Early years The club was formed by a group of friends from the Heart of Midlothian Quadrille Assembly Club. This was the first time that association rules had been seen in Edinburgh. Members from the dance club viewed the match and in 1874 decided to adopt the association rules. The new side was Heart of Mid-Lothian Football Club. The earliest mention of
Heart of Midlothian in a sporting context is a report in
The Scotsman newspaper from 20 July 1864 of
The Scotsman vs Heart of Mid-Lothian at cricket. It is not known if this was the same club who went on to form the football club, but it was common for football clubs in those days to play other sports as well. The club took its name from historic county
Midlothian, dating from the
Middle Ages, as well as the
Heart of Midlothian mosaic on the
Royal Mile, which marks the historic entrance to the
Old Tolbooth jail, which was demolished in 1817 but was kept fresh in the mind by
Walter Scott's novel
The Heart of Midlothian. Led by captain Tom Purdie the club played its matches in the East Meadows in Edinburgh. The game ended in a scoreless draw. A replay was held at the Meadows which again finished 0–0. Under rules at the time both clubs progressed to the next round with Hearts losing out to Drumpellier in the next round. In the
1884–85 season, clubs in Scotland struggled to attract quality players who preferred to play professionally in England. a protest was raised against the club for fielding two professional players, which was against the rules at the time. They were readmitted after a change of the club's committee. Hearts did win the World Championship title in 1902, beating
Tottenham Hotspur 3–1 in
Tynecastle Park, after a 0–0 in London a few months earlier.
Hearts in World War I In November 1914, Heart of Midlothian comfortably led the First Division, having started the
1914–15 season with eight straight victories, including a 2–0 defeat of reigning champions
Celtic. This streak coincided with the beginning of
World War I and the start of a public debate upon the morality of continuing professional football while young soldiers were dying on the front-line. A motion was placed before the
Scottish Football Association to postpone the season, with one of its backers,
Airdrieonians chairman Thomas Forsyth declaring that
"playing football while our men are fighting is repugnant". While this motion was defeated at the
ballot box, with the SFA opting to wait for War Office advice, the East London philanthropist
Frederick Nicholas Charrington was orchestrating a public campaign to have professional football in Britain suspended, and achieving great popular support for his cause. The prime tactic of Charrington's campaign was to shame football players and officials into action through public and private denouncement. In response, sixteen players from Hearts enlisted in
Sir George McCrae's new volunteer battalion, joining en masse on 25 November 1914. The battalion was to become the 16th Royal Scots and was the first to earn the "footballer's battalion" sobriquet. The group of volunteers also contained some 500 Hearts supporters and ticket-holders, 150 followers of Hibernian and a number of professional footballers from Raith Rovers, Falkirk and Dunfermline. Military training was thus added to the Hearts players football training regime, and the side had a 20-game unbeaten run between October and February. However, exhaustion from their army exertions, twice including 10-hour nocturnal-marches the night before a league game, eventually led to a drop in form, as several enlisted players missed key games. Defeats to
St Mirren and Morton allowed Celtic to usurp the
Maroons and eventually claim the league title by 4 points. as well as former player
David Philip. There are two war memorials to mark this period; The
McCrae's Battalion Great War Memorial in
Contalmaison and the Heart of Midlothian War Memorial in
Haymarket, Edinburgh donated to the city by the club in 1922. The latter was placed in storage due to the
Edinburgh Trams work but has now been replaced a little to the east of its previous position. A further memorial commemorating the 1914 Hearts team has been proposed by the club. An annual pilgrimage is held by football supporters to Contalmaison every year, whilst Hearts hold their memorial services at Haymarket or, whilst it was in storage, at
Tynecastle Park.
Inter war years Hearts collected no senior silverware in the inter war years.
Tommy Walker joined the Hearts ground staff aged 16 in February 1932. As Scottish clubs could not then officially sign players until the age of 17, Walker played
junior football for
Linlithgow Rose until his birthday in May. A talented and elegant inside-forward, Walker quickly earned a place in the Hearts first team, helping the side to victory in the 1933 Jubilee edition of the
Rosebery Charity Cup, in a season in which they finished 3rd in the league. He was a regular first team player by
1933–34 but despite some emphatic victories, inconsistent form limited Hearts to a sixth-place finish. Despite Walker scoring 192 league goals for Hearts and playing in sides boasting numerous internationals, such as Scots
Dave McCulloch,
Barney Battles,
Andy Anderson and
Alex Massie,
Welshman Freddie Warren and Irishman Willie Reid, Walker was destined not to win a major honour as a player at
Tynecastle. The closest Hearts came to success during his period there was a second place league finish in
1937–38.
Tommy Walker's managerial era The first seeds of the Tommy Walker managerial success at Hearts were sown by
Davie McLean. On 9 October 1948 after a mediocre start to the
1948–49 season, Hearts' manager McLean gave a competitive first team debut to 20 year old centre forward
Willie Bauld and 19 year old inside left
Jimmy Wardhaugh, and 22 year old inside right
Alfie Conn Sr. had already broken through to the first team so this game marked the first time all three were deployed as a combined attacking force. They became dubbed the
Terrible Trio and scored over 900 Hearts goals between them (Wardhaugh 376, Bauld 355, Conn 221). As a unit they played 242 games together. The combination of Wardhaugh's dribbling skills and non-stop running, Bauld's cerebral play and prodigious aerial ability, and Conn's energetic, tenacious style and powerful shooting complemented each other well. Their first match as a forward combination ended in a 6–1 defeat of
Scot Symon's
East Fife team of the era. This was notable as Symon's team had defeated the
Maroons 4–0 three weeks earlier. A few weeks later in December 1948 Tommy Walker left during his third season at Chelsea to return to Hearts. He took the role of player-assistant to manager McLean. McLean's intention was that Walker would be a steadying influence in a developing young team. However, after a single appearance at right-half in a 1–0 home defeat by
Dundee, Walker retired to concentrate fully on learning the managerial ropes. Tangible progress was made in the League Championship in 1949–50 when Hearts finished third. As Tommy Walker had become more influential, McLean was co-opted to the Board on 16 March 1950. Walker was always quick to acknowledge the contribution made by McLean and his fatherly interest in the welfare and development of the players. The important foundations Walker inherited from McLean included the
Terrible Trio forwards, the full back pair of
Bobby Parker and
Tam McKenzie and half backs
Bobby Dougan and
Davie Laing. To this established core
John Cumming had recently broken through to the first team in the left half position he was to dominate for many years.
Freddie Glidden was already at Tynecastle but yet to first team debut as was the then schoolboy
Dave Mackay. Walker made Parker the team Captain. Both went on to become full Scotland internationalists while playing for Hearts. The young Mackay was given his first team debut on 7 November of that 1953–54 season one week before his nineteenth birthday. Naturally more left sided than right, Mackay played in the number six jersey normally associated with the absent Cumming. Mackay's next two appearances though weren't until mid March immediately after the Aberdeen cup defeat when again he played in Cumming's position. It wasn't until 17 April 1954 in a 1–0 win at Clyde that Walker first selected Mackay, Glidden and Cumming in the numbers four, five and six. They promptly became a trophy winning force lifting the first of seven trophies over nine seasons between 1954 and 1963. In October of the
1954–55 season they won their first trophy since 1906, 48 years before. They beat
Motherwell 4–2 in the
1954 Scottish League Cup final. Bauld scored three and Wardhaugh scored one in the final giving the team their break through trophy. Hearts gained some recompense against Celtic from the season before by beating them home and away in that
1954–55 Scottish League Cup group stage. They thrashed Rangers 4–0 in the quarter-finals with goals from Crawford, Conn and a Bauld double. Cumming's commitment to the team was typified in that
1956 Scottish Cup final before 132,840 fans. With blood streaming from a first half head injury from a clash with Celtic's
Willie Fernie he said, "Blood doesn't show on a maroon jersey". He returned to the playing field in the 3–1 win and was man of the match. That quote is now displayed above the entrance to the players tunnel at
Tynecastle. Kirk could play in either full back role and played on the right in the final at the expense of Parker. Glidden lifted the trophy as Hearts captain in what he recalled as the "sweetest" moment in his footballing career. The days of the
