Hearts fail to pay six players their September wages

[der Berliner 3,310]

That's how I feel minus the feeling sad part.

 

GIRUY Hearts.

 

Someone mentioned on Facebook that the SPL and SFA have both said they'll do everything they can to help Hearts. Did they offer their services to us when we needed it? I don't think they did.

 

Which is a point that needs to be adressed by th club, legally if need be. For while note paying tax et al is one thing, living above one's means openly and for years and thus violating sporting integrity something else. And if anything, we can ask for sporting integrity.

[54andcounting 0]

Were Hearts not the first club to announce they would not agree to Rangers in the spl?

[buba3d 0]

funny how the scottish goverment step in to try and help, where was our fucking help?

[foggy dewhurst 0]

i knew two of the consortium who tried to take control of the gorgie club two wealthy men and good hearts men but the club chose to go with mad vlad he has been a disaster and i was speaking to one of these chaps on sunday and asked him if they were thinking of going back in and the reply was no way .

[ian1964 10,469]

EX-HEARTS chairman George Foulkes issued a passionate rallying cry to fans — to help save the club from extinction.

 

The cash-strapped Tynecastle club were plunged into crisis yesterday as the taxman hit them with a winding-up order over a £450,000 debt.

 

And Lord Foulkes — a critic of Jambos owner Vladimir Romanov — urged supporters to dig deep and buy shares to fund a last-ditch rescue package.

 

The Labour peer said: “This is the time to rally. We have the most loyal fans in Britain and anyone who can afford to and wants to help save the club should buy shares.

 

“Romanov has a duty to the fans to pay this bill because there are parties looking at buying the club at the end of the season.”

 

The HMRC petition for the unpaid bill was lodged in the Court of Session in Edinburgh — and is NOT connected to a £1.75million demand the club is challenging at a tax tribunal.

 

A club statement said: “Without the support of fans there is a real risk that Hearts could possibly play its last game next Saturday against St Mirren. This isn’t a bluff, this isn’t scaremongering, this is reality.”

 

First Minister Alex Salmond — Scotland’s most famous Jambo — was among thousands of fans left reeling by the latest blow.

 

A spokesman said: “He’s concerned at the situation.”

 

And last night the Scottish Government said it will help “in any way it can” to keep the SPL side afloat. Anxious Derek Watson, chairman of the Hearts Supporters’ Trust, said: “The ideal situation is we get to the end of the season and new owners come in.”

 

Hearts — who launched a £1.79million share issue two weeks ago — have been walking a financial tightrope for at least three years.

 

Last year they were forced to pay a bill of around £500,000 to defeat a similar order, while others were served in 2009 and 2010.

 

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/feeds/smartphone/scotland/4633277/Tynecastle-crisis-is-Heartsbreaking.html#ixzz2BcqbyWB6

[ian1964 10,469]

If Hearts go down watch other clubs collapse like dominoes

8 Nov 2012 00:01

 

THE possible collapse of Hearts should not be rejoiced by anyone as another club exiting the SPL can only spell disaster for Scotland's top flight.

 

 

 

HEARTS won’t be the last.

 

They are swaying on the edge of oblivion but there are at least two other clubs only one step, one unexpected bill, behind them.

 

Despite the bravado and bombast of some fans and commentators who stupidly, and crassly, responded to the troubles of Rangers with glee rather than dismay and alarm, Scottish football is not booming. The exact opposite is the truth.

 

It isn’t Armageddon, not yet anyway. But it is a nightmare, most certainly for Hearts fans.

 

Although their club’s financial meltdown can’t be blamed entirely on the loss of revenue caused by Rangers’ plight, there should be no doubt the Ibrox club’s absence from the SPL is having a debilitating effect. Not only on clubs but on broadcast and corporate partners as well.

 

Confidence in the top flight has flown and this rejoicing in and gloating when a club is dragged over the edge by the debt weight makes no sense. It is malicious and illogical.

 

Do not be fooled by the cheerleaders because the SPL cannot afford to lose another batch of fans.

 

If Hearts crumble others will surely fall but for the dimwitted and those who find perverse delight in the anguish of others, let’s try to simplify things by asking one question: Would Hibernian’s finances be diminished significantly by the loss of two Edinburgh derbies?

 

You bet. And remember, only last week Easter Road chairman Rod Petrie made it clear if fans want manager Pat Fenlon to be active in the transfer market they’ll have to start turning up in larger numbers.

 

And only yesterday Sky announced they’d be televising the Scottish Cup fourth-round tie between Hibs and Hearts which was hardly surprising.

 

After all, this is the biggest derby the Scottish game has to offer, and we can all be certain that without the Edinburgh fixture the broadcasters, who have already cut back on their financial support because of where Rangers are, would pull the plug on their SPL deals.

 

They’d still have Dundee derbies, provided the Dens Park club stay in the SPL, but those fixtures won’t tempt Sky, or anyone else to keep paying out.

 

Scottish football would have lost just about all appeal and we would be witnesses to the domino effect.

