether a new manager could do any better he said: Gary's doing incredibly well with the resources that he has. Anybody else coming in, they're going to have the same resources. You also have to remember that we're here, hopefully in a temporary capacity. So, that's a major decision and something to be considered for the future. That would be for new owners rather than the administrators
Friendlies
Hearts returned for pre-season training on 27 June, before heading to England to take on Romanian side Dinamo Bucharest. On return to Scotland the club travelled to Dunfermline to compete in a fundraiser with gates been shared equally by both clubs and to compete for the Supporters Direct Cup. Hearts pre-season preparations continued with trips to face Raith Rovers and Queen of the South, before heading to Belfast to take part in a mini tournament against Crusaders and a Liverpool XI.
The only friendly to take place at Tynecastle was held as a fundraiser, on an international week in November, against German side Wolfsburg. Hearts held the Bundesliga to a 0–0 draw with the game marking the first team debut's of Adam King, Angus Beith and Jack Hamilton.