Time to be called on Hearts today

HEARTS will today be given a last chance to avoid being punished by the Scottish Premier League for failing to pay players' wages on time.

A hearing will be held at Hampden where the Tynecastle club will be asked to explain why there was late payment of wages in October and November and why the salaries due on December 16 have still to be put into the players' accounts.

An SPL sub-committee will discuss the matter after receiving a formal complaint from PFA Scotland, the footballers' trade union, on behalf of several of the unhappy Hearts players. The complaint was signed by 12 of the Hearts squad. The matter has been such a concern for some of them that Ryan Stevenson withdrew his labour and told the club he would not play or train again until he received all the money he was due.

Hearts will not face any punishment today but if the SPL is unhappy with their explanation, or the club confirms that there are still December wages to be paid, then the governing body almost certainly will begin a disciplinary process.

Hearts could be given a deadline to pay all the outstanding wages and also be made to commit paying all salaries on time from now on. If those SPL orders are breached, Hearts would be vulnerable to a wide range of potential sanctions including fines, the docking of points, and an embargo on registering new players. Any necessary sanctions would be imposed at a disciplinary hearing in the future and Hearts would have the right to go to the Scottish Football Association to appeal against them. Senior figures at the SPL regard today's case as sensitive and difficult given that there is no precedent in Scotland, nor England, of a club being repeatedly late in paying its players. There is also a feeling that – even with the very best of intentions – neither the SPL, SFA, PFA Scotland or Hearts' management figures in Scotland can do much to fully resolve an issue which is so dependent on money coming from owner Vladimir Romanov in Lithuania.

To avoid any possible conflicts of interest, today's sub-committee will not include anyone from another SPL club. The SPL was waiting to learn last night whether any of the aggrieved Hearts players intends to appear in person at Hampden or whether they are content for their interests to be represented by their union, PFA Scotland. Hearts are expected to be represented although it is unclear whether the club will attempt to contest PFA Scotland's complaint given that the wages clearly were not paid on time. No-one from Hearts was available to discuss the matter yesterday and PFA Scotland declined to comment. The hearing will be heard this morning and is expected to last around two hours.

Taken from the Herald