Hearts want 'home' game in Australia

HEARTS want to play one of their home league matches next season in Australia in a ground-breaking proposal which could net the club around £500,000.

Celtic would be the preferred opponents for the extraordinary experiment which is currently being considered by the Scottish Premier League.

Hearts have held talks with an Australian football agency with the aim of staging the fixture at the 90,000-capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground.

The far-fetched plan was originally hatched two years ago when the Melbourne-based Tribal Sports Management (TSM) contacted the SPL with its vision of a Scottish top-flight club fulfilling a ‘home’ fixture in Australia. It received little encouragement from Roger Mitchell, the then chief executive.

The chances of the plan succeeding this time are still slim, but the general financial malaise that has engulfed the Scottish game may make the SPL more amenable to the idea. All 12 member clubs would benefit financially from the experiment. League officials have been in talks about the suggestion over the last two weeks and yesterday received the formal proposal from TSM.

"There is a proposal before the SPL for Hearts to play a home fixture next season in Australia," a Hearts spokesman confirmed last night. "We are looking at either August or possibly January, which would also allow the clubs involved to have a mid-season break. The proposed opposition at this early stage is Celtic."

The game in Melbourne is not the only high-profile match Hearts are eyeing. The Edinburgh club are also in negotiations to play Valencia in a pre-season friendly in July, should the proposed move to Murrayfield take place.

However, the pre-season clash pales in comparison with the revolutionary suggestion of Hearts playing a league fixture halfway round the world. A combination of boardroom interest and an existing link to the agency involved has placed the Tynecastle side as firm favourites to host the proposed match. Hearts’ Australian international Patrick Kisnorbo is represented by TSM and the agency employs the services of the club’s former defender Dave McPherson as a representative in Scotland.

Lou Sticca, managing director of TSM, said: "A few years ago I didn’t even get a reply, but I think Lex Gold has done the SPL a great service by examining the proposal and recognising just how advantageous this could be, not just for the clubs involved but also for the league as a whole."

The big stumbling block to the plan remains the league’s backing. The proposal would have to go to a meeting of the 12 clubs with the usual 8-4 majority required for approval.

McPherson, who had two successful spells with Hearts before going to play in Australia with Carlton, said: "There have been negotiations with the SPL but it still has to go to committee and then hopefully be approved. That’s essentially what we’re waiting for."

Hearts were also at pains to stress the infancy of the plan as well as offering soothing words to prospective season ticket holders who will lose out on seeing a game if the idea was approved.

"At this stage it is a proposal, we see it as a novel way of raising the profile of Hearts and Scottish football, but it’s up to all SPL members whether we move forward with it," said a club spokesman. "Season ticket holders will be fully compensated, whether with access to the Valencia game or something else."

The proposal from TSM is believed to include a considerable payment to the ten clubs not involved in the fixture as compensation for not sharing in the financial windfall of the game itself.

The ‘away’ team are likely to have some additional payment, along with all expenses for the trip. Celtic would clearly be a huge draw in a country where they have a large expat support from both Scotland and Ireland.

Funding would come from gate money, sponsorship and selling the television rights to the Australasian market

The intention of the organisers is for the game to become an annual fixture involving different teams and it is hoped this will persuade SPL clubs to back the idea.

McPherson added: "I think it would be great for Hearts. You’re probably talking about around £500,000 from the game whether it is at the MCG or the Colonial [a 55,000 capacity Melbourne stadium] and who knows what it would be worth in terms of opening up markets. People will come to this game from all over Australia, New Zealand and even Japan."

An SPL spokesman confirmed: "We have received details of a former proposal today to which we will give due consideration."

Ultimately, it will be in the hands of the member clubs whether Hearts will be successful in their ambitious plan.

While staging a league game in a different continent from the one in which the clubs are involved is thought to be without precedent, there have been instances of one-off matches being played abroad.

In August 2002, the Italian Supercup final between Juventus and Parma was played in Libya with FIFA’s Sepp Blatter in attendance. And in 1987 Rangers and Everton met in Dubai in a match between the then Scottish and English champions.

Taken from the Scotsman