Rather than work with fans, he worked in spite of them. A few looked nervously over towards the Hibernian Supporters’ Club at Sunnyside, eagerly awaiting confirmation. The hostile bid, however, had exposed the Club's precarious financial position and regardless of a near £1 million received from Celtic for the sale of John Collins, a few months later after failing to pay a VAT bill, receivers arrived. Less than a century on, another part of the area's identity was being stripped. Amir Ben Porat in his study Football fandom: a bounded identification highlights the effects: “It is argued that the socioeconomic and cultural contexts of identity are dissolving and that globalisation uproots capital, people and symbols and transgresses national boundaries, thereby dissolving the stability of the major bases of collective modern solidarity.” Solidarity felt under attack again. Another £400 thousand went in miscellaneous expenses, the rest going to Rowland. Kenny McLean had heard the rumours. Football clubs have changed significantly over the last three decades, both socially and structurally. "All of this was about shares and money and signatures on bits of paper. Permission was refused for a mass protest march through the City by the police who feared possible trouble, and a protest rally was held instead at Easter Road Stadium on Saturday. He had a printers’ shop on Brunswick Road and he must have been printing t-shirts and stickers all night to keep up with demand. Subsequently, Duff, Gray and Munro attended a board meeting at the Inoco offices in London where the trio expected to meet a prospective buyer for the Avon Inns group. “Imagine that now, driving along Dalry Road playing Sunshine on Leith, it just wouldn’t happen.”. Edinburgh publican Kenny McLean's late father, Kenny McLean senior, a well-respected man in Hibs circles, was selected alongside legendary supporters club general secretary Bill Alcorn to lead the fight. The proposal, however, would prove to be the catalyst for a takeover bid that would almost signal the end for Hibernian Football Club.On Monday 4 June 1990, the country awoke to the breaking news that the Heart of Midlothian chairman Wallace Mercer had tabled an audacious £6.2 million bid to take over Hibs, a move described as breath-taking in its boldness and arrogance. Mercer’s house was daubed with vicious graffiti and bullets were sent to his address. A group of ordinary people managed an extraordinary thing. ', Left to right: Jim Gray, David Duff and Kenny Waugh, A banner at a match in protest of Wallace Mercer's takeover bid (pic: Eric McCowat), A banner at a match in protest of Wallace Mercer's takeover bid (pic: Crawford Tait). Duff and Gray felt that to secure the future success, and financial backbone of the Club, other business interests should be pursued. 'At the time that we floated the company on the Third Market, we had designed the offer to persuade the supporters to invest their money in Edinburgh Hibernian PLC. The slate was wiped clean.”. A fractured group is easier to break, so everyone involved at Hibernian, in Leith and Scottish football came together. Leith had always been the industrial gateway to Edinburgh. Resultantly, the capital side were opened up to the possibility of hostile takeover bids. Duff would later say that Sheila had “fallen in love with the club” that had made her Scottish football’s first female director. Rowland was a ruse for Mercer, a way into the club’s inner sanctum. It is hard to envisage the Capital footballing landscape had the events of June and July 1990 panned out differently. Although a once-thriving district, it fell into disrepair after the Second World War, becoming Edinburgh’s seedy underbelly with high unemployment, violence and prostitution. Fans of the club had their answer in Hands Off Hibs, a movement born to save Hibernian and send a message – ‘we don’t care who you are, you won’t take our team away’. On one chaotic afternoon at their former headquarters on The Mound, around 50 fans queued up to open current accounts with a £5 note before joining the back of the line to immediately close them again. Having such a centralised ownership model opens up the top seats to nepotism, meaning the correct due-diligence isn’t always carried out for new members, especially when it comes to a club changing hands where one party is as desperate to get out as the new one is to get in. It convinced no one and Mercer, on 14 July, waved the white flag to the masses in the Hands Off Hibs tees. At 55p a share, budding investors from as far afield as Australia and North America bought into the club, taking the fans’ share up to 15 percent. On 24 August 1987, the 33-year-old Swindon based lawyer David Duff purchased Hibernian Football Club from the then owner Kenny Waugh for £875,000 following several weeks of negotiations. Both the Edinburgh District Council and the Lothian Regional Council immediately gave Hibs their backing, the Leith MP Ron Brown promising to raise the issue with both the Monopolies Commission and the Office of Fair Trading.
Rather than work with fans, he worked in spite of them. A few looked nervously over towards the Hibernian Supporters’ Club at Sunnyside, eagerly awaiting confirmation. The hostile bid, however, had exposed the Club's precarious financial position and regardless of a near £1 million received from Celtic for the sale of John Collins, a few months later after failing to pay a VAT bill, receivers arrived. Less than a century on, another part of the area's identity was being stripped. Amir Ben Porat in his study Football fandom: a bounded identification highlights the effects: “It is argued that the socioeconomic and cultural contexts of identity are dissolving and that globalisation uproots capital, people and symbols and transgresses national boundaries, thereby dissolving the stability of the major bases of collective modern solidarity.” Solidarity felt under attack again. Another £400 thousand went in miscellaneous expenses, the rest going to Rowland. Kenny McLean had heard the rumours. Football clubs have changed significantly over the last three decades, both socially and structurally. "All of this was about shares and money and signatures on bits of paper. Permission was refused for a mass protest march through the City by the police who feared possible trouble, and a protest rally was held instead at Easter Road Stadium on Saturday. He had a printers’ shop on Brunswick Road and he must have been printing t-shirts and stickers all night to keep up with demand. Subsequently, Duff, Gray and Munro attended a board meeting at the Inoco offices in London where the trio expected to meet a prospective buyer for the Avon Inns group. “Imagine that now, driving along Dalry Road playing Sunshine on Leith, it just wouldn’t happen.”. Edinburgh publican Kenny McLean's late father, Kenny McLean senior, a well-respected man in Hibs circles, was selected alongside legendary supporters club general secretary Bill Alcorn to lead the fight. The proposal, however, would prove to be the catalyst for a takeover bid that would almost signal the end for Hibernian Football Club.On Monday 4 June 1990, the country awoke to the breaking news that the Heart of Midlothian chairman Wallace Mercer had tabled an audacious £6.2 million bid to take over Hibs, a move described as breath-taking in its boldness and arrogance. Mercer’s house was daubed with vicious graffiti and bullets were sent to his address. A group of ordinary people managed an extraordinary thing. ', Left to right: Jim Gray, David Duff and Kenny Waugh, A banner at a match in protest of Wallace Mercer's takeover bid (pic: Eric McCowat), A banner at a match in protest of Wallace Mercer's takeover bid (pic: Crawford Tait). Duff and Gray felt that to secure the future success, and financial backbone of the Club, other business interests should be pursued. 'At the time that we floated the company on the Third Market, we had designed the offer to persuade the supporters to invest their money in Edinburgh Hibernian PLC. The slate was wiped clean.”. A fractured group is easier to break, so everyone involved at Hibernian, in Leith and Scottish football came together. Leith had always been the industrial gateway to Edinburgh. Resultantly, the capital side were opened up to the possibility of hostile takeover bids. Duff would later say that Sheila had “fallen in love with the club” that had made her Scottish football’s first female director. Rowland was a ruse for Mercer, a way into the club’s inner sanctum. It is hard to envisage the Capital footballing landscape had the events of June and July 1990 panned out differently. Although a once-thriving district, it fell into disrepair after the Second World War, becoming Edinburgh’s seedy underbelly with high unemployment, violence and prostitution. Fans of the club had their answer in Hands Off Hibs, a movement born to save Hibernian and send a message – ‘we don’t care who you are, you won’t take our team away’. On one chaotic afternoon at their former headquarters on The Mound, around 50 fans queued up to open current accounts with a £5 note before joining the back of the line to immediately close them again. Having such a centralised ownership model opens up the top seats to nepotism, meaning the correct due-diligence isn’t always carried out for new members, especially when it comes to a club changing hands where one party is as desperate to get out as the new one is to get in. It convinced no one and Mercer, on 14 July, waved the white flag to the masses in the Hands Off Hibs tees. At 55p a share, budding investors from as far afield as Australia and North America bought into the club, taking the fans’ share up to 15 percent. On 24 August 1987, the 33-year-old Swindon based lawyer David Duff purchased Hibernian Football Club from the then owner Kenny Waugh for £875,000 following several weeks of negotiations. Both the Edinburgh District Council and the Lothian Regional Council immediately gave Hibs their backing, the Leith MP Ron Brown promising to raise the issue with both the Monopolies Commission and the Office of Fair Trading.
Rather than work with fans, he worked in spite of them. A few looked nervously over towards the Hibernian Supporters’ Club at Sunnyside, eagerly awaiting confirmation. The hostile bid, however, had exposed the Club's precarious financial position and regardless of a near £1 million received from Celtic for the sale of John Collins, a few months later after failing to pay a VAT bill, receivers arrived. Less than a century on, another part of the area's identity was being stripped. Amir Ben Porat in his study Football fandom: a bounded identification highlights the effects: “It is argued that the socioeconomic and cultural contexts of identity are dissolving and that globalisation uproots capital, people and symbols and transgresses national boundaries, thereby dissolving the stability of the major bases of collective modern solidarity.” Solidarity felt under attack again. Another £400 thousand went in miscellaneous expenses, the rest going to Rowland. Kenny McLean had heard the rumours. Football clubs have changed significantly over the last three decades, both socially and structurally. "All of this was about shares and money and signatures on bits of paper. Permission was refused for a mass protest march through the City by the police who feared possible trouble, and a protest rally was held instead at Easter Road Stadium on Saturday. He had a printers’ shop on Brunswick Road and he must have been printing t-shirts and stickers all night to keep up with demand. Subsequently, Duff, Gray and Munro attended a board meeting at the Inoco offices in London where the trio expected to meet a prospective buyer for the Avon Inns group. “Imagine that now, driving along Dalry Road playing Sunshine on Leith, it just wouldn’t happen.”. Edinburgh publican Kenny McLean's late father, Kenny McLean senior, a well-respected man in Hibs circles, was selected alongside legendary supporters club general secretary Bill Alcorn to lead the fight. The proposal, however, would prove to be the catalyst for a takeover bid that would almost signal the end for Hibernian Football Club.On Monday 4 June 1990, the country awoke to the breaking news that the Heart of Midlothian chairman Wallace Mercer had tabled an audacious £6.2 million bid to take over Hibs, a move described as breath-taking in its boldness and arrogance. Mercer’s house was daubed with vicious graffiti and bullets were sent to his address. A group of ordinary people managed an extraordinary thing. ', Left to right: Jim Gray, David Duff and Kenny Waugh, A banner at a match in protest of Wallace Mercer's takeover bid (pic: Eric McCowat), A banner at a match in protest of Wallace Mercer's takeover bid (pic: Crawford Tait). Duff and Gray felt that to secure the future success, and financial backbone of the Club, other business interests should be pursued. 'At the time that we floated the company on the Third Market, we had designed the offer to persuade the supporters to invest their money in Edinburgh Hibernian PLC. The slate was wiped clean.”. A fractured group is easier to break, so everyone involved at Hibernian, in Leith and Scottish football came together. Leith had always been the industrial gateway to Edinburgh. Resultantly, the capital side were opened up to the possibility of hostile takeover bids. Duff would later say that Sheila had “fallen in love with the club” that had made her Scottish football’s first female director. Rowland was a ruse for Mercer, a way into the club’s inner sanctum. It is hard to envisage the Capital footballing landscape had the events of June and July 1990 panned out differently. Although a once-thriving district, it fell into disrepair after the Second World War, becoming Edinburgh’s seedy underbelly with high unemployment, violence and prostitution. Fans of the club had their answer in Hands Off Hibs, a movement born to save Hibernian and send a message – ‘we don’t care who you are, you won’t take our team away’. On one chaotic afternoon at their former headquarters on The Mound, around 50 fans queued up to open current accounts with a £5 note before joining the back of the line to immediately close them again. Having such a centralised ownership model opens up the top seats to nepotism, meaning the correct due-diligence isn’t always carried out for new members, especially when it comes to a club changing hands where one party is as desperate to get out as the new one is to get in. It convinced no one and Mercer, on 14 July, waved the white flag to the masses in the Hands Off Hibs tees. At 55p a share, budding investors from as far afield as Australia and North America bought into the club, taking the fans’ share up to 15 percent. On 24 August 1987, the 33-year-old Swindon based lawyer David Duff purchased Hibernian Football Club from the then owner Kenny Waugh for £875,000 following several weeks of negotiations. Both the Edinburgh District Council and the Lothian Regional Council immediately gave Hibs their backing, the Leith MP Ron Brown promising to raise the issue with both the Monopolies Commission and the Office of Fair Trading.
