FORMER Hearts chairman Leslie Deans today aimed a scathing tirade at the referees he believes are reducing Scottish football to a laughing stock.

In the wake of Dougie McDonald's refusal to award Hearts striker Roman Bednar a cast-iron penalty at Parkhead on Wednesday night, Deans has called for action to address what he feels is astonishing incompetence by SPL officials, declaring:
7 Wonders

• SCOTTISH referees shirk major decisions when one half of the Old Firm are involved.

• SCOTTISH football's reputation is heading for the gutter as a result.

• FOREIGN officials are the only ones capable of not buckling under pressure when refereeing Rangers or Celtic.

Deans, the Edinburgh solicitor who sold his joint 18 per cent shareholding in Hearts to Vladimir Romanov, felt compelled to speak out after the Bednar penalty incident pushed his patience beyond all barriers.

He said: "Once again, we have Hearts being on the wrong end of disgraceful decisions against a member of the Old Firm. If this was a one-off scenario people would accept it and shrug their shoulders, but it isn't.

"This is the latest in an inordinately long line of highly contentious decisions which have gone against the club. There is a deep-rooted inability to take the big decisions against Rangers and Celtic, and that manifested itself again on Wednesday night.

"As well as Hearts being denied a certain penalty, there would also have been a red card for the Celtic defender had the award being given. Then you could conceivably been faced with a 1-1 scoreline with 12 minutes to go and the opposition down to ten men.

"Who is to say Hearts wouldn't have gone on to take the three points as Celtic did against us on New Year's Day when Takis Fyssas was wrongly sent off?"

Deans is now calling for the SFA to act on this issue because he believes other clubs as well as Hearts are suffering from loss of points and possible extra revenue.

"The referees aren't deliberately being dishonest," he admitted, "but it has been shown many, many times that there is almost a mental block for certain referees when it comes to making big calls against the Old Firm.

"This goes back to Fyssas on New Year's Day, it goes back to the penalty incident with Saulius Mikoliunas against Rangers last year, and my memory could go back further. It's incredibly frustrating.

"Somewhere along the line, there is going to have to be a call for referees from outwith Scotland because, as Valdas Ivanauskas rightly points out, we are talking about mistakes which could have a financial impact of several million pounds.

"We Scots are almost accustomed to it. There does appear to be a resigned acceptance to it, whereas Valdas naturally will think this is an absolute disgrace. What is that going to do for our game? Does it mean we should just accept that we are a laughing stock because the two biggest clubs in the country get the extra assistance that they seem to get season after season?

"People may say that this is paranoia on the part of Hearts, but I would point to the facts as resounding evidence. Ultimately, there is going to be a movement for change, and if the Scottish football authorities don't address the issue then Scotland's standing in European terms will not improve."

Edgaras Jankauskas is out of tomorrow's SPL meeting with Dunfermline, meanwhile, but Steven Pressley is fit to return and Jose Goncalves also has a chance of playing.

Elsewhere, the agent of Hearts' record signing, Mirsad Beslija, has revealed that the Bosnian winger will consider leaving Tynecastle if he is not playing. "I'm sure some inquiries will be made to Hearts in the summer because Mirsad is an experienced international player," said Sam Stapleton. "He is fully fit, he played for Bosnia last month and I don't understand why he isn't playing."

UEFA have confirmed that Hearts will be playing in the second qualifying round of the Champions League next season should they attain second place in the SPL and should this year's Champions League winners also qualify through their own league position, then Celtic will be moved from the third qualifying round into the group phase.

Taken from the Scotsman