SPL to rule on Hearts wages today

By Stephen Halliday
Published on Wednesday 4 January 2012 00:00

THE SPL will make a ruling today on Hearts' repeated late payment of salaries to their first team players. A sub-committee of the SPL board, chaired by chief executive Neil Doncaster, will meet at Hampden this morning to decide what action to take on the issue.

The Hearts players' case will be put forward by PFA Scotland, while it is unclear if or how the Hearts' executive management will be represented.

Today's meeting is not a disciplinary hearing, but the SPL sub-committee have the authority to order Hearts to bring all salary payments to their players up to date. If Hearts did not comply with such an order, disciplinary tribunal proceedings could be opened against the club with no limit to the sanctions which could be imposed.

Hearts players' wages are due on the 16th of each month, but they did not receive their October wages until 4 November. An official complaint to the SPL on that occasion was prevented by the intervention of manager Paulo Sergio, who persuaded the squad to postpone any action.

But their November salaries were not paid until 15 December, following a part-payment of £1000 at the start of the month. When their December wages were not paid on time, the players finally consented to PFA Scotland filing a formal complaint with the SPL. Until such a complaint was lodged, the SPL were unable to get involved.

The SPL board of Doncaster, chairman Ralph Topping, Celtic director Eric Riley, St Johnstone chairman Steven Brown, Motherwell vice-chairman Derek Weir and Dundee United chairman Stephen Thompson considered the complaint at Hampden on 19 December and set up today's meeting.

Director Sergejus Fedotovas claimed last week that Hearts were striving to solve the problem, stating: "We are confident we will get through this period. I cannot tell you if it will take a few days or a bit longer, but we are confident we will be past these difficulties in a short time."

But midfielder Ryan Stevenson, who walked out on the club in protest at the ongoing failure to receive wages when due, revealed that the players had been informed they would not get their December salaries until "the middle of January at the earliest, maybe even February."

Taken from the Scotsman