Hearts docked 15 points as they go into administration

At every striking of the clock yesterday fate toyed with Heart of Midlothian. Early morning brought the news that their first home league game of the season would be an Edinburgh derby against Hibernian, the team they traumatised with a 5-1 thrashing in last year’s William Hill Scottish Cup final.
Hearts docked 15 points as they go into administration

Roddy Forsyth

By the end of the afternoon, it was the Hibs fans’ turn to relish the spectacle of their arch-foes twisting in the blasts of a financial hurricane. Hearts do not know if they will still be in existence come Aug 10, when Hibs are scheduled to cross the city, or if Tynecastle will be their home ground, or what players will remain after the summer auction of a squad, all of whose members are for sale.

The sanction of a transfer embargo has been supplemented by the imposition of a 15-point deduction from the beginning of next season. The only certainty is that, assuming a team in maroon shirts can take the field at Tynecastle, they will be at least 12 points adrift of Hibs at the start of the derby afternoon.

Barring the points gap between the Edinburgh teams, everything else is negotiable and the best case scenario is that Hearts will emerge with a CVA, new owners and with control over their traditional home. There appears to be a resolve to keep the club intact on the parts of BDO and the Lithuanian administrators who succeeded with a motion in the Court of Session to have the British insolvency experts appointed, rather than Hearts’ preferred option of KPMG.

There is no chance of recovery of anything more than a portion of the £10  million owed to UBIG — Hearts’ Lithuanian parent company, which owns 50 per cent of the club — or UKIO Bankas, which has 29.9 per cent of the stock and is owed £10 million, for which it holds security over Tynecastle.

HMRC are also embroiled in the implosion of the business empire of Vladimir Romanov, who was hailed as Hearts’ saviour when he first invested in 2005, because they are owed in the region of £50,000 unpaid PAYE from last month and whatever VAT is owed in the latest quarterly bill which will fall due at the end of this month.

HMRC chose to liquidate Rangers’ oldco a year ago and appointed BDO to chase whatever money could be retrieved from the debris of that particular crash. However, Bryan Jackson of BDO, who has been supervising the administration process at Dunfermline, offered a modicum of comfort when he said: “Fans will, inevitably, be concerned about these developments and none of them will have wanted this moment to arrive.

“We will now undertake an urgent examination of the company’s records prior to making any further announcements. We are acutely aware of the need for speed in this process given the uncertainty of the last few weeks and the proximity of the season’s start. We will be talking to all the parties that have shown interest in the club in order to find a resolution as quickly as possible.”

Six possible buyers have made themselves known since it became obvious that Hearts were heading over a fiscal precipice, although one group, based in New York, have withdrawn their interest because of uncertainty over UBIG’s stake in the club.

UBIG’s shareholding cannot be released until the company’s bankruptcy is confirmed, at which point a liquidator will have the power to sell the stock. The coming weeks of uncertainty will be all the more painful for the club’s 95 non-playing employees, a point made in a speech to business leaders in Edinburgh, by Alex Salmond — Scotland’s First Minister and a professed Jambo — who said: “The situation affects fans like myself and players, but Hearts are a substantial employer in the city.

“Like other clubs who’ve gone through that process, it’s a great time of anxiety for the employees of the club. One comfort I would have at this time is that other clubs have gone through it and emerged at the other end of the tunnel, and that’s what I fully expect Heart of Midlothian to do.

“They’ve been around for a long time and I’m sure they’ll be around for a long time to come.”

Taken from telegraph.co.uk