 

This is precisely why the crisis facing Hearts should be causing alarm in more than the Easter Road boardroom but because of the twisted nature of large numbers of fans there will be the suspicion Vladimir Romanov is bluffing.

 

They’ll reason the old Russian-born Lithuanian banker just wants more cash from his club’s supporters before he puts any more into his club but the evidence suggests he won’t.

 

It is more likely Romanov won’t throw in any more. Surely it’s been clear for more than a season he’s been struggling to divert enough cash towards Gorgie where players and employees no longer know if they’ll be paid on time.

 

Hearts are already serving a 60-day registration embargo because of these failures and the wages are due again in eight days. What chance now of them being paid, not on time but ever?

 

Romanov’s steel plant workers in Bosnia haven’t been paid since July and they’ll probably be on a pittance so yesterday’s revelation is unlikely to be part of some elaborate bluff.

 

Hearts went public because they had no choice. They laid it on the line and by spelling out the seriousness of their current plight they weren’t just making a statement, they were sending out a begging letter.

 

After 138 years they are broke and going under.

 

They are pleading for help with director Sergejus Fedotovas stressing the club’s future is in the fans’ hands.

 

His message was distressing and made it clear Tynecastle could be padlocked after Hearts’ match against St Mirren a week on Saturday after it emerged HMRC have issued a winding-up order over an unpaid £450,000 bill. This on the back of the club’s recent admission they are facing a tax tribunal over a £1.75million claim.

 

Hearts, who owe £22m to Romanov’s investment company Ukio Banko Investicine Grupe, are currently trying to raise £1.79m through a shares issue.

 

UBIG have scaled back dramatically on their support funding and are unlikely to plough in any more but would Romanov risk putting Hearts into administration to save them knowing he’d then lose control of the one asset, Tynecastle?

 

On the other hand it must be doubtful if he’d be willing, or allowed by UBIG investors, to continue running up the debt owed to them by keeping Hearts alive. Barely.

 

Hearts didn’t say they were begging but did point out clearly that they are seeking “emergency backing” and stressed “this is not so much a request as a necessity”.

 

It was an impassioned plea. “This isn’t a bluff, this isn’t scaremongering. This is reality.

 

“Discussions on whose name is above the door and talk about how the money has been spent is all natural but quite simply worthless at this moment in time.

 

“The only valid debate now is how can you help the club.

 

“Without your help now, we could be entering the final days of the club’s existence. There are limited options for the directors to take to avoid the catastrophic consequences that a funding shortfall would mean for the club.”

 

If Hearts are put into administration then under the SPL’s new rules they’d be hit with a 17-point penalty, their players would be sold off when the winter transfer window opens and relegation would be inevitable. But last night Tynecastle sources were saying it could be worse than that. The club could die, was their grim message.

 

In fact, Hearts’ statement made the severity of the situation clear, warning we could be witnessing “the start of a painful process that will affect every one of us and could lead to far more damaging actions that threaten the very existence of the club”.

 

Others are already under threat – Dunfermline asked Falkirk to bring a midweek game scheduled for next April forward to last weekend just to help put money in the coffers – but without Hearts and the dire consequences which would follow, Scottish football would be in meltdown.

 

If Hearts can’t fulfil their fixtures the SPL would be thrown into turmoil.

 

Armageddon might then be upon us and the only solution might be emergency league reconstruction.

 

Jim Traynor

[simplythebest 0]

Hello...

 

Kennedy in frame for rescue bid

 

ONE of the men who tried to save Rangers today said he might “look into” a rescue bid for Hearts.

 

Brian Kennedy, pictured top, who owns rugby union side Sale Sharks and is reputed to have a £250m fortune, went to Tynecastle High School but supports Hibs. He was one of the Blue Knights who mounted a bid to take over the troubled Glasgow club.

 

When he was contacted by the Evening News about Hearts’ plight, he said it was the first he had heard of it and described it as “a terrible situation”.

 

He said: “No-one has approached me. I will maybe have a look into it.”

 

Asked if that meant he could consider buying the club, he said: “You never know.”

 

He said he could not believe Hearts would go out of existence for the sake of £450,000.

 

“If Hearts go down, the SFA are going to have to treat them the same way as Rangers and that would leave Scottish football bereft. It’s bad enough without Rangers but that would make the Premier League terrible.”

http://www.scotsman.com/news/hearts-fans-react-mixture-of-resignation-and-defiance-in-the-air-1-2621715

[ian1964 10,469]

BBCBMcLauchlin‏@BBCBMcLauchlin

 

Hearts director Sergejus Fedotovas tells BBC Scotland a deal with HMRC is unlikely over the £450,000 bill for PAYE and VAT

[Gribz 743]

Kennedy? Was never convinced by him anyway for Rangers.

 

But if Hearts do go and need to start again in Div 3 surely they would have to wait until next season to play? They couldnt just walk back into a league half way through. It would be a Gretna situation and teams would get 3 points for fixtures.

 

They cant go anywhere else except Div 3.

[calscot 0]

Surely they will go into administration and the Duff and Phelps equivalent will drag it out until the end of the season for a big fat fee and then they will liquidate the club and sell to a newco...