SCOTTISH Football Association chief David Taylor today applauded Vladimir Romanov's investment in Hearts and moved to dismiss all notions of a rift between the club and the governing body.

Relations between Gorgie and Mount Florida have strained considerably in recent months with the SFA privately taking exception to certain inflammatory comments made by Romanov.
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The association also conducted a well-documented investigation into Hearts' appointment of Graham Rix as head coach last November, which stemmed from the Englishman's criminal conviction in 1999 for unlawful sex with a 15-year-old girl.

Rix was sacked by Romanov last month before the SFA could conclude its probe, but chief executive Taylor maintains that with Campbell Ogilvie performing his joint role as Hearts' operations director and an SFA vice-president the two parties can now co-exist smoothly.

"The SFA doesn't have a corporate view on any individual," said Taylor. "Hearts are a member club and a valued member club at that. They've done extremely well this season, they've challenged the Old Firm, they're in the Scottish Cup final. Really, their performance on the pitch has been a lot better and that can only benefit Scottish football in competitive terms. There have been one or two issues, but they aren't issues that have caused any permanent difficulties or rifts between the association and Hearts.

"We have Campbell Ogilvie heavily involved at the top level of both organisations, so the link is very close.

"Campbell knows intrinsically the workings of the Scottish Football Association, so it makes it an awful lot easier when you can just pick up the phone, and as a result issues that might otherwise be blown out of proportion are dealt with in a different way."

Taylor also revealed his positive stance on the substantial investment made by Romanov at Hearts, which has seen player recruitment focus largely on foreign talent with a total of ten non-Scottish players arriving at Tynecastle in January.

"The one-man club owner generally brings extra resources to invest and that investment isn't just in overseas players, it's domestic talent too. Generally speaking, more investment in the game can only be good. I'm very much in favour of more investment in Scottish football, and some of the things that have been going on at Hearts in terms of investment, such as Craig Gordon's new contract, are good for Scottish football. We should celebrate that because it's excellent."

Taken from the Scotsman