Hearts administration: Staff to be paid on time

BARRY ANDERSON
Published on 15/07/2013 12:00

HEARTS administrator Bryan Jackson has confirmed that players’ wages will be paid on time tomorrow, with full staff salaries to follow next week.

Gary Locke and his squad received an advance on July’s wages earlier in the month after going unpaid during June. Jackson stated today that the remainder has been approved and will be in players’ bank accounts tomorrow.

Footballing staff at Riccarton receive salaries on the 16th of every month, with all Hearts’ non-footballing employees paid on the 24th. Administrators BDO have finance in place to pay both on time this month and Jackson expects fans’ fundraising efforts and season ticket sales to see Hearts through until the autumn.

“The wages have been approved, so they should all be through on time,” Jackson told the Evening News. “We can’t pay any arrears at the moment, so June’s wages are still outstanding but we are now responsible for the ongoing wages. That’s why we were trying to get season tickets sold so we could fund player and non-player wages. The money is there to pay the players tomorrow and non-footballing staff on the 24th.

“The cashflow is getting sorted and we now have an agreement with merchant services for credit card payments. We should be fine now for the first three or four months, as we said we would be, which will take us up to around September/October time. During that time, we will be working on other things such as hospitality and anything else to bring in revenue.”

Locke, the Hearts manager, praised the efforts of BDO since Hearts entered administration last month and thanked supporters for rallying to the cause. “The players are going to get paid their wages as far as I know, so we know where we are,” he said. “The administrators, both Trevor (Birch) and Bryan, address the squad when they have to and everyone is kept in the picture. They’ve been very good that way.

“With the backing of the supporters, the fund-raising and the money they’ve put into the club, it looks like we are going to be okay to get through. I can only thank the fans. They’ve been incredible and the support we’ve had has been nothing short of phenomenal. With fans like that, we’ve always got a chance.”

Taken from the Scotsman