HEARTS DIRECTOR STANDS DOWN

Hearts non-executive director Liutauras Varanavicius has resigned from his position on the Tynecastle board because of a conflict of interests after Lithuania were drawn in Scotland's qualification group for the 2008 European Championships.

While president of the Lithuanian Football Federation, Varanavicius arrived in Edinburgh in February 2005 to provide expertise for fellow countryman Vladimir Romanov who was seeking to take control of the Gorgie club.

Varanavicius only intended to work with the Jambos for six months but stayed on to help smooth Romanov's eventual takeover at Hearts.

He has held his position as president of the LFF for the past four years and, when Scotland and Lithuania were paired together in Group B, Varanavicius revealed to Scottish Football Association president John McBeth and chief-executive David Taylor he would be stepping down from his position at Tynecastle.

Varanavicius said: "When I was appointed I said that the job would not be permanent but maybe for five to six months.

"But the turmoil surrounding the club made it very difficult to resign because the club needed support from all the people involved.

"I stayed in my role for a bit longer but when Lithuania drew Scotland it was immediately clear that I should resign on the same day."

Varanavicius denied there was pressure from his homeland or the SFA to leave the Tynecastle board.

"I had said that my work with Hearts was was temporary and no one was against that," he added.

"But it has now gone on for a year and it's clear that it took a bit longer than I expected.

"From the very beginning I discussed my position with David and John.

"But I didn't get any pressure from the SFA. Of course it was a strange position for them because we had meetings from time to time together in UEFA but I wouldn't call it pressure."

Meanwhile Varanavicius has blasted the Ukrainian FA for not agreeing to the provisional dates for the European championship qualifiers which were arranged last week in Paris.

Ukraine, who are in the same group as Scotland and Lithuania, claimed the fixtures were arranged to suit France and UEFA may now have to use a random ballot to arrive at a definitive fixture list.

He said: "The Ukraine showed disrespect to the other football federations because we spent over two days in Paris sorting out the calendar but they wouldn't sign it.

"We don't want to renegotiate with them and if they won't agree then it will go to UEFA."

Taken from sportinglife.com