Hearts last night confirmed that their players had been paid their overdue wages, but there is no explanation as to why there had been a delay.

Hearts last night confirmed that their players had been paid their overdue wages, but there is no explanation as to why there had been a delay.

The Tynecastle squad did not receive their weekly payments as scheduled on Friday, the second time there has been a problem in the past three months. The delay was put down to a technical hitch in September, when players had to wait an extra week for payment, but no reason has been given for the latest case.

Jurga Chomskyte-McGeever, the head of marketing and communications at Ukio Bankas Investment Group (UBIG), club owner Vladimir Romanov's company, said: "The money was processed on Friday before the Rangers game. UBIG is trying to look into why this happened. From our side, the wages have been processed.

"There is not a problem with cash flow, to my knowledge. We can never say it won't happen again, but there is no reason to have any concern.

It has been a one-day delay, so in our terms it is only a small problem, nothing to worry about."

A club spokesman added: "The players' wages were processed on Friday and the money has reached their accounts this afternoon as agreed."

Meanwhile, Csaba Laszlo, the Hearts manager, will find out today whether he can continue to guide his team from the touchline when his appeal against a two-match ban is heard by the SFA.

The Hungarian, who has steered his side to five straight victories, had the suspension imposed for "behaving in an aggressive manner" after the final whistle in the 1-1 draw with Aberdeen in October.

Hearts had a late penalty award by referee Steve Conroy rescinded on the advice of assistant Chris Young, who deemed Michael Stewart not to have been fouled by Jamie Langfield, the Aberdeen goalkeeper.

Laszlo stormed on to the pitