Hearts & Romanov Fined – AGAIN

My immediate reaction this morning when I was told that Hearts had been fined £25,000 for comments made by Vladimir Romanov, was ‘haven’t we already been fined twice for that?’.

It really is getting to the stage now that we’re losing count of the number of times that our glorious governing body, the SFA, are fining the club for daring to publish the outspoken views of the colourful Russian. I think it’s therefore pretty clear to anyone who even just has the smallest amount of interest in the Scottish game, that the SFA view Romanov as a Baltic Banker in both the literal and cockney-rhyming slang senses! I mean, this time last year they even closed a loophole in the system that previously allowed someone who owns a club but is not on the board to have freedom of speech. If it wasn’t obvious who that was aimed at then I don’t know what is!

I suppose though, that rules are rules, regardless of what you think of them. By the letter of the law here, if you publicly criticise match officials, or even insinuate that they are perhaps not of the required standard, you are likely to be fined in Scotland. We can speculate all we like about whether or not the owners of Celtic or Rangers would be fined as much as Romanov has, but the bottom line is that he has been technically in breach of their rules and as such, received fines on each occasion. Fair enough.

What I don’t like though, is the completely closed-book, ‘untouchables’-type front that the SFA continue to maintain. Nobody ever seems to publicly respond to allegations of corruption, favouritism or……..anything in fact. Match officials are not even allowed to come out and discuss decisions that they’ve made, something that in my opinion is as much to their detriment as it is to the paying public. This approach has often led people to think ‘what is it that they’re all trying to hide then?’.

At least if they did come out and explain certain things, we’d all be a bit clearer on why certain decisions are made. But when they refuse to even comment on things like the truly scandalous Andy Davis penalty decision at Tynecastle a few years back, it opens them up to all sorts of conspiracy theories. Indeed, after that particular incident, Hearts may have been fined for ‘bringing the game into disrepute’. Why? For daring to question the integrity of the decision. That is what we are up against…..and when I say ‘we’ I mean all of the clubs in this country, not just Hearts.

The sooner that the SFA get themselves closer to being in the 20th Century (I know we’re in the 21st but come on, one step at a time), the better it will be for all concerned. Freedom of speech should, in my opinion, be encouraged (within reason of course). Why shouldn’t club representatives be allowed to express an opinion? If the governing rules of the country permit that in everyday society, then what’s so special about the SFA that should allow them to deny their members this privilege? I think it’s pathetic.

Just a closing thought on this: I wonder if the bigger the fine Romanov gets, the closer he is to the actual truth? Hmm……….