Hearts backroom staff get paid but players still waiting

By Stuart Bathgate
Published on Tuesday 25 October 2011 03:28

HEARTS’ non-playing staff received their salaries as scheduled yesterday, averting fears that a cash-flow crisis at Tynecastle would worsen.

However, last night some senior players were still waiting to learn when they would get the monthly amount they had been due to be given last week.

It is understood that all 20 or so of the club’s backroom staff in areas such as marketing, communications and human resources were paid yesterday. There has been no confirmation from Hearts, however, that Paulo Sergio and other members of the football management team have been paid. Junior members of the playing staff got their monthly payments last week, when first-team players were told they should expect their salaries soon.

A statement on the Hearts website on Friday said the non-payment to senior players would be rectified shortly. “Hearts today confirmed that the remaining players awaiting payment will be paid over the next few days,” it read, before quoting a club spokesperson as saying: “We have spoken with the players and made them aware of the situation. We are grateful for their patience and they know they will be paid in the near future.”

Although use of the phrase “the remaining players” might lead to the inference that only a few of the playing staff had yet to receive their money, it is understood that most if not all of Sergio’s squad were still awaiting payment. Hearts director Sergejus Fedotovas held a meeting with the squad on Friday to explain the situation, which is the latest in a series of delays stretching back several years.

An early failure by the club to meet its financial commitments on time was said to have been caused by a “glitch”. When the payments to playing staff were brought up to date, Hearts suggested that the problem had been dealt with. It has since become clear, though, that there is no minor error in the system, and that the problem relates to the way in which funds are transferred from one part of Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov’s business interests to another. Transfers do not take place as a matter of course on the same day each month, and staff say that they are not sure what time of day their salaries will be cleared into their accounts.

Taken from the Scotsman