Ann Budge: Hearts' departing chair on saving the club, her legacy and the future as Jambos chase title glory
Ann Budge helped take Hearts out of administration in 2014; she has stepped down as chair after 11 years; the 77-year-old helped guide the team back to the Scottish top-flight, build a new main stand, hotel and more, including helping oversee the Tony Bloom investment deal
Friday 5 December 2025 21:11, UK
"It's amazing how many people come up to me and say 'thank you for saving our club.'"
That is Ann Budge's legacy.
History will remember the 'Queen of Hearts' as the figure who helped save a football club on the verge of extinction, and then rebuilt it.
Budge, who stepped down as Heart of Midlothian's Chair after more than 11 years of service at Thursday's AGM, pledged £2.5m of her own money to rescue the club from administration in 2014.
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The Edinburgh businesswoman was also instrumental in building a new main stand at Tynecastle and was committed to delivering fan ownership.
Hearts are now the largest fan-owned club in the UK.
"It's been a very emotional morning, actually," Budge told Sky Sports News.
"People have been so nice and said some very nice things. I think it's beginning to register.
"I've been doing a bit of reflection, as you can imagine, over the last couple of months. The really strange thing is, and I don't know if people would believe this, is I've actually enjoyed all of it."
But how does she want to be remembered? A hero? A saviour? A messiah?
The answer is none of the above. Budge wants her legacy to reflect the human qualities in which helped her restore Heart of Midlothian's soul.
"When I first got involved in football and met lots of people and learned a little bit about what goes on in the background and so on, I was a little bit shocked at some of the attitudes," added the 77-year-old.
"One of the key things we had to do was rebuild our reputation and behave honourably.
"Integrity, it all sounds, you know, almost textbook-ish, but the reality is, that's what drove me on to do things properly.
"I'm a people person, so it's very much about getting the right people in place and working together… everything we do, we do honestly and with integrity.
"We built a new main stand, and we opened a hotel, and we did various other things, but it's about the attention to doing things properly.
"If you're doing it, do it the best you can, I think that's what I want to be remembered for."
Budge leaves a very different Hearts to the one she inherited.
The team are sitting top of the Scottish Premiership; they had just been relegated to the second tier when she took over.
"We didn't even have a lawnmower for the pitch," she joked.
"(The club is) hugely different in so many respects. Most things were worse than I expected.
"If the truth be known, I didn't really think about how bad it might be.
"When I came in and saw just how bad certain things were, I'm not going to say it made it easier, but it was clear what we had to do…
"Now I love driving past in the evening when the lights are on. I think the front of the stand is fantastic."
So why leave now? Why not stay for the glory of a potential first league title in 66 years?
Well, Budge has done her bit. New main stand, new luxury hotel, and a new lawnmower, of course.
Now it's over to Tony Bloom and the football masterminds to elevate the on-field activities in the same way in which the 'Queen of Hearts' transformed the club's infrastructure.
"I think we're about to start a new era," she continued.
"It's always been about football, the football club has always been there, but we had so many other things to fix right about it.
"Whereas now, I think the focus is totally on how we get a stronger team, a team that's going to achieve more.
"And I think with the recent deal with Tony Bloom, we've got access to so much more information and experience.
"Leave it to the football boys now…
"I laughed when Tony Bloom said Hearts will win the league sometime within the next 10 years. And I thought, okay, within 10 years I can live with that.
"If he'd said this year, I would have been saying, 'oh, come on'. So, yes, of course it's possible. Is it going to happen? Only time will tell."
Ann Budge may no longer be Chair of Heart of Midlothian, but her association does not end here. The 'Queen of Hearts' will now watch on from the stands both as honorary president and as a proud Jambo.
