Arbroath seek SFA help with Hearts row

Arbroath have investigated the possibility of freezing Hearts' gate receipts and may ask the Scottish Football Association to enforce a signing ban in a bid to recoup over £14,000 they are owed from the transfer of Andy Webster to Wigan Athletic.

The centre-back, who made 24 appearances for Arbroath before his switch to Hearts in 2001, made football transfer history when he was allowed to cancel his contract with the Tynecastle club in 2006 with the condition that he move to a foreign team.

When he subsequently made a move to English side Wigan, Hearts initially said on their website on April 22 that they would pay Arbroath £26,000 in accordance with a 17.5% sell-on clause the second division side had negotiated.
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After a dispute between the two clubs over the wording of their agreement, Arbroath then agreed to accept the lesser fee of £14,437 plus VAT from the £150,000 Wigan paid Hearts for the player following a ruling from the Court of Arbitration for Sport in January this year.

Now Arbroath have lost patience with Hearts over the failure to pay up and, following a board meeting on Tuesday to discuss the issue, are now planning drastic action.

John Christison, the Arbroath chairman, insists the Angus side have been too lenient so far in their handling of the case. "We had a board meeting on Tuesday night and we discussed a number of things we could do to try and get the money," confirmed Christison. "We are in touch with the SFA over this but one thing we could do is to ask to freeze their gate receipts and we could also look at applying a signing ban.

"We have been too nice about this for too long and it's sad it has come to this."

Meanwhile, Hearts are expected to be hit with a £10,000 fine by the SFA next month because of their poor on-field disciplinary record.

Hearts incurred a record £40,000 fine in July, £10,000 of which is suspended until a review in January, for indiscipline. Hearts received nine red cards and 81 yellows last season but there has been little sign of an improvement as Lee Wallace became the fifth player to be dismissed this season during the win over Rangers.

The disciplinary committee is due to meet on January 27 to discuss Hearts players' behaviour and could rule that the Edinburgh club should face further punishment.

Taken from the Herald