Hearts Ban The Sun!

The decision has been made in light of the newspaper's coverage of the alleged spitting incident involving Rudi Skacel and Neil Lennon during Sunday's Hearts-Celtic match. The Sun have decided that Skacel is 'guilty' of spitting at the Celtic player and are basing this on the 'evidence' of an apparently inconclusive long-lens photograph and the word of Lennon himself, hardly the most reliable of sources one would think.

The club have released the following statement on the issue:

'Rudi (Skacel) is seen spitting sideways with Neil Lennon and Shaun Maloney in the foreground of the picture, suggesting that in no way was this targeted at a supposedly 'sickened' Lennon.

'While other newspapers considered the matter with a degree of balance and judgment, The Sun has taken upon itself to deem Skacel guilty based on the comments of a player that is never far from controversy and an inconclusive long lens photo take from 100 metres away.

'For The Sun to act as judge and jury in this matter with only spurious evidence is, in the club's view, staggeringly unprofessional and indeed is not the first time in recent weeks that this newspaper has misrepresented comments made by players of other Bank Of Scotland SPL clubs.

'As such, while Hearts has acted and will continue to act as one of the most open and accessible clubs for members of the Scottish media, the club views The Sun's representation of this matter as entirely unacceptable.

'In light of this, the only reasonable action that Hearts can take is to ban The Sun's journalists and photographers from the club.'

I haven't actually seen these pictures or indeed any of the television footage myself, but if the pictures are indeed inconclusive then the club are 100% correct to take this course of action. However the coverage that Hearts have been getting in the Glasgow-based tabloids already this season has not exactly been complimentary on the whole, so we should now expect them to stoop to even lower levels to try and unsettle and discredit the club. Most sensible people can see right through most of these so-called 'exclusives', but unfortunately there are many thousands who do not fall into that category, so Hearts better be prepared for the backlash.