Ivanasukas bust-up 'invented', says Romanov

VLADIMIR Romanov last night strongly hit back at an allegation that he is on the brink of firing Hearts' head coach Valdas Ivanauskas.

He condemned the report as "total nonsense" and gave his complete backing to the Lithuanian ahead of Sunday's Bank of Scotland Premierleague meeting with champions Celtic.

Romanov also ordered club officials to assure the Hearts team that there was no truth in this "scurrilous report".

A tabloid newspaper yesterday said that there was a furious bust-up between the Hearts owner and Ivanauskas in Bosnia-Herzegovina after Wednesday's 0-0 draw with Siroki Brijeg in the Champions League second qualifying round, second leg.

The result ensured a 3-0 aggregate success for Hearts as they progressed to the next round, where they will face AEK Athens for a place in the lucrative Champions League group stage.

"I want to assure our players and fans that this is not true," said Romanov. "Nothing like this happened. This journalist is writing total nonsense.

"I did see Valdas, but it was a very brief meeting as I was going to my car. He was on the way to the after-match press conference, and I had to rush to a business meeting. This is how we met. I shook his hand, said 'well done' for getting through to the next round - and we both ran to our meetings. We did not have phone conversations after that and certainly there were no rows. I have full confidence in Valdas."

Romanov said that he had not gone to the same airport as the team, where, according to one account, the alleged row with Ivanauskas took place. Instead he had gone by car to a business meeting in Sarajevo.

He stressed: "This story is simply invented but I can see perfectly well what the target is. The aim is to wreck the team's mood ahead of a big game.

"This is how it was last year as well when newspapers were running invented stories before our key games with the aim of completely destroying players confidence.

"Each time before such games they start this verbal diarrhoea. It's such nonsense. It raises questions about the newspapers which publish such stories."

Ivanauskas himself responded in like manner when asked about the story. "I never had a row," the coach said. "I would like to see the correspondent who wrote it. It's a story with no content.

"What could Vladimir Romanov say if we departed for the airport straight away? I don't know where this information comes from."

WILL STEWART
IN MOSCOW

Taken from the Scotsman