Hearts are on a Champions League collision course with Tony Bloom following confirmation of the third qualifying round draw.
After finishing second in the Premiership following an agonising final day defeat to Celtic, Derek McInnes’ men will enter at the second qualifying round stage.
The Jambos already know they will face either Sturm Graz or Fenerbahce, with the draw scheduled to take place on June 17 and Hearts entering the round unseeded.
First legs are scheduled for July 21 and 22, with return legs set for July 28 and 29.
Should Hearts be drawn against Fenerbahce, the consequences of pulling off a shock result against the Turkish side would be particularly intriguing.
Emulating Rangers, who dumped Fener on their way to the Europa League quarter-finals in 2025, would see the Tynecastle club take their seeding for the third qualifying round.
That result would set up a potential data derby with Union Saint Gilloise, the Belgian outfit in which Bloom also holds a minority stake.
USG, whose recruitment is also powered by Jamestown Analytics and are the example Hearts hope to follow, finished runners up behind Club Brugge in the Belgian Pro League and also lifted the Belgian Cup.
Should Hearts progress past Fenerbahce, they would face either Union or Sparta Prague, or the winners of the Sturm Graz against Gornik Zabrze tie, for a place in the playoff round.
UEFA rules prevent clubs with the same ownership from playing each other in European competition, but the situation here carries its own particular context.
Bloom reduced his shareholding in USG to a minority of below 30 percent in 2023 when both USG and Brighton, the club Bloom owns, qualified for the Europa League.
A similar arrangement governs his involvement with Hearts, with Bloom having dropped £10million on a 29 percent stake in the Gorgie outfit last summer with this situation very much in mind.
That structure means that if two of his clubs were to meet in qualifying, everything would remain above board under existing UEFA regulations.
Should Hearts instead draw Sturm Graz in the second qualifying round, their potential third qualifying round opponents would be either Lyon, Bodo/Glimt, Olympiacos, or the winners of Fenerbahce against Gornik Zabrze.
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