Auld Foes

Auld Foes is the remarkable story of the world’s oldest football rivalry – Hearts v Hibs – interwoven with a fascinating 150-year Edinburgh history. It's a rivalry that encompasses world wars, class, religion and ethnicity, hooliganism and clubs on the brink. It's a rivalry steeped in the history of Edinburgh itself.

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Auld Foes is the remarkable story of the world’s oldest football rivalry – Heart of Midlothian v Hibernian – interwoven with a fascinating 150-year Edinburgh history.


For more than a century the rivalry ebbed and flowed, culminating in a hostile takeover bid in 1990. While this raised hostilities off the pitch to a new high, animosity between the Edinburgh sides was nothing new.


Theirs is a rivalry as complex and historic as Edinburgh itself, encompassing World Wars and sacrifice, Scottish society, religious and ethnic hatred, social class, football hooliganism, clubs on the brink of death saved by amazing feats of fan devotion, and the dubious financial dealings – and characters – that took them to the edge of ruin.


This is a story with exhilarating highs, innovations, world firsts and trailblazing in Europe; plus the wretched lows of relegations, agonising near-misses and everything in between.


Auld Foes shines a vital spotlight on a captivating football rivalry that is poorly understood.