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| <-Page | <-Team | Thu 14 Sep 2006 Hearts 0 Sparta Prague 2 | Team-> | Page-> |
| <-Srce | <-Type | Herald ------ Report | Type-> | Srce-> |
| Valdas Ivanauskas | <-auth | Rob Robertson | auth-> | Paolo Bertini |
| [D Kolar 34] ;[M Matusovic 71] | ||||
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Romanov facing punishment for latest broadsideROB ROBERTSON September 14 2006 Vladimir Romanov, the Hearts owner, is on a collision course with UEFA and the SFA after his latest outburst against referees and the Scottish media. The diatribe took the spotlight off the team's UEFA Cup match against Sparta Prague at Murrayfield this evening. In a statement on the club's website, the Lithuanian claimed Russian referee Yuri Baskakov told him he was "going out to bury" Hearts in the second leg of the Champions League qualifier against AEK in Athens. Romanov said: "The referee told us openly that we did not pay him for some game in Liepaja, so therefore he would bury us now. Our first reaction was that the poor guy got too hot under the Greek sun." Hearts officials admitted they did not know what game he was talking about but that it had not involved Hearts. Romanov also attacked Scotland's referees and its media. "Last season [the media] didn't manage to protect the Scottish Cup and gave it to Hearts despite all the referees' efforts and intrigues. If you have already forgotten about it, I can then invite you all and come and see the cup that Hearts won. What you are trying to do is protect an Old Firm duopoly for 40 more years and fool the fans. I want to openly call it an agreement against fair football in Scotland. "It's not that I'm only talking about my team and protecting its interests," added Romanov. "Let's take the example of the Celtic v Aberdeen game, when the referee didn't give a penalty after the player used his hands to get the ball out of goal. So if it was a penalty the score would then easily be 1-1." Romanov, who described newspaper reports as "verbal diarrhoea" and that there was a "football mafia" in Scotland, insisted that before every big Hearts game there was a campaign to destroy the mood of the players. "Before each game we have to go through media hysterics and then have to face bad refereeing standards." Although Romanov is not an office-bearer at Hearts the SFA recently changed their rules to ensure those associated with football clubs could be brought to book. UEFA will also look badly on one of their referee's being so heavily criticised. Valdas Ivanauskas, the Hearts manager, refused to comment on the outburst but reports later claimed he was unhappy about it. The SFA's general purposes committee has indicated that it will examine the remarks. "My only concern is the football club and I want to concentrate on the game and not be distracted," said Ivanauskas. He said his team had "to be clever" against Sparta and keep their discipline. "We must stay on the pitch and make sure we do not get caught on the counter-attack like we did in the league against St Mirren." Hearts midfielder Paul Hartley said it was vital that his side qualified for the group stage of the UEFA Cup to keep their season on track. Hartley's performance will be crucial: the other first-choice midfielders, Neil McCann, Julien Brellier and Saulius Mikoliunas, are suspended. "We put a lot of hard work into last season and we don't want to let it all go in the first few months of the season and be out of the competition," he added. "I have been thrown in at the deep end over the past few weeks but am looking forward to the game. They are a good outfit with some quality players and we realise we will be facing a difficult game."  Taken from the Herald |
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