Hearts players wages: Players paid February wages on time

By STUART BATHGATE
Published on Friday 17 February 2012 00:06

HEARTS faced three significant obstacles at the start of the week: a Scottish Cup replay against St Johnstone, a winding-up order from HMRC, and the need to find the money to pay their players’ salaries on time.

They won the replay and paid their tax bill on Tuesday, and yesterday made it a hat-trick of positive results when it emerged that the players had received their February wages on time.

Hearts have been short of ready funds since owner Vladimir Romanov announced last autumn that the club would have to become self-financing, and it was thought that the payment of the tax bill of around £150,000 would compromise the club’s ability to pay its players. Instead, Romanov and his Ubig group released additional cash, and the club was able to process payment of salaries on Wednesday, a day before the money was due in players’ accounts. That fact, and the payment of the tax bill several days before the deadline, has convinced Hearts staff that Romanov appreciated the seriousness of the situation and so decided not to indulge in his usual brinksmanship.

The prompt payment contrasts with the situation in the last three months of 2011, when severely late payment of their wages eventually led the players to issue a formal complaint to the SPL via their union, PFA Scotland. Last month the SPL found that Hearts had technically breached an order to pay January salaries on time as some players had not received their money until the 17th, but at the same time the club were cleared of the charge of not acting in “the utmost good faith” over that payment.

Despite the apparent renewal of Romanov’s enthusiasm for Hearts and this month’s prompt payments, there is still a serious question about where the money is coming from for the rest of the season. The sale of Eggert Jonsson to Wolves last month helped fund the January wage bill, but Hearts had hoped to move on several other players in addition to the Icelander and Ryan Stevenson, who moved to Ipswich.

The extra-time victory at St Johnstone will go part of the way to bridging the gap between income and expenditure, as it has set up a home quarter-final against St Mirren that will be shown live on television. Further progress in the cup would likely bring in a larger sum than the quarter-final will generate.

Hearts are still owed around £800,000 by Rangers for the transfer of Lee Wallace, and failure to pay the next tranche when it falls due in July could have serious repercussions. For the moment, however, the Edinburgh club are simply “monitoring the situation very closely”, according to a spokesperson.

Taken from the Scotsman