A Hearts supporters' group says it has collected cash pledges from more than 4,000 fans willing to support a fan-backed buy-out of the Tynecastle club.
The Foundation of Hearts hope to put together a deal to buy the financially-stricken club from owner Vladimir Romanov.
And their efforts have been buoyed by the news that all four goalscorers from the 2012 5-1 William Hill Scottish Cup final win over city rivals Hibernian have vowed to support their cause.
Rudi Skacel, Danny Grainger, Darren Barr and Ryan McGowan have given their backing and the Foundation is confident it will soon be able to lodge a formal offer.
The Edinburgh outfit's recent money woes have included staving off a winding-up order in December after supporters raised more than £1million to help pay off tax debts.
A £450,000 bill was paid off while Hearts agreed to settle a separate demand by paying £1.5million over three years.
However, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs will learn today whether it has been successful with another petition for a winding-up order after Hearts failed to settle a separate £100,000 bill.
Ian Murray, independent chair of the Foundation of Hearts, said: "The momentum is growing, and this latest milestone provides a real sense that we're preparing to enter a crucial phase in terms of converting pledges to cash, and beginning the process of making a formal offer to the board.
"I'm absolutely delighted that iconic figures such as the goalscorers from last year's Scottish Cup final are backing our ambitions to have Heart of Midlothian Football Club owned by the people who love and cherish it best - the fans.
"I can't thank them and all the pledgers enough for their support."
The Foundation will hold a question and answer session with fans at Tynecastle on Friday and Murray added: "Myself and the full Foundation of Hearts team are looking forward to meeting several hundred supporters on Friday night when we'll answer every question put to us."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article