Hibs players and fans celebrate thumping win at St Mirren.mp4
Minority shareholder to sell Easter Road stake amid strained relations
Bill Foley is preparing to cut ties with Hibs less than two years after acquiring a minority stake in the club.
The American billionaire and owner of the Black Knights group invested £6million into the Easter Road outfit in return for a 25 per cent shareholding in early 2024 in what was described as a "ground-breaking" deal for Scottish football by former Hibs chief executive Ben Kensell.
However, the relationship between Foley and the club became strained when the 80-year-old publicly criticised the appointments of David Gray as head coach and Malky Mackay as sporting director last summer.
Bill Foley, owner of the Black Knights group, is looking to sell his minority shareholding in Hibs.placeholder image
Bill Foley, owner of the Black Knights group, is looking to sell his minority shareholding in Hibs. | AFP via Getty Images
And it is now understood that Foley, who has never attended a Hibs match, is in talks with the Gordon family over selling his shares to them. The Gordons, led by chairman Ian, already own a 60 per cent controlling stake in the Edinburgh club and are willing to invest further to buy Foley out.
Hibs' reluctance to operate as a feeder club for Premier League side Bournemouth, who are majority owned by the multi-club Black Knights group, which also has stakes in Lorient and Auckland, is believed to be a factor in a frustrated Foley selling up.
Black Knights are currently represented on the Hibs board by Tim Bezbatchenko, who was appointed as an executive director in June of this year, and Ryan Caswell, who became a non-executive director in March. Garvan Stewart left Bournemouth to join Hibs as their new head of recruitment in December last year but his position at Hibs is not thought to be affected by the ongoing talks.
Voicing his disapproval of the Gray and Mackay appointments in an interview following a 1-0 defeat to Kelty Hearts in the Premier Sports Cup last July, Foley stated: “If the other ownership group at Hibernian listens to us, they will do better. So far, they really haven’t been listening to our input. I believe they will listen to our input now.
“We have a very good relationship with Lorient. They are listening and are hiring the right people to develop that club.”
Gray recovered from a poor start to his tenure to steer Hibs to a third place finish in the Scottish Premiership last season, the position they occupy in the table after 12 matches this term.
Foley also spoke at the weekend of his desire to expand his empire of clubs under the Black Knights and Bournemouth umbrella.
“We’ve chosen to find other clubs for a feeder system," he said. “But we want to hire the sporting director, the coach, the analysts, for the teams to play the way Bournemouth play, so that if we do have to pay a fee for a player, we are paying ourselves.
“We want everyone – coaches, players, analysts – to feel that being part of our system is to their benefit.”