Hearts may face legal action from Burley

HEARTS could have to defend two legal battles next year, after it emerged the club's former manager, George Burley, is yet to be offered a suitable settlement on the remainder of his contract, which was terminated by the Tynecastle club in October.

Burley joins Phil Anderton, sacked as Hearts chief executive just nine days after Burley left due to "irreconcilable differences", in not having received compensation from the club's board despite assurances that the matter would be resolved within weeks of the former Ipswich and Derby manager's departure. Burley has since been appointed manager of Southampton, but sources close to the Ayrshireman confirmed that would not prevent him from entering a court battle in order to receive what he is due from Hearts on the remainder of his reported £350,000-a-year contract.

Such a move would, for the first time see Burley's side of events enter the public domain, but that appears a step he is willing to take.

Malcolm Webster and Simon Hunt, goalkeeping coach and chief scout respectively under Burley, have received compensation from Hearts and have since taken up similar roles alongside their long-time colleague at the south-coast club.

Anderton is not bound by the same confidentiality clauses as Burley, and is free to speak out on the Romanov administration before the onset of any court battle, but Burley so far has not, and it is understood will not, reveal sensitive club information until necessary by law. The club's legal advisers, Brodies, who made a last-ditch and unsuccessful attempt to convince the former Hearts chairman, George Foulkes, to remain at the club, stated privately at the time of Anderton's departure that there were no reasonable grounds to dismiss him, yet he is also still to receive an offer of settlement in the intervening two-month period.

It has also emerged that senior officials at City of Edinburgh Council have serious reservations over the probability of Hearts beginning work on the redevelopment of Tynecastle in May next year. Roman Romanov, the club's chairman and acting chief executive, previously put on record his frustration at Anderton and Foulkes achieving "no results" with the local authority in regard to planning but it now seems highly unlikely Hearts will get the go-ahead to re-build the main stand in time to start work at the end of this season.

Taken from the Scotsman