The consortium led by Gordon McKie will only maintain its interest in buying Hearts if they can agree a partnership with Foundation of Hearts, the coalition of supporters' groups.

Confirmation from BDO, the administrators, that season-ticket sales will be honoured, leaving the new owners with a working capital shortfall of around £1m, means that McKie's group have decided to either proceed as part of a joint bid or withdraw their interest.

FoH held a board meeting last night to discuss their options, having been involved in discussions with McKie, the former Scottish Rugby Union chief executive, during the week. They also have an offer in principle from another interested party, and the likelihood is that the fans' group will select a partner in the coming days. That joint bid would then be the most likely to succeed after all the offers are submitted to BDO by next Friday's deadline.

McKie and his financial backers – a mixture of Edinburgh and London-based businessmen – still believe that Heart of Midlothian plc can emerge from administration through a Company Voluntary Arrangement. They had hoped to achieve this before the end of August, but Trevor Birch, of BDO, admitted last week that the process could drag on for several months. One of Hearts' creditors and major shareholders, Ukio Bankas, is in administration, while the other, UBIG, is on the verge of insolvency.

"We said at the start that we wanted a CVA and to then break even, because we thought we would get the benefit of season-ticket sales by treating the bank and credit card companies that forwarded the money to Hearts as ordinary creditors," McKie said. "But BDO are on record as saying that the season tickets will be honoured, so the cash won't be available to the new owner. The investment level has increased and the only way we are prepared to proceed is in partnership with somebody, and ideally that would be with the Foundation of Hearts. We never intended to compete with them. It's possible they want to go it alone, and that's fine, there are no sour grapes on our part and we hope to see Hearts restored to order."

McKie will inform BDO of his stance, then await the decision by FoH on how they intend to proceed. The offer from his group is to fund the CVA – which could require around £3m – while FoH fund the working capital demands through the pledges made by more than 4000 Hearts fans. Over time, money would be returned to McKie's backers, while the amount pledged by fans would be converted to equity, eventually allowing FoH members to ultimately own the club.

"The ball is in the Foundation's court," said McKie. "If they want to work with us, we're happy to do that. They appear to have options but, from our point of view, nobody else makes sense. We will only work in partnership with the Foundation.

"Providing proof of funding is not a problem, if we can get to a position where we have a deal in place. At that point, I will be happy to reveal the identities of my backers. We always understood it would be a challenge for the administrators but, in theory, it ought to be simpler than Rangers' because the Lithuanian institutions can wave through the CVA. My backers still want a CVA."

FoH will make a decision on who they will go into partnership with based on several criteria, including the amount of money on offer and the long-term implications of the various terms and clauses of the agreement. The two parties have made slightly different offers, and it is likely the one chosen will be successful when the preferred bidder is announced. FoH have struck up an effective working relationship with BDO, and also bring the goodwill of the support, as well as their financial backing, placing them in a strong position.

"I've met with Gordon and we're in discussions," said Ian Murray MP, the FoH chairman. "We've always said that one of three things can happen: the Foundation can buy the club, we can do it with someone else or someone else buys the club. Whatever is in the long term interests of the club, we wouldn't stand in the way of that.

"Over the course of the next few days you'll see some snow fall off the dyke in terms of people who said they might be able to bid and now won't. We're being up front and honest. We would ask serious bidders to come and talk to us because if they have the long-term interests of the club at heart then there's no better thing to do than speak to the Foundation, who have the fans' groups behind us."

Birch also revealed that BDO have turned down bids for two players, in the hope fans would buy enough season tickets to fund the club until the end of the administration period. "We pledged that if the fans backed us, we would endeavour not to sell any players," he said. "And, thanks to their backing, we have been able to keep the squad together."