Hearts pay overdue salaries to their players after SPL meeting

• Wages were meant to be paid on 16 December
• SPL set deadline and threatened club with sanctions

Ewan Murray
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 4 January 2012 19.49 GMT

Hearts have paid overdue salaries to players, on the same day they were set a deadline and threatened with sanctions by the Scottish Premier League regarding wage delays.

Until Wednesday, the Hearts squad were still awaiting monthly salary payments that were due on 16 December. After a specially convened meeting of a subcommittee of the SPL board, the club were ordered to meet that liability within a week or face a potentially serious punishment.

Later in the day, Hearts issued a statement which read: "Hearts will carefully consider today's SPL judication [sic] into the matter of late payment of players' wages and will decide on the course of further action. Meanwhile, the club has today received funds and has paid the outstanding players' wages for December.

"The payment is the result of successful business conducted by the club and it is coincidental that this has happened on the same day as the judication by the SPL."

It is understood funds received from Wolves for the purchase of Eggert Jonsson were crucial to Wednesday's payment. Yet the issue is unlikely to disappear from view; the SPL insisted Hearts' next wages, due on 16 January, are met in full.

The league also wants the club to pay any legal expenses incurred by their players and the cost of convening Wednesday's hearing. Hearts are expected to respond in full to the SPL's demands in the coming days.

Neil Doncaster, the chief executive of the SPL, said: "I am not going to speculate about what might ultimately be the outcome in the event that any of those orders are not met in full. That would then be the subject of a separate process and I wouldn't want to predict what the outcome could be. We've made very clear orders about what needs to be paid and by when."

Scotland's players' union had lodged a complaint to the SPL on behalf of Hearts players. This season, wage delays at Tynecastle have become more frequent and lengthy than before, prompting speculation about the long-term ability or willingness of Hearts' parent company, Ukio Bankas Investment Group (Ubig), to fund the club. The SPL's hardline stance highlights that it believes it to be the latter.

The owner, Vladimir Romanov, has already publicly stated his intention to sell the club, with players to be sold during this transfer window where possible. In the meantime, Ubig is legally liable for financial liabilities as they fall due for Hearts, after pledging to meet such commitments in the club's annual accounts.

Fraser Wishart, PFA Scotland's chief executive, said: "We're reluctantly here on behalf of the players because we don't want to be taking cases to the SPL. Particularly in this situation with Hearts, when we know there's cashflow problems at the club.

"We tried to resolve it internally during October and November, but when it came to December, their patience ran out. So we're very pleased and delighted with the support of the SPL. We're not asking for the earth – we just want the players to be paid on time."

Taken from the Guardian/Observer