How Vladimir Romanov was the only game in town for Hearts - Steve Cardownie

Former Hearts majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov. Picture: SNSFormer Hearts majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov. Picture: SNS
Former Hearts majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov. Picture: SNS
A new podcast was released last Saturday titled Romanov: Czar of Hearts, 1. The Man from the East. Aired on Radio Scotland its publicity blurb states that “Martin Geissler investigates Vladimir Romanov’s rise from Soviet submarine cook to millionaire football club owner and fugitive in a gripping tale of ambition, power and chaos.

Martin, a fellow Hearts supporter, credits me with approaching Romanov to try to persuade him to invest in Hearts so I thought that I would set the record straight.

I first met Vladimir 20 years or so ago when I was on holiday in Lithuania. I was attending a Chamber of Commerce meeting when John Gibson, a businessman friend of mine from Dundee, introduced me to him.

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Knowing Vladimir’s interest in football he invited him to Dundee to take in a United game, During the game the question of investment in the club was raised and Vladimir indicated that he would be interested in acquiring a majority shareholding and subsequently opened negotiations with the then owner Eddie Thompson.

For reasons I can’t go into here, the negotiations did not bear fruit and I took my chance. After confirming that if Vladimir was to acquire Hearts, he would not move from Tynecastle, I set up the relevant meetings.

I should point out at this juncture that I was acting in a personal capacity with no City Council involvement whatsoever. My motivation was solely to keep Hearts at Tynecastle and although I brokered the deals, I did not ask for, nor received a penny and contrary to some reports, he did not make any takeover approaches to Dundee FC nor Dunfermline FC.

After sounding out Leslie Deans and getting the nod that he was prepared to sell his shares I arranged a meeting which I convened at The Carlton Highland Hotel, on a Friday at 5.30pm, with him, Vladimir and Sergejus Fedotovas, (Vladimir’s “right hand man”) who later became a good friend of mine.

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Negotiations were over quite quickly, ending with Vlad and Leslie, who was also acting for another shareholder, businessman, Robert McGrail, shaking hands on a deal.

My next task was to get the Scottish Media Group (SMG) on board, and I set up and attended another meeting one week later in The Caledonian Hotel. This time Vlad had business commitments elsewhere, so Sergejus attended in his stead.

Once more negotiations were swift and amicable and ended with SMG’s finance spokesman coming to an agreement with Sergejus for Vlad to buy their shares once their Board of Directors rubber stamped it- which they duly did.

Chris Robinson was then contacted by Sergejus informed who him that Vladimir had a substantial number of shares tied up and offered him a deal for his shareholding which was accepted.

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As a Hearts fan I was horrified at the prospect of the club renting Murrayfield Stadium for our home games. The thought of around 15,000 fans rattling around a 67,144-seater stadium with next to no “atmosphere” to speak of led me to believe that attendances and were likely to plummet and, in any case, Tynecastle was our “home” and where we “bide.”

These were dire times. Romanov was the only game in town and although it proved to be a rollercoaster ride, one thing is for sure - if not for him we would not be welcoming Rangers to Tynecastle Park a week on Sunday!

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