Terrible Trio as a combined force were nearing their end. This precipitated a run of only two wins from the next seven games without injured Mackay. Hearts beat Queen of the South in a 2–1 home league win on 7 March 1959. After that QoS game Rangers with six games to play were firm favourites for the title, six points ahead of second placed Hearts. Rangers would still have to drop two points elsewhere and give away a superior goal average. meant Hearts were four points behind with a game in hand. In midweek they next won 4–2 at Aberdeen with Rankin scoring a hat-trick. The last day of the season began with Rangers two points clear with an identical goal average to Hearts. Rangers thus needed a point to clinch the title but lost 2–1 at home to Aberdeen. Despite missing Bobby Kirk at right back with a knee injury, Rankin's ninth goal from his fifth Hearts game had Hearts 1–0 up at half time at
Celtic Park. Any victory would have given Hearts the title. Then Celtic's
Bertie Auld playing at left wing equalised before
Eric Smith scored Celtic's winning second goal to seal the title for their cross city rivals leaving those at Tynecastle to wonder what would have happened if Mackay hadn't been sold when he was. and paid for an operation on the offending ankle himself. He then signed for Hearts, his boyhood heroes. Subsequently, Hearts were instrumental in pushing through a change to use goal difference to separate teams level on points. Ironically this rule change later denied Hearts the title in 1985–86. Hearts had just been relegated from the top flight for the third time in five seasons. The following December (1981), Mercer promoted
Alex MacDonald to be Player-Manager. At the end of the 1982–83 season, Hearts were promoted back to the top flight. This marked an upturn in their fortunes to rejoin the more competitive clubs in Scotland's top flight. The
1985–86 season was their best since 1965. The league campaign started with the loss of five of the first eight games. From there the club went on a 27-game unbeaten league run, reaching the top of the league on 21 December after a 1–0 win at St Mirren. Hearts needed a draw from the last game of the season away to
Dundee on 3 May 1986 to win the Scottish league title. Before that final game they were two points ahead of Celtic and with a superior goal difference of four goals. However, this strong statistical position was undermined in the run up to the game when several players in the Hearts squad were hit by a viral infection.
Craig Levein failed to recover to make the game in Dundee. Celtic were 4–0 up away at St Mirren at half time in their final fixture. Thus, at half time the players knew that they would have to deliver a result at
Dens Park. Substitute
Albert Kidd forced Hearts to concede a corner kick with seven minutes remaining. The in-swinging corner was touched on and fell to Kidd who put Dundee ahead. This was the first goal Hearts had conceded from a corner all season. Hearts now needed an equaliser to win the title. However, Kidd went on a run with the ball from the halfway line down the right wing beating two Hearts players. After then playing a one-two with a teammate on the edge of the Hearts box he finished to score a second with four minutes left. Dundee won 2–0. This combined with Celtic winning 5–0 against St Mirren meant the top two clubs finished the season on the same number of points. Hearts lost out to Celtic by a goal difference of three. Had goal difference been the rule in 1965 Hearts would have been champions; had goal average still applied in 1986, they would have won the league. Hearts lobbying after the league loss in 1965 cost them the title in 1986. Hearts had been chasing a League and Scottish Cup double. After eliminating Rangers and
Jim McLean's Dundee United they faced
Alex Ferguson's Aberdeen in the final; Aberdeen
won 3–0 meaning Hearts finished runners-up as they had in the league. Hearts finished league runners-up again in
1988 and
1992. The club reached the quarter-finals of the
1988–89 UEFA Cup losing out to
Bayern Munich 2–1 on aggregate. After MacDonald's summer 1990 departure the club struggled to settle on a manager. Within a two-year period,
Joe Jordan,
Sandy Clark and
Tommy McLean were all sacked. From April 1989 to April 1994, Hearts went on a run of 22 games in a row without defeat against arch-rivals Hibernian in the
Edinburgh derby. In 1994 Mercer sold his shares in Hearts to Chris Robinson and Leslie Deans. Under Mercer, Hearts finished second in the Scottish top tier three times and once in the Scottish Cup, but his time at the helm concluded without senior silverware. His personal influence at the club is perhaps best remembered with
an attempted merger with Hibs in 1990. Seen by Hibs fans as an attempted take over to liquidate their club, Mercer's attempts were met with bitterness and acrimony before he backed away. In
1998, Hearts beat Rangers
2–1 to lift the Scottish Cup under the management of ex Hearts player,
Jim Jefferies.
Colin Cameron scored a first-minute penalty and
Stéphane Adam added after half time. This was Hearts' first senior trophy win since the
1962–63 Scottish League Cup won in the Tommy Walker era.
Into the 21st century Hearts finished third in 2003 and 2004, and reached the inaugural group stages of the
UEFA Cup in 2004–05, but finished bottom of their group, despite
Robbie Neilson's goal giving a 2–1 victory over
FC Basel. During the 2004–05 season, they finished fifth in the league. In 2004, then club CEO Chris Robinson announced plans to sell Tynecastle, which he claimed was "not fit for purpose", and instead have Hearts rent
Murrayfield from the
Scottish Rugby Union. This move was deemed necessary due to the club's increasingly large debt. The plan was very unpopular with supporters, and a campaign, entitled
Save Our Hearts, was set up to try to block the move. As Robinson and his supporters had a slight majority of the club's shares, a preliminary deal to sell the stadium was struck with the Cala property development company for just over £20 million.
The Romanov era In August 2004 in the midst of Hearts' financial difficulties Russian-Lithuanian multi-millionaire
Vladimir Romanov entered into talks to take over Hearts in what was dubbed the "Romanov Revolution". Romanov had already made failed attempts
Dundee which was very attractive to Hearts supporters. At the end of September 2004 Chris Robinson agreed to sell his 19.6% stake to Romanov. Romanov called an
extraordinary general meeting in January 2005 so that the club could pass a motion to exercise the escape clause in the deal with Cala Homes. The backing of Leslie Deans The sale of Robinson's shares was completed on 2 February 2005 after Romanov made financial guarantees that the club could continue to trade without selling Tynecastle. This sale increased Romanov's stake to 29.9%, Chairman
George Foulkes sold his shares to Romanov Romanov's management of the club's debt became a cause for concern. During his takeover Romanov pledged to eradicate the club's debt. Soon after the takeover was completed, the debt was transferred from
HBOS and
SMG to the financial institutions controlled by Romanov,
Ūkio bankas and UBIG. At the end of July 2007 the club were
£36
M in debt. A further issue was completed in 2010. Since the takeover Hearts had failed to pay players wages on time on several occasions, and were threatened with administration twice due to failure to pay an outstanding tax bills with the bill finally being settled in August 2011. Results released for the financial year ending 31 July 2010 showed that Hearts had made a small profit for the first time since 1999, although they were still heavily in debt. Hearts' first manager of the Romanov era was
George Burley, who was appointed during close season by new chief executive
Phil Anderton, who replaced Chris Robinson as chief executive. With their new manager and signings, Hearts got off to a tremendous start in the
2005–06 season. The team won their first eight league matches, equalling a club record set in
1914. Hearts fans were led to expect a "top class manager" would replace Burley.
Kevin Keegan,
Bobby Robson,
Claudio Ranieri and
Ottmar Hitzfeld were all linked with the vacancy. Anderton, who had been making the approaches for these coaches, was sacked by Romanov on 31 October 2005. Foulkes, who had helped to bring Romanov to the club in the first place, resigned in protest at Anderton's dismissal. permanent managers in seven years. The next managerial change after those came on 1 August 2011 when Jim Jefferies was sacked during his second spell at the club and replaced by former
Sporting CP boss
Paulo Sérgio. Romanov stated that his ultimate aim was for Hearts to win the
Champions League. Hearts competed in the Champions League during season 2006–07 but progressed only as far the second qualifying round before dropping down to the
UEFA Cup. Since then Hearts have been unable to split the
Old Firm for a second time to earn a Champions League place. Hearts target became finishing third or above in the SPL. Romanov also owned the Lithuanian club
FBK Kaunas and Belarusian club
FC Partizan Minsk. Several players were loaned by
FBK Kaunas to Hearts when Romanov acquired control of the club. The club began experiencing severe financial problems in November 2011, which meant they were unable to pay the players' wages, and the club was put up for sale. The squad's October salaries were late and the November wages were paid twenty-nine days late, just one day before their December salaries were due. The December pay failed to arrive on time, and a complaint was lodged with the
Scottish Premier League by the players' union. During this period the club advised fringe players they were free to leave the club. On 4 January 2012 the SPL ordered Hearts to pay all outstanding wages by 11 January 2012 and insisted that January's wages had to be paid on time on 16 January. Hearts paid all outstanding wages that day following the sale of
Eggert Jónsson to
Wolves. On 17 January, the day after Hearts' wages were due to be paid, it was revealed all players had been paid. Despite this, the SPL issued a statement saying Hearts had failed to pay all players on 16 January and an emergency board meeting had been called; Hearts refuted this, saying payment of the remuneration had been made to all players. On 7 November 2012, Hearts were issued with a winding-up order by the Court of Session in Edinburgh after failing to pay a tax bill on time. In early June 2013, during the close season, a Hearts media statement stated that they would need to raise £500,000 in capital to keep the club up and running during the break between seasons. With no match day income coming in and a lack of finance from owner Romanov, the club were left in a position where they had to put their whole squad up for sale. On 17 June 2013, Heart of Midlothian began the process of entering into
administration with debts of £25 million, owing recently bankrupt
Ūkio bankas £15 million. On 18 June 2013, a Scandinavian consortium offered to pay the club £500,000 immediately in return for a share of any future transfer income from up to 12 players; this was rejected by Hearts. The process of entering administration began on 19 June 2013 when the club's parent company, Ukio Bankas Investment Group (UBIG), filed papers at the Court of Session on Edinburgh for accountancy firm
BDO to be named as administrators.
Administration On 17 June 2013 Hearts announced that they had lodged court papers stating their intention to enter administration, and on 19 June 2013 the administrators BDO were appointed to run the club. This meant that the club was unable to register players over 21 until February 2014 at the earliest. As long as they were still in administration they would not be able to bring in players of any age. As well as the signing embargo, Hearts were to be deducted a third of the previous season's points tally which meant the club would start the 2013–2014 season with −15 points. During this period the BDO administrator Trevor Birch pleaded with Hearts fans to purchase season tickets and stated that they needed to sell at least another 3000 season tickets to raise another £800,000 to keep the club running and avoiding liquidation. The fans met this number and took total season ticket sales beyond the 10,000 mark, giving the club more survival time. A deadline of 12 July 2013 was set for interested parties to put in formal bids for the club; there were three bids entered for the club which were received from the supporters group "The Foundation of Hearts", the second from a new company called "HMFC limited" which was backed by American firm Club Sports 9 and a third from former Livingston FC owner
Angelo Massone through Five Star Football Limited. On 15 August 2013, "The Foundation of Hearts" were given preferred bidders status to make a CVA with Hearts' creditors. The money that the foundation used to purchase the club came from monthly donations from fans; the foundation received an interest-free loan from a wealthy fan, which was to be paid back using the monthly direct debts from the fans. On 2 December, Hearts' creditors agreed to the CVA deal proposed by "The Foundation of Hearts". The club's relegation from the
Scottish Premiership was confirmed on 5 April 2014. Hearts won 4–2 away to
Partick Thistle, but
St Mirren beat
Motherwell 3–2, making it impossible for Hearts to catch up. On Monday 12 May 2014, The
Ann Budge fronted Bidco 1874 took control of Heart of Midlothian Plc, thus bringing to an end to Vladimir Romanov's involvement with the club. Budge, who fronted and financed the Bidco 1874 group which took over the reins at the club, became an unpaid executive chairwoman of the club. The Bidco group planned to hold the club for a possible five years, before the fans backed Foundation of Hearts supporters group take control. The Foundation put in £1 million for the running of the club until the final legal exit of administration. The Foundation then paid a further £2.6 million (£2.5m to cover the loan given by Bidco1874 Ltd to Hearts to finance the Creditors' Voluntary Agreement + £100,000 for the shares) to take 75% of the shares in the club and with that the running and decision making within the club. In addition, the Foundation also committed itself to provide a further £2.8m (£1.4m per year for two years) working capital for the club. Funding for the deal came from 8000+ people donating cash via a monthly direct debit. The club officially exited
administration on 11 June 2014, also bringing to an end the signing embargo that had been imposed upon the club a year earlier.
Post-administration Hearts earned an immediate return to the
Scottish Premiership by clinching the
2014–15 Scottish Championship title with seven games remaining. Hearts remained undefeated for the first 20 league matches before a 3–2 home defeat to
Falkirk ended that run. They won the title by winning 29 of 36 games, scoring 96 goals and conceding just 26, with a points total of 91. They finished the season 21 points ahead of their city rivals and nearest challengers
Hibernian and 24 points ahead of third-placed
Rangers. The season included handing
Cowdenbeath a joint-club record 10–0 defeat. At the
PFA Scotland Awards, Hearts had six players named in
Championship Team of the Year, two
Young Player of the Year nominees, and three Championship Player of the Year nominees, while
Robbie Neilson was shortlisted for
Manager of the Year. This period of renewed stability unravelled in the years following 2015. Despite finishing as runners-up in the
2019 Scottish Cup final, the club could only achieve mid-table placings in
2017,
2018 and
2019. This decline took a turn for the worse in
2019–20 as Hearts were relegated after finishing bottom of the
Scottish Premiership, having won only four matches across the course of the season which had been truncated due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. Their relegation was confirmed in June 2020, after league reconstruction talks instigated by Budge collapsed. The club confirmed that they would be pursuing legal action against the SPFL following their demotion to the
Scottish Championship. The legal action failed, as a
Scottish Football Association arbitration panel ruled that the SPFL had acted within its powers. Robbie Neilson was appointed as Hearts manager for a second time in June 2020, signing a three-year deal after leaving
Dundee United, who had recently been promoted to the Scottish Premiership. Former manager
Jim Jefferies was recruited as an advisor to the board and manager in July. In August 2020, Andrew McKinlay was appointed as the club's new Chief Executive. In June 2021, club captain Steven Naismith announced his retirement from football, taking up the role of Football Development Manager, focusing on the development of youth players "making their way towards the first team". On 30 August 2021, Hearts chairwoman Ann Budge officially transferred the club's shares to the Foundation of Hearts, meaning Hearts officially became the biggest fan-owned club in the United Kingdom. Hearts won the
2020–21 Scottish Championship, finishing ahead of second-placed
Dundee by 12 points and confirming their return to the Scottish Premiership. In their first
season back in the top flight, Hearts finished third and secured European group stage football in the
UEFA Conference League.
The following season, Hearts secured a fourth-placed finish. After finishing third in the
2023–24 season they returned to European football; initially entering the
UEFA Europa League final play-off stage, however, they failed to advance and dropped into the UEFA Conference League
league stage. After gaining a single point in their first six league games of the
2024–25 season (the worst start to a season in the club's history), manager
Steven Naismith was sacked on 22 September 2024, with
Neil Critchley replacing him as head coach a month later. After discussions with
Brighton owner
Tony Bloom throughout the
2024–25 season, on 20 November 2024 Hearts announced that they would become the first partner of Jamestown Analytics in Scotland, the same company used by Bloom's own Brighton in the
Premier League,
Como in
Serie A and
Royale Union Saint-Gilloise in the
Belgian Pro League. The software was first used to appoint Critchley as head coach in October after Naismith had been sacked. Critchley was later sacked in April after failing to make the top six before the split. On 25 June 2025, Hearts announced that
Tony Bloom would officially join the Hearts board after completing a £10m investment, giving him a 29% stake in the club. Hearts began the
2025–26 season with an unbeaten run including a 3–1 win over
2024–25 Scottish Premiership winners
Celtic. == Colours and badge ==