BRIBES PROBE REF FOR HEARTS

VLADIMIR ROMANOV has urged Hearts to shrug off the shock of a scandal-hit referee being appointed to their UEFA Cup tie.

Italian whistler Paolo Bertini will take charge of tomorrow night's game against Sparta Prague at Murrayfield, even though prosecutors in his homeland demanded this summer that he be banned for five years.

Bertini was implicated in the match-fixing scandal which rocked Italian football as top clubs were accused of influencing the outcome of games by selecting favoured refs.

He was one of six officials probed by prosecutor Stefano Palazzi in the investigations into Serie A corruption.

Palazzi asked for Bertini to be banned for five years and also recommended that Juventus be thrown into Serie C and Lazio, Fiorentina and AC Milan be relegated to Serie B with points deductions.

Bertini was eventually cleared when the verdicts were handed down on July 14 but the four clubs were punished.

The appointment of Bertini comes after Russian whistler Yuri Baskakov was given the second leg of Hearts' Champions League qualifying tie against AEK Athens, even though he had earlier been suspended for a month for making dodgy decisions.

He sent off Julien Brellier and Neil McCann. Bruno Aguiar had been red-carded in the first leg.

Romanov said: "Sadly, I'm not surprised at this appointment but it shouldn't matter for us.

"All we should concentrate on is a good performance, regardless of the referee. I ask for all Hearts fans to come to support the team."

Taken from the Daily Record