Rather than work with fans, he worked in spite of them. A few looked nervously over towards the Hibernian Supporters’ Club at Sunnyside, eagerly awaiting confirmation. The hostile bid, however, had exposed the Club's precarious financial position and regardless of a near £1 million received from Celtic for the sale of John Collins, a few months later after failing to pay a VAT bill, receivers arrived. Less than a century on, another part of the area's identity was being stripped. Amir Ben Porat in his study Football fandom: a bounded identification highlights the effects: “It is argued that the socioeconomic and cultural contexts of identity are dissolving and that globalisation uproots capital, people and symbols and transgresses national boundaries, thereby dissolving the stability of the major bases of collective modern solidarity.” Solidarity felt under attack again. Another £400 thousand went in miscellaneous expenses, the rest going to Rowland. Kenny McLean had heard the rumours. Football clubs have changed significantly over the last three decades, both socially and structurally. "All of this was about shares and money and signatures on bits of paper. Permission was refused for a mass protest march through the City by the police who feared possible trouble, and a protest rally was held instead at Easter Road Stadium on Saturday. He had a printers’ shop on Brunswick Road and he must have been printing t-shirts and stickers all night to keep up with demand. Subsequently, Duff, Gray and Munro attended a board meeting at the Inoco offices in London where the trio expected to meet a prospective buyer for the Avon Inns group. “Imagine that now, driving along Dalry Road playing Sunshine on Leith, it just wouldn’t happen.”. Edinburgh publican Kenny McLean's late father, Kenny McLean senior, a well-respected man in Hibs circles, was selected alongside legendary supporters club general secretary Bill Alcorn to lead the fight. The proposal, however, would prove to be the catalyst for a takeover bid that would almost signal the end for Hibernian Football Club.On Monday 4 June 1990, the country awoke to the breaking news that the Heart of Midlothian chairman Wallace Mercer had tabled an audacious £6.2 million bid to take over Hibs, a move described as breath-taking in its boldness and arrogance. Mercer’s house was daubed with vicious graffiti and bullets were sent to his address. A group of ordinary people managed an extraordinary thing. ', Left to right: Jim Gray, David Duff and Kenny Waugh, A banner at a match in protest of Wallace Mercer's takeover bid (pic: Eric McCowat), A banner at a match in protest of Wallace Mercer's takeover bid (pic: Crawford Tait). Duff and Gray felt that to secure the future success, and financial backbone of the Club, other business interests should be pursued. 'At the time that we floated the company on the Third Market, we had designed the offer to persuade the supporters to invest their money in Edinburgh Hibernian PLC. The slate was wiped clean.”. A fractured group is easier to break, so everyone involved at Hibernian, in Leith and Scottish football came together. Leith had always been the industrial gateway to Edinburgh. Resultantly, the capital side were opened up to the possibility of hostile takeover bids. Duff would later say that Sheila had “fallen in love with the club” that had made her Scottish football’s first female director. Rowland was a ruse for Mercer, a way into the club’s inner sanctum. It is hard to envisage the Capital footballing landscape had the events of June and July 1990 panned out differently. Although a once-thriving district, it fell into disrepair after the Second World War, becoming Edinburgh’s seedy underbelly with high unemployment, violence and prostitution. Fans of the club had their answer in Hands Off Hibs, a movement born to save Hibernian and send a message – ‘we don’t care who you are, you won’t take our team away’. On one chaotic afternoon at their former headquarters on The Mound, around 50 fans queued up to open current accounts with a £5 note before joining the back of the line to immediately close them again. Having such a centralised ownership model opens up the top seats to nepotism, meaning the