{"id":266110,"date":"2025-11-16T13:31:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T13:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/266110\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T13:31:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T13:31:21","slug":"hibs-right-to-cut-bill-foley-and-black-knights-ties-insist-insiders-as-mega-bournemouth-claim-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/266110\/","title":{"rendered":"Hibs right to cut Bill Foley and Black Knights ties insist insiders as mega Bournemouth claim made"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week’s news that the club has ended it’s two-year association with the Bournemouth owner’s group shocked supporters.\"She(Image: SNS Group)<\/p>\n

Hibs legend John Brownlie has backed the decision to cut ties with the Black Knights – insisting no minority investor should dictate what happens at Easter Road.<\/p>\n

But the 1972 League Cup winner hopes the breakdown of the relationship with Bill Foley\u2019s organisation doesn\u2019t put Hibs chiefs off exploring future tie-ins with clubs in a bid to strengthen their hand.<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s shock news saw Hibs<\/a>\u2019 American owners buy back Bournemouth<\/a> supremo Foley\u2019s shares after agreeing the 21-month partnership wasn\u2019t working.<\/p>\n

Foley, through his Black Knights group, had purchased a 25 per cent stake in the club just under two years ago. But the billionaire\u2019s vision for Hibs to become part of a feeder club network for his Premier League outfit saw the relationship break down.<\/p>\n

MailSport understands Hibs are open to exploring future investment options – although the Gordon family are not currently seeking a replacement for billionaire Foley\u2019s group and are committed to moving Hibs forward on their terms.<\/p>\n

Brownlie, who made over 300 appearances for the club including the 1972 victory over Celtic<\/a> at Hampden, had hoped the partnership could move Hibs to another level.<\/p>\n

But the former Scotland and Newcastle United<\/a> defender insists it could never survive without being a two-way street.<\/p>\n

Brownlie told MailSport : \u201cI think they have made the right decision. It\u2019s alright bringing investors on board but they cannot oversee everything. That\u2019s not on.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s going to be a joint thing then make sure it is a joint thing. Don\u2019t have others dictating to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had thought everything had been going along nicely. But clearly underneath it wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the right thing for the Gordon family to do. I think they are here for the long term. The club is part of their DNA now and I\u2019m pretty sure they will look to get another investor in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have good contacts. You don\u2019t get involved in these things if you don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bournemouth link may have broken but Brownlie hopes Hibs don\u2019t rule out future tie-ins with clubs outwith Scotland.<\/p>\n

The former Arbroath, East Stirling and Cowdenbeath manager says one look across the capital to where Brighton owner Tony Bloom\u2019s investment has helped Hearts soar is proof of what\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cIt\u2019s the age we\u2019re in now. If you look across the city and see Hearts, they are doing something right.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s going to bring better players to the club then yes, partnerships can definitely be a good idea. But you have to bring in better players.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prominent Hibs fans have also backed their club\u2019s move to cut ties with the Cherries – with one insisting to MailSport that the Leith club is bigger than Bournemouth.<\/p>\n

Foley spoke last week about his bid to find more feeder clubs for the EPL side in a system where his group hire the sporting director, coach and analysts.<\/p>\n

But Matty Fairnie of the Longbangers HIbs podcast said: \u201cI don’t think many people were comfortable with becoming a feeder club.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough I think the connotations of being a feeder club are worse than the reality at that level.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the detail of what the Black Knights wanted to do, it was almost to replicate what they did at Bournemouth. So you’ve got the analytics, you’ve got the recruitment team, the coaches. It’s all set up to succeed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it works and Hibs were winning every week and we were developing young players and selling them for a bit of money, I don’t think anybody’s questioning it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if it doesn’t work, it’s awful. It’s the worst thing because you’re almost selling your soul for it. I don’t think any Hibs fan wants that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been speaking to people and almost unanimously they are on board with the decision to cut ties.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re historically a bigger club than Bournemouth. They might have more money and richer owners and all the rest of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in terms of history, it should be the other way around. But circumstances dictate it’s not that way around.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually think there’s a fair bit to be said for Ian Gordon for standing his ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Gordon family have put a lot of money into the club. They clearly want the best for Hibs.<\/p>\n

Hibernian chairman Ian Gordon, sporting director Malky Mackay and chief executive Dan Barnett<\/p>\n

\u201cHIbs are in a pretty good place. It’s a night and day for where we were a couple of years ago. The football\u2019s generally pretty good.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re sitting in third. It’s not been a bad start to the season at all. A couple of results that could have went our way that didn’t.<\/p>\n

\u201cDavid Gray’s done a great job. Malky Mackay’s supporting him. The recruitment looks like it’s been good.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just waiting on chasing Hearts down now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lifelong Hibee, however, hopes his club waste no time looking for fresh investment.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cIf we don\u2019t do it there’s a danger we get left behind.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe worry is if you were another party looking at Hibs just now, you’d be looking at what happened with the Black Knights.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we definitely need to be looking at some sort of investment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we want to challenge at the top, we can\u2019t do it on our own.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d be open to it, but certainly not somebody coming in and dictating.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This week’s news that the club has ended it’s two-year association with the Bournemouth owner’s group shocked supporters.(Image:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[98295,218,13718,8058,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-266110","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-afc-bournemouth","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-hibernian-fc","11":"tag-scottish-premiership","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}