Relief at Hearts as wages paid at last

Stuart Bathgate
AFTER a day of silence at Tynecastle, Hearts finally confirmed last night that the playing staff have received their wages, three days late.
The club announced the payment in a brief statement at 5pm which said nothing about the reason for the delay. "As announced earlier, players' wages were processed on Friday and the money has reached their accounts this afternoon as agreed," a spokesman said.

The morning had come and gone without confirmation of payment being made, despite the process having been considered to be a formality by club officials in Edinburgh, with club captain Christophe Berra stating after Saturday's defeat of Rangers: "We have been assured the money will be there on Monday morning."

Calls to Hearts went unanswered for most of the day yesterday, with leading officials said to be in a meeting and unavailable, until a brief statement was eventually issued through the public relations department.

Although the players were said to be relaxed about the matter over the weekend, team-mates made calls to each other last night to check that they had received their wages.

When The Scotsman learned on Friday evening that, for the second time this season, Hearts had not paid their players on time, the response from the club was to say that the money was in place in the relevant account and would be disbursed on Monday. They can at least claim they were true to their word on this occasion, which was not the case in September, when the first non-payment occurred.

It is understood that money to pay the players comes weekly from Hearts' parent company, Ukio Bankas Investment Group (UBIG). Jurga Chomskyte-McGeever, UBIG's head of marketing and communications, said yesterday that the delay had not been caused by any underlying problems such as cash-flow difficulties.

"The money was processed on Friday before the Rangers game (and] it will be straight into the players' accounts today," she said before payment had been confirmed. "As far as UBIG is concerned, our people are trying to look into what happened.

"From our side, the wages have been processed. There is not a problem with cash flow to my knowledge. The funds have been allocated and processed."

She continued: "We can never say it won't happen again, but there is no reason to have any concern. It has been a one-day delay, so in our terms it is only a small problem – nothing to worry about."

Sergejus Fedotovas, a director of both Hearts and UBIG, said: "There is no situation at all, the players have all been paid."

Some Hearts fans, however, not to mention the players themselves, may well feel that there is something to worry about – at least until UBIG explain exactly why two delays have affected payments, and say what they plan to do to prevent a recurrence. George Foulkes, a former chairman of the club, said that he, along with many of his fellow Hearts supporters, felt confused by what had been going on, and suggested that was the case much of the time with Vladimir Romanov, the man who has a controlling interest in UBIG.

"It's almost the same as everything with Vladimir, and you don't know if it's one thing or the other," the Labour peer said. "It's really very confusing and complex."

TIMELINE

September 2008

Friday 19: Hearts players learn their weekly wages have not been paid.

Saturday 20: A spokesman for the Tynecastle club says that payment will be made "early next week". After Hearts beat Caley Thistle 1-0, captain Christophe Berra says the players have been told the cause of the non-payment was "a technical hitch".

Wednesday 24: Midweek, and the players have not been paid. Other staff have learned that they have not received their monthly salaries either. The club says things will be sorted out by Friday.

Friday 24: Everyone is paid. Jurga Chomskyte-McGeever of Hearts' parent company UBIG says an investigation will be held to find out what went wrong.

• November 2008

Friday 28: Players' wages go unpaid for the second time. A spokesman for the club blames a blip for the problem and says the funds are in place for payment to be made on Monday.

Saturday 29: Hearts record their fifth successive SPL win, beating Rangers 2-1.

• December 2008

Monday 1: After an anxious wait in which the club says nothing to the outside world for some hours, the announcement is made at 4.30pm that the players have been paid.

Taken from the Scotsman