correct due-diligence isn’t always carried out for new members, especially when it comes to a club changing hands where one party is as desperate to get out as the new one is to get in. It convinced no one and Mercer, on 14 July, waved the white flag to the masses in the Hands Off Hibs tees. At 55p a share, budding investors from as far afield as Australia and North America bought into the club, taking the fans’ share up to 15 percent. On 24 August 1987, the 33-year-old Swindon based lawyer David Duff purchased Hibernian Football Club from the then owner Kenny Waugh for £875,000 following several weeks of negotiations. Both the Edinburgh District Council and the Lothian Regional Council immediately gave Hibs their backing, the Leith MP Ron Brown promising to raise the issue with both the Monopolies Commission and the Office of Fair Trading.
Rather than work with fans, he worked in spite of them. A few looked nervously over towards the Hibernian Supporters’ Club at Sunnyside, eagerly awaiting confirmation. The hostile bid, however, had exposed the Club's precarious financial position and regardless of a near £1 million received from Celtic for the sale of John Collins, a few months later after failing to pay a VAT bill, receivers arrived. Less than a century on, another part of the area's identity was being stripped. Amir Ben Porat in his study Football fandom: a bounded identification highlights the effects: “It is argued that the socioeconomic and cultural contexts of identity are dissolving and that globalisation uproots capital, people and symbols and transgresses national boundaries, thereby dissolving the stability of the major bases of collective modern solidarity.” Solidarity felt under attack again. Another £400 thousand went in miscellaneous expenses, the rest going to Rowland. Kenny McLean had heard the rumours. Football clubs have changed significantly over the last three decades, both socially and structurally. "All of this was about shares and money and signatures on bits of paper. Permission was refused for a mass protest march through the City by the police who feared possible trouble, and a protest rally was held instead at Easter Road Stadium on Saturday. He had a printers’ shop on Brunswick Road and he must have been printing t-shirts and stickers all night to keep up with demand. Subsequently, Duff, Gray and Munro attended a board meeting at the Inoco offices in London where the trio expected to meet a prospective buyer for the Avon Inns group. “Imagine that now, driving along Dalry Road playing Sunshine on Leith, it just wouldn’t happen.”. Edinburgh publican Kenny McLean's late father, Kenny McLean senior, a well-respected man in Hibs circles, was selected alongside legendary supporters club general secretary Bill Alcorn to lead the fight. The proposal, however, would prove to be the catalyst for a takeover bid that would almost signal the end for Hibernian Football Club.On Monday 4 June 1990, the country awoke to the breaking news that the Heart of Midlothian chairman Wallace Mercer had tabled an audacious £6.2 million bid to take over Hibs, a move described as breath-taking in its boldness and arrogance. Mercer’s house was daubed with vicious graffiti and bullets were sent to his address. A group of ordinary people managed an extraordinary thing. ', Left to right: Jim Gray, David Duff and Kenny Waugh, A banner at a match in protest of Wallace Mercer's takeover bid (pic: Eric McCowat), A banner at a match in protest of Wallace Mercer's takeover bid (pic: Crawford Tait). Duff and Gray felt that to secure the future success, and financial backbone of the Club, other business interests should be pursued. 'At the time that we floated the company on the Third Market, we had designed the offer to persuade the supporters to invest their money in Edinburgh Hibernian PLC. The slate was wiped clean.”