Ian Murray MP pledges to give Hearts book royalties back to Tynecastle

The former Foundation of Hearts chairman has written the tale of his role in the club’s administration during 2013 and 2014, but monies will be given back to the club.

Murray played a key role as the FoH figurehead who managed to secure the transfer of Hearts’ shares into the hands of Ann Budge, which staved off liquidation and kept the Edinburgh club alive.

His book is now on sale via Hearts outlets and the club will benefit financially. “I’m intending to give net royalties to the club in one form or another. There is a commitment there to do that but we haven’t quite worked out the logistics yet. If the book sells a number of copies with reached the high four figures then I will be over the moon,” said Murray.

“I wanted to write the book because the story had to be told. I bumped into Bryan Jackson who had just written his play about being an administrator at football clubs. I thought somebody needed to tell the story of what happened at Hearts before history is rewritten. He was an inspiration for writing it.

“It’s about a Hearts fan being involved during the whole process. It charts how Romanov got involved, the whole rollercoaster and then how it all went belly-up. The book charts how close the club came to being dead.”

Having helped Budge gain control, Murray is delighted with her stewardship. “It’s transformational,” he said. “If anybody wants to see how you take a football club that is essentially dead and build it into something else, it’s here.

“Of course, it’s about scoring goals and winning football matches. The fans here have high expectations and they deserve to because Hearts should be doing really well on the field. Winning the Championship title and getting back into Europe was great and I suppose the fans have seen things stutter a bit on the park.

“That will be turned around, no doubt about. The entire club is now transformed from top to bottom and that’s something the fans sometimes don’t quite see.”