Intertoto appeals to Hearts if bid for third place fails

ANGUS WRIGHT AND DARREN JOHNSTONE

HEARTS go into tomorrow’s Tennent’s Scottish Cup quarter-final tie with Livingston with one eye on next season’s Intertoto Cup. The Tynecastle club yesterday lodged a note of interest with the SFA stating that they will compete in the summer competition should their bid for a UEFA Cup place prove unsuccessful.

The Edinburgh side enjoyed an impressive run in the UEFA Cup this season although they were unable to qualify from a tough group beyond Christmas.

John Robertson’s team have set their sights on either pipping city rivals Hibernian for third spot in the Bank of Scotland Premierleague or going all the way in the Tennent’s Scottish Cup. Both are routes into the UEFA Cup but should they not come to pass, Hearts will try their luck by the backdoor as the three winners of the Intertoto tournament all get a passage into that competition.

An SFA spokesman said: "Heart of Midlothian have the option to enter the tournament, probably at the second-round stage, which is played over two legs on 2 and 9 July.

"However, the club does not yet have to confirm finally that it will play in the tournament, especially as it could still qualify for the UEFA Cup."

Scotland could have had two places in the tournament next season but the other place would have been for a first-round start as early as 18 June, which did not appeal to any of the other clubs.

Hibernian had tried the Intertoto route last summer but were beaten on aggregate by Lithuanian outfit Vetra.

Hearts’ UEFA Cup campaign this season, which had been achieved by a third-place finish in the previous campaign, had also been sprinkled with controversy. Robertson could still be punished for kicking Ferencvaros coach Laszlo Csaba after a bad-tempered game in December. UEFA’s disciplinary panel met to discuss the incident yesterday but have postponed judgment until the next meeting on 24 March.

Of more immediate concern to Robertson is the match with Livingston at Tynecastle. The Hearts coach hopes his former club can overcome the well-publicised off-field problems that have blighted their season, as long as any revival takes place after tomorrow.

Robertson spent a total of four years at Almondvale as both a player and coach and concedes he is saddened by their current predicament.

Pearse Flynn, Livingston’s owner-in-waiting, has yet to gain full control from former chairman Dominic Keane. The West Lothian outfit, who are still in administration, could be forced to start over again in the Third Division if they are relegated, with lower league clubs angry about their financial standing. However, Robertson insists guiding Hearts to the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup when the two sides lock horns is all that concerns him.

He said: "I know a lot of people at Livingston, I have great memories of the club and there is a lot of fantastic people working for them. I hope everything gets sorted out, it’s a great club to be involved with and it has great community involvement.

"But I have to do what is best for Hearts and best for us would be to win this Sunday. It would be a tremendous honour to take this club to Hampden and it would be a tremendous honour to win the cup."

Richard Gough, the Livingston manager, admits Hearts’ surprising defeat at Motherwell in the league last week gives him some hope.

Gough needs all the help they can get as his side are stranded at the bottom of the SPL, without a league victory in nine matches. "The reports we got from Motherwell were that they didn’t play that well which is encouraging," Gough said.

Taken from the Scotsman