. A fractured group is easier to break, so everyone involved at Hibernian, in Leith and Scottish football came together. Leith had always been the industrial gateway to Edinburgh. Resultantly, the capital side were opened up to the possibility of hostile takeover bids. Duff would later say that Sheila had “fallen in love with the club” that had made her Scottish football’s first female director. Rowland was a ruse for Mercer, a way into the club’s inner sanctum. It is hard to envisage the Capital footballing landscape had the events of June and July 1990 panned out differently. Although a once-thriving district, it fell into disrepair after the Second World War, becoming Edinburgh’s seedy underbelly with high unemployment, violence and prostitution. Fans of the club had their answer in Hands Off Hibs, a movement born to save Hibernian and send a message – ‘we don’t care who you are, you won’t take our team away’. On one chaotic afternoon at their former headquarters on The Mound, around 50 fans queued up to open current accounts with a £5 note before joining the back of the line to immediately close them again. Having such a centralised ownership model opens up the top seats to nepotism, meaning the correct due-diligence isn’t always carried out for new members, especially when it comes to a club changing hands where one party is as desperate to get out as the new one is to get in. It convinced no one and Mercer, on 14 July, waved the white flag to the masses in the Hands Off Hibs tees. At 55p a share, budding investors from as far afield as Australia and North America bought into the club, taking the fans’ share up to 15 percent. On 24 August 1987, the 33-year-old Swindon based lawyer David Duff purchased Hibernian Football Club from the then owner Kenny Waugh for £875,000 following several weeks of negotiations. Both the Edinburgh District Council and the Lothian Regional Council immediately gave Hibs their backing, the Leith MP Ron Brown promising to raise the issue with both the Monopolies Commission and the Office of Fair Trading.
Beyond defying the scenario at hand, they were there to make sure it never happened again. Buzzing with hope on the original takeover deadline day of 2 July 1990, politician Margo McDonald chaired a packed-out Usher Hall in the city centre to continue to revolution. Hearts boss Robbie Neilson provides worrying update on Josh Ginnelly for Hibs clash, Aberdeen chief Dave Cormack blasts Sky Sports for 'humiliating' Celtic video and wants apology. Still, to his credit Duff refused to sell, urging the Hibs supporters and other institutions to reject the hostile bid. Bedecked in the iconic Hands Off Hibs t-shirts, with fans of various clubs merging in the stands as part of a vast ebb and flow of green and white, impassioned speeches from Leith MP Ron Brown and MEP David Martin were heard, denouncing Wallace Mercer’s plans. In the end, Mercer caved in to the pressure from Hands Off Hibs and removed his mitts completely, enabling Tom Farmer to eventually purchase a controlling stake in the club. In these halcyon days, Hibernian faced their most trying period. Making decisions based on business criteria causes a myriad of issues in far-reaching places. Take our Hibs quiz to find out, Hibs Live - News, transfer rumours and chat from Easter Road, Hearts and Hibs fan return latest as Jason Leitch makes 'small crowds' prediction, The National Clinical Director reckons we could see supporters back in stadiums before the end of the season, The 124-year-old statistic Hibs must overcome against Hearts in Scottish Cup semi-final. Sometimes they’ll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. “Football is a funny business,” Easter Road legend Pat Stanton told Edinburgh Live .
The news that had shocked the public, and only just made it out, had long been brewing behind closed doors. The football club had been underperforming for some time, and the fans welcomed the new owners' vision. He explained: "We took about 40 or 50 of the guys go in and open an account then join the back of the queue and close it again. For me, Wallace Mercer's attitude was a crucial factor, the way he slagged off the Hibs board and the way we had run the company. explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. This succeeded when a prominent local businessman, Kwik-Fit owner Sir Tom Farmer, acquired a controlling interest in Hibs. With the Club's significant debt, Allan Munro, a respected fund manager from the Edinburgh institution Ivory and Syme, joined the Board to oversee the Club through its financial difficulties.
Rather than work with fans, he worked in spite of them. A few looked nervously over towards the Hibernian Supporters’ Club at Sunnyside, eagerly awaiting confirmation. The hostile bid, however, had exposed the Club's precarious financial position and regardless of a near £1 million received from Celtic for the sale of John Collins, a few months later after failing to pay a VAT bill, receivers arrived. Less than a century on, another part of the area's identity was being stripped. Amir Ben Porat in his study Football fandom: a bounded identification highlights the effects: “It is argued that the socioeconomic and cultural contexts of identity are dissolving and that globalisation uproots capital, people and symbols and transgresses national boundaries, thereby dissolving the stability of the major bases of collective modern solidarity.” Solidarity felt under attack again. Another £400 thousand went in miscellaneous expenses, the rest going to Rowland. Kenny McLean had heard the rumours. Football clubs have changed significantly over the last three decades, both socially and structurally. "All of this was about shares and money and signatures on bits of paper. Permission was refused for a mass protest march through the City by the police who feared possible trouble, and a protest rally was held instead at Easter Road Stadium on Saturday. He had a printers’ shop on Brunswick Road and he must have been printing t-shirts and stickers all night to keep up with demand. Subsequently, Duff, Gray and Munro attended a board meeting at the Inoco offices in London where the trio expected to meet a prospective buyer for the Avon Inns group. “Imagine that now, driving along Dalry Road playing Sunshine on Leith, it just wouldn’t happen.”. Edinburgh publican Kenny McLean's late father, Kenny McLean senior, a well-respected man in Hibs circles, was selected alongside legendary supporters club general secretary Bill Alcorn to lead the fight. The proposal, however, would prove to be the catalyst for a takeover bid that would almost signal the end for Hibernian Football Club.On Monday 4 June 1990, the country awoke to the breaking news that the Heart of Midlothian chairman Wallace Mercer had tabled an audacious £6.2 million bid to take over Hibs, a move described as breath-taking in its boldness and arrogance. Mercer’s house was daubed with vicious graffiti and bullets were sent to his address. A group of ordinary people managed an extraordinary thing. ', Left to right: Jim Gray, David Duff and Kenny Waugh, A banner at a match in protest of Wallace Mercer's takeover bid (pic: Eric McCowat), A banner at a match in protest of Wallace Mercer's takeover bid (pic: Crawford Tait). Duff and Gray felt that to secure the future success, and financial backbone of the Club, other business interests should be pursued. 'At the time that we floated the company on the Third Market, we had designed the offer to persuade the supporters to invest their money in Edinburgh Hibernian PLC. The slate was wiped clean.”. A fractured group is easier to break, so everyone involved at Hibernian, in Leith and Scottish football came together. Leith had always been the industrial gateway to Edinburgh. Resultantly, the capital side were opened up to the possibility of hostile takeover bids. Duff would later say that Sheila had “fallen in love with the club” that had made her Scottish football’s first female director. Rowland was a ruse for Mercer, a way into the club’s inner sanctum. It is hard to envisage the Capital footballing landscape had the events of June and July 1990 panned out differently. Although a once-thriving district, it fell into disrepair after the Second World War, becoming Edinburgh’s seedy underbelly with high unemployment, violence and prostitution. Fans of the club had their answer in Hands Off Hibs, a movement born to save Hibernian and send a message – ‘we don’t care who you are, you won’t take our team away’. On one chaotic afternoon at their former headquarters on The Mound, around 50 fans queued up to open current accounts with a £5 note before joining the back of the line to immediately close them again. Having such a centralised ownership model opens up the top seats to nepotism, meaning the correct due-diligence isn’t always carried out for new members, especially when it comes to a club changing hands where one party is as desperate to get out as the new one is to get in. It convinced no one and Mercer, on 14 July, waved the white flag to the masses in the Hands Off Hibs tees. At 55p a share, budding investors from as far afield as Australia and North America bought into the club, taking the fans’ share up to 15 percent. On 24 August 1987, the 33-year-old Swindon based lawyer David Duff purchased Hibernian Football Club from the then owner Kenny Waugh for £875,000 following several weeks of negotiations. Both the Edinburgh District Council and the Lothian Regional Council immediately gave Hibs their backing, the Leith MP Ron Brown promising to raise the issue with both the Monopolies Commission and the Office of Fair Trading.
