SPL refuse to release their grip on Hearts

Poor old Paulo Sergio said at the weekend that he wanted the media to talk about the great results his players are achieving, instead of wage delays and players for sale. Not much chance of that happening, given that we were approaching the SPL-endorsed deadline for January salaries to be paid by midnight on the 16th.

Today saw the SPL make 2 bizarre public statements, with Hearts immediately denouncing the SPL`s conclusion in the first of them.

First SPL statement –
“On January 4, 2012, a sub-committee of the SPL board made various orders relating to late payment of wages due to 14 Heart of Midlothian players. One of those orders was that Heart of Midlothian should make full payment of January salaries due to the 14 players by the due date of January 16, 2012. The Scottish Premier League has now received confirmation from Heart of Midlothian that the club has failed to comply with this order.’

Hearts statement –
‘The club has made payment of the remuneration to each of the players on January 16, 2012 and has documentary evidence to this effect. The club totally refutes the suggestion made in today’s statement from the SPL that it failed to comply with this order.’

Second SPL statement –
‘The Scottish Premier League Board met this evening to consider the alleged failure by Heart of Midlothian FC to comply with the terms of the order made by the SPL on 4 January 2012 that the club pay the January wages due to the relevant players on the due date of 16 January 2012. As a result, Heart of Midlothian FC are being charged under SPL Rule A3.1 with failing to behave with the utmost good faith to the SPL. A hearing date will be notified to the club in due course.’

Rule A3.1 states – “In all matters and transactions relating to the League and Company each Club shall behave towards each other Club and the Company with the utmost good faith.”

BBC reporter Brian McLaughlin interviewed director Sergejus Fedotovas, who said –
“I’m looking forward to finding out more about the SPL’s position, which looks really interesting. We should not be punished for something we have complied with. I cannot give an explanation for the SPL statement until we get more information. We were given two dates to meet payments. The first date was met a lot earlier (4th for 11th). The next date was 16th and we paid on 16th January. We had an obligation to pay and we paid. That’s it.”

As Chick Young struggled to control his anger at Hearts “outrageous behaviour” on Sportsound tonight, Brian McLaughlin revealed that his information was that some players actually had actually received money in their bank accounts before midnight on the 16th, while other had received it by 8am on the 17th. This was irrelevant to Chick, as he decided that this “crime” was worthy of severe punishment.

Of course, cynics might say that Romanov has brought all this embarrasment to the club through his own actions, be they poor financial planning or bloody-minded brinksmanship. Personally, I wouldn`t be surprised if Romanov has played a silly but dangerous game here – deliberately leaving the payment till late in the day in order to draw the SPL`s fire.

However, the fact is that Hearts have responded positively to the instructions imposed on it by the SPL back on the 4th January. Wage payments are now fully up to date – surely that is to be welcomed ? I`m sure the Players Union will be satisfied with this.

I wonder if the SPL made their “failure to comply” first statement because they did NOT receive any written confirmation from Hearts that wages had been paid – and interpreted the lack of information as “failing to behave with the utmost good faith to the SPL” in the second statement. That’s giving them the benefit of the doubt – maybe its simply a case of the SPL desperately looking for one of their rules to hit us with, once they discovered that the wages had been paid. I don’t recall any other club being threatened with this rule – not even Gretna when they headed towrds bankrupty, and not even Celtic & Rangers when they openly declared an interest in playing in England instead.

So it looks like there will be some kind of showdown between the 2 sides at a hearing, where can actually be no winners – and at least one of the parties (maybe both) will be left looking extremely silly.

Meanwhile – get Rudi`s contract extended, Hearts !!