Euro problem looms for Hearts and Kaunas

ACCORDING to Liutauras Varanavicius, his role as a Hearts director was to ensure a smooth relationship between the Lithuanian and Scottish contingents in the Tynecastle club's hierarchy.

Given the extraordinary and turbulent series of events which engulfed Hearts during his 12 months as a board member, it is stretching credibility to consider Varanavicius was a success.

The president of the Lithuanian FA, however, believes he leaves Hearts in good hands following his resignation from the board, and that those sceptical of Vladimir Romanov's regime at the club will be proved wrong in the fullness of time.

Nevertheless, Varanavicius dropped a bombshell concerning Hearts' future participation in Europe when he claimed that if both the Edinburgh club and Kaunas are in the UEFA Cup next season one will have to withdraw.

The 36-year-old, who insisted yesterday that the sacking of George Burley as manager when Hearts were unbeaten at the top of the Premierleague was "a good idea", also claimed that the perception of Romanov being in conflict with the SFA is an ill-informed one.

As chairman of UEFA's Assistance Development Committee and also a FIFA official, Varanavicius has regular contact with his SFA counterpart John McBeth and chief executive David Taylor and feels reports of their unhappiness with comments made by Romanov have been overblown.

"I don't see any row," said Varanavicius during a lengthy telephone conference call with Scottish journalists. "The people at the SFA who I speak to, David Taylor and John McBeth, say there isn't one. When I speak personally with them, no-one sees any war or feud between Hearts and the SFA.

"I don't think you will find any country in the world where there are no discussions about referees, penalties or whatever. People make mistakes in football and everyone has their opinions about that, but I don't see any war between Hearts and the SFA."

There has been disquiet in some quarters over Romanov signing seven players for Kaunas, the Lithuanian club his UKIO bank group sponsor, and immediately loaning them to Hearts. Even in his role as head of the Lithuanian FA, however, Varanavicius sees no difficulty with the situation.

"We have no problem with this as long as it abides by FIFA rules, which it does," he said. "It is better for Romanov to do it this way for the cash flow situation. It would only concern me if it was not legal, and currently it is legal. I hope some of those players can come back to play for Kaunas when they are not needed in Scotland.

"If Romanov was not investing money in Lithuania, then I would never help him to do anything abroad, but for the last seven or eight years he has invested five times as much as anyone else in Lithuanian football. Knowing how much he is investing in Lithuanian football, I could not refuse to help him at Hearts."

Varanavicius admitted a problem will arise if both Kaunas and Hearts are in the UEFA Cup next season. Kaunas have already qualified for the tournament, while Hearts will join them if they finish third in the SPL or win the Scottish Cup.

"One club would definitely have to withdraw, the question is which club and it seems as if it would be Kaunas," he said. "If Kaunas are not able to participate, then another club will happily take their place. I don't see any problems here, though, because I expect Hearts to be in the Champions League.

"There have been similar situations with CSKA Moscow and Chelsea, who both have connections with Roman Abramovich, and people have to accept cross-border ownership of clubs is the new reality of football.

"The Russians are coming everywhere to invest in football. I expect that in two or three years, you will have three or four more English Premiership clubs owned by Russians. It's just a reality and everyone should accept that football has changed and cross-border ownership is here. I know that Hibs were also in talks about a deal with Chelsea and it could be that some people are looking towards Scottish football as well."

Varanavicius confirmed that UKIO, Romanov's bank for which he is chairman of the supervisory board, has initiated moves to operate in the UK. "We have applied for a licence and are doing all the paperwork," he said. "It depends on the paperwork how long it takes, because the bureaucracy in the UK is quite big."

He added that UKIO are also on course to significantly reduce Hearts' potentially crippling debt which currently stands at £21.25million.

"That is a problem which the bank, together with the club, is working hard on," he said. "By the end of the financial year it will be maybe not fully resolved but a big part of it will be resolved."

He added: "My primary target at Hearts was to put professional people in different positions to guide communications between the Scottish and Lithuanian parties and I think that currently communications are on quite a good level.

"Maybe the communication problems with the language are not allowing Romanov to explain very clearly his views and ideas, but my opinion is that people will learn from what he does, that he is true to his word and that what he is trying to achieve will be achieved. There are people who like to spend their money on casinos or girls, but there are people like Romanov who like to spend it on football. He is passionate about football, he wants to be in an area where football is at a prime level. He chose Scotland because of the passion Scottish people have for football, and he wanted to be in the capital of the country.

"In everything that he does, he wants to be the first and to be the best and he chose Hearts to be the best in football. As far as I know, and as far as I have heard Romanov's plans for Hearts, it is definitely a long-term vision. I don't know what will happen in three or five years time, but currently he is very confident he will do something with Hearts. He wants to achieve the highest level possible with them."

Given that Hearts were striding clear at the SPL summit when Romanov sacked Burley, his methods in trying to achieve those ambitions smack of madness to many. Varanavicius, who was party to the decision to get rid of Burley, remains convinced it was the right thing to do for reasons he was unwilling to divulge.

"As a board member, I agreed to that because I thought it was a good idea," he said. "You don't know all the information which the board members did and which I cannot disclose. From the information I had at that time, it was the right decision. I still believe the decision was right."

Taken from the Scotsman