Survival of club rests on cheques and balances

Staff writer
Monday 17 June 2013

It has often seemed as though the only people who should be given to sifting through the mess at Hearts have either developed a strong affinity for the Edinburgh club or are wearing gloves.

There is perhaps little surprise then that Henry Smith has become the latest figure to pick over the financial trauma which has been afflicting Hearts, the former goalkeeper having spent 15 years with the Tynecastle club at a time when picking up a stray pass was of far greater concern than picking up wage packet.

A conversation with the 57-year-old is adorned with pithy anecdotes from his lengthy spell at the Edinburgh club between 1981-96, although his tales can seem like something from a very different time. His discussion of the narrative currently playing out at Tynecastle is no less intriguing but Smith approaches the subject of who should be running his old club with deliberate trepidation.

There is a need to tread carefully, since the stewardship of Vladimir Romanov is currently punctuated by an unpaid salary bill and £100,000 tax debit, and could yet put a full stop next to the club's existence. With the two Lithuanian companies who own Heart of Midlothian Football Club plc and its Tynecastle home, Ukio Bankas and UBIG, also in financial disarray, it would seem inevitable that the club will come to enter administration.

Hearts' future is up for grabs, then, and as many as six consortiums are reportedly prepared to get to grips with the club's finances, which also includes £25m of debt. The interested parties comprise investors from the United States, Scandinavia and supporters clubs, but Smith is more interested that they can prove they have the requisite finances to save his former side before they are offered the chance to take control.

Romanov has come to be the face of such concerns for Hearts supporters, although other Scottish sides have also been won over by smiles from businessmen who have then put a club's future in jeopardy. "I think Romanov is to blame [for Hearts' financial problems], for a start at least," said Smith. "He wanted to win the European Cup, big statements of fantasy like that, and paying far too much money to players who were not fit to wear the Hearts jersey and did not know what it was all about.

"If you pay big wages but don't have the money to cover it then it is unsustainable. It was as if that was not looked at and things have spiralled out of control. Now, if there are five or six groups putting bids in then I hope they will be looked at deeply, not like Romanov, who came in and everybody said: 'Oh yes, he has cash, let's have him.'

"We need to look at every one of these groups right down to the bones. If they have cash, show us the figures, show us it in black and white. Then we can take it forward. My fear is that will take time - time Hearts have not got."

Rangers were also spurned by the promise of money from Craig Whyte and Charles Green, both of whom would leave Ibrox ignominiously. "That simply cannot happen again. We need to look at offers on paper, make sure they can be true to their word and take it from there," added Smith.

Hearts are understood to require £500,000 just to survive until the beginning of the new campaign and will start the season with a 15-point deficit should they enter administration before then. There has been a growing sense that such a fate would be in the best interests of the Tynecastle club, but it is an assumption to which Smith would add the caveat that his former side are able to remain in the top flight.

"Not being able to pay wages and the sanctions which come are bad, points deductions could come. But as long as we are in the SPL I am not bothered. That is the priority," he said. "That is where we need to be and the money will come. The fans are there, 13-14,000 at home games, so the money will come in once the games start. We don't want to lose our derby games, our Celtic games: full houses."

Henry Smith was speaking at the Edinburgh Street Football Festival in Princes Street, in aid of the Homeless World Cup

Taken from the Herald