ian1964 10,386 Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 Wednesday 20 November 2013 Hearts administrators BDO hope to persuade the insolvency firm in control of UBIG to support the deal that would take Heart of Midlothian Football Club plc out of administration on Friday. "Tentative" discussions began yesterday and an agreement will need to be reached ahead of the meeting of creditors at the end of this week. Creditors holding 75% or more of Hearts' debts need to vote in favour of the CVA proposal. UBIG are the majority shareholders in HMFCplc, with a 49.9% stake, and are currently being run by Vilnius-based UAB Bankroto Administravimo Paslaugos after being formally declared bankrupt last week. BDO have now managed to establish a direct line of communication with their insolvency colleagues in Lithuania, and talks will continue over the coming days. Herald 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian1964 10,386 Posted November 21, 2013 Author Share Posted November 21, 2013 THE embargo on Hearts making new signings is a short-term punishment but could be doing lasting damage to some of the most promising players at Tynecastle, according to John Robertson. The former Hearts player and manager accepts that the club deserves to be penalised for the financial chaos inflicted upon it by former owner Vladimir Romanov, but believes that the authorities should have given more thought to the consequences of the two-window signing ban. Hearts were given a 15-point penalty by the old SPL for going into administration, while the SFA imposed the signing ban, which runs until the start of February. Robertson, who is currently coaching the strikers at Tynecastle as a part-time volunteer, believes that the young members of manager Gary Locke’s squad are in effect being punished for something that they had no say in. “If you run into the financial situation that Hearts run into, you deserve your punishment,” Robertson said yesterday. “But I don’t think they look at the embargo deeply enough. They just look at the first team and think: ‘Right, that’s what you’ve got, get on with it, you can’t sign any players.’ “The embargo has been the tough one. Rangers got a transfer window and then were told they could not sign players for over a year. That would have been helpful. “I think Gary and Billy [brown, the assistant manager] have dealt with it really well. So have the players, because there’s a lot of pressure on them. I don’t think people realise the mental and physical pressure that’s on them. “By now a lot of them would have had a rest, would have been left out for two or three games to recover, not just for fitness and mental strength, but recover their form again in the under-20s. “That’s been the toughest aspect and it will be without a doubt the toughest aspect going forward. If these young lads are asked to continue, my only worry is medically how they’re going to cope with it. Long term, these lads could pick up injuries now because their bodies are not ready for the rigours of the SPFL. It would be nice to get reinforcements in January. “It’s incredible they keep going [in training]. It’s the same on a Saturday as well; they just keep going and going and going. “A lot of them right now should be learning their trade in the under-20s, but they’ve been thrown ahead. It will stand some of them in good stead. For others, you just worry that it may affect them. Their confidence can go very quickly and it could affect them long term. “That’s something that has to be managed. You have to understand that some of these young lads are well ahead of schedule and my only concern is that it does not have a detrimental effect on them long term. “I was given a chance at 17 and didn’t play again for another year. I was given an opportunity because of injuries, and when I did start to play more regularly, it was four or five games, and then out for four, five games. You want to feed them in at the right time. “Just look at the make-up of Robbie Neilson’s under-20 team at the moment: there are four or five lads that are only 15 years old. That’s not going to help them. That’s the knock-down effect of this embargo.” Having made that measured criticism of the signing ban, Robertson went on to say he thought the whole situation had been avoidable, given the money Romanov spent on Hearts. The Lithuanian businessman bought out the debt that had been owed to Halifax Bank of Scotland, and could have put the club on a sound financial footing. Instead, he frittered it away, leading to the current situation where administrators BDO are aiming to reach agreement with the club’s creditors tomorrow so they can hand it over to the preferred bidders, the Foundation of Hearts. “You hear Vladimir Romanov spent £60 million. It’s just a pity it wasn’t spent in the right way,” Robertson continued. “If someone came to me and said, ‘I’m going to invest £60m in Hearts over ten years, how do I do it?’, [i’d say] you pay £5m a year for five years and pay off the debt. “You spend another £5m on a new main stand. Then you add another £3m a year to the budget and you have the third-best budget in the league and you’ll be up there challenging for trophies and Europe. “That’s what any club would look for going forward. Hopefully Friday will be the first day of the road back. What happens this week will be one of the biggest days in the club’s history.” Robertson was speaking at the official opening of Tynecastle’s Bobby Walker Suite, named after the great Hearts player who was recently inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame. Walker played in Hearts’ Scottish Cup final victories of 1901 and 1906, and was capped 29 times by Scotland. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whosthedado 1,481 Posted November 21, 2013 Share Posted November 21, 2013 Heard a rumour through here(I live in Edinburgh) that liquidation was imminent, maybe just a wishful thinking Hibs fan 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Real PapaBear 0 Posted November 21, 2013 Share Posted November 21, 2013 karma is one lady you don't want to get on the wrong side of, eh? She can be a bitch, eh? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darthter 542 Posted November 21, 2013 Share Posted November 21, 2013 Heard a rumour through here(I live in Edinburgh) that liquidation was imminent, maybe just a wishful thinking Hibs fan They are in a similar situation to us....If their creditors don't agree to the CVA, they are facing certain liquidation - unless someone buys the assets etc. The main problem for Hearts is that their biggest creditor is Bankrupt & no-one knows whether they will accept any CVA/reduced payment terms. Add to that they don't appear to have any potential buyers lined up.... 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gribz 743 Posted November 22, 2013 Share Posted November 22, 2013 They are in a similar situation to us....If their creditors don't agree to the CVA, they are facing certain liquidation - unless someone buys the assets etc.The main problem for Hearts is that their biggest creditor is Bankrupt & no-one knows whether they will accept any CVA/reduced payment terms. Add to that they don't appear to have any potential buyers lined up.... Would the creditors even be allowed to make a decision on accepting and not accepting under their circumstances? The only thing Hearts having going for them is IF the creditors are allowed to decide, it would seem to me that they would want any income they could get. The poor things is I think SPFL will do everything to try save Hearts using the reason 'for the good and need of the game'. Screw that caper, if that's the case RFC should walk away from anything to do with SPFL. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
calscot 0 Posted November 22, 2013 Share Posted November 22, 2013 I would love them to be liquidated. Not schadenfreude, I just think it would be good for the Scottish game as a whole and I no longer have any sentiment for SPL clubs to want them to survive to interfere with rational thinking. Having only one Edinburgh club could be great for the long term competitiveness of the league. Plus it would be a warning to other clubs, firstly not to be stupid with their spending but secondly to show that any club can go to the wall and it's best to stick together and look after each other rather than kicking a club when it's down, especially when it removes a load of money from the game that they themselves rely on. We need to drive out some of the selfishness of Scottish football. We seem to be the only club and fans who have any benevolence towards other Scottish clubs. This is epitomised by having executives on the SFA board who publicly state that they are ONLY interested in what is good for their own club. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darthter 542 Posted November 22, 2013 Share Posted November 22, 2013 I don't want to see any club go to the wall - that results in good honest folk loosing their jobs. I would find it VERY interesting if the Hearts CVA failed, and someone stepped up to buy the assets etc. Would be still get the ongoing/never ending debate about old club/new club??? I think not. If they were to liquidate & close the doors, would it REALLY be good for the overall game in this country??? We would have lost one of the biggest clubs, and I can't the any of the Hearts fans starting to show up @ Easter rd on a Saturday afternoon. There would most likely be 1000's of fans lost to the professional game, and therefore reducing income throughout. On the plus side, Gorgy would get a nice new retail park..... 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juancornetto 1 Posted November 22, 2013 Share Posted November 22, 2013 Hearts first, then Aberdeen and with any luck the whole shooting match would crumble around the SPFL's ears. To create you must first destroy etc. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
calscot 0 Posted November 22, 2013 Share Posted November 22, 2013 Sometimes you need big consequences to learn the lesson... 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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