Heart of Midlothian Football Club

Most Great Lake States love my friend Ian from Scotland, but central Michigan natives despise him. «Heart Of MI Loathes Ian.» So much so that they named this club after it.
They are known as Hearts, and they are arguably Edinburgh’s greatest team (don’t tell the rival Hibernian) and arguably Scotland’s third biggest team (don’t tell Dundee, Dundee United, Aberdeen, and so on). Their average attendance is the 3^rd highest in the country.
First-​Hand Experience: As Hearts are one of my fave teams in the UK (right up there with Celtic and Dundee United in Scots terms), I’ve seen them play live 4 times at home (including once as a teen) and a few times away from home too, including against my beloved Liverpool when Fabio Borini had one of his few moments of glory. I could not really love Hearts any more than I do. I love the old, crumbling stadium and the insane atmosphere — the best in Scotland, perhaps. I love their fans, I love the kits, I love the passion of this club and what it means to Edinburgh and to many around the world.
They play in ugly deep dark red, yet I like it. They don’t have much cash to clean up their facilities, but their stadium Tynecastle rocks, and their support is feverish across the world.
Their badge is a heart mosaic, it’s lovely. They were languishing in the second tier for some reason, but as of this weekend, they are now a Premier League club again, having won the second tier ahead of fierce competition from Rangers and Hibernian, who will have to battle it out in the Play Offs.
They are known as the Jam Tarts or the Jambos (Swahili?), but not known as the Jandos (that would be what Unilocalers from Queens are known as). They play to 17.5k people.
Their history is full of success.
They’ve been champions of Scotland only 4 times, 1895, 1897, 1958 and 1960 so it’s been a very long drought for Edinburgh’s finest. Perhaps they can turn it around soon. They’ve been runners up a heartbreaking FOURTEEN times including 1986, 1988, 1992, and 2006.
They’ve had better luck in the Scottish Cup winning it 8 times, but only 3 times in recent history, 98, 06 and 2012. They beat Hibernian twice in Cup finals.
They’ve been runners up in it 6 times, and they’ve also won the Scottish League Cup 4 times in the older days. This season is only the second time they’ve won the second tier.
They have a women’s team too. A club this grand and great must score a ⁵⁄₅ and they do.
Romanov, the previous owner, would have meant the club would have scored lower, but thankfully the fans now own the club. The club officially exited administration on 11 June 2014, bringing to an end the reign of Vladimir Romanov who had been the majority shareholder since 2005. He was one of the worst owners ever.
Good luck Hearts!

Hearts of Midlothian are the other major footballing team in Edinburgh. Based in Gorgie, Hearts over recent years have struggled to maintain its old dominance between the Edinburgh clubs.
It has been sad to watch the whole Vladimir Romanov saga! When he took over the club he promised great things including a lot of investment. However, after winning the Scottish Cup in 2006, by beating Gretna one nil, the club has been on a decline.
The club’s top players left including Craig Gordon, Paul Hartley and former captain Steven Pressley. And instead of reinvesting the money, the money has instead gone towards paying off the debt. So, due to financial restraints and Romanov’s influence there has been an influx of Lithuanian players (Not all successful!).
However, hopefully with Jim Jefferies at the helm, Hearts can start to rebuild and again reach the heights they did under Jefferies in the nineties when he won the Scottish Cup!