Claims Romanov to join Hearts board

LIUTAURAS Varanavicius announced his resignation as a Hearts director yesterday and claimed that Vladimir Romanov, the club's owner, is poised to formally join the Tynecastle board.

The absence of the Russian-born millionaire on the official return submitted by Hearts to the Scottish Football Association has been a source of concern for the governing body as it prevents them calling him to account for any actions or comments they may regard as contentious or in breach of their articles of association.

In a wide-ranging interview, Varanavicius insisted Romanov's commitment to Hearts is long-term and revealed that UKIO, Romanov's Lithuanian bank which nows handle the club's £21.25million debt, has applied for a licence to operate in the United Kingdom.

The departure of Varanavicius was decided on 27 January, the day of the Hearts annual general meeting when he was re-elected to the board along with his compatriots Roman Romanov, Sergejus Fedotovas and Julija Goncaruk. When Lithuania were drawn in the same Euro 2008 qualifying group as Scotland a few hours later, Varanavicius immediately decided to resign to avoid a conflict of interests with his role as president of the Lithuanian FA.

The 36-year-old, who has worked for Romanov's UKIO banking group for 12 years, insisted his involvement with Hearts was always intended to be on a short-term basis in any case following his election as a non-executive director on 1 February last year.

Varanavicius, who also predicted that more Scottish directors will be appointed to the board, said: "When I joined the board, I said then that it should only be temporary, for maybe five or six months, but the turmoil that was always around the club made it difficult to resign. Because the club needed support, I agreed to stay a bit longer, but when Lithuania were drawn in the same group as Scotland, it was immediately clear I should resign the same day.

"I think Romanov will be on the board of Hearts very soon. He and I also agree that Hearts need more Scots on the board and I think that will happen after the next board meeting. Then maybe later it will be Romanov joining the board.

"I have worked with Romanov for a long period and his activities are not short-sighted - it is a long term plan. A lot of people don't see the full picture yet, for them it is hard to grasp what Romanov is doing and why he is doing it. He is very confident he will do something with Hearts. He wants to achieve the highest level possible with them."

Taken from the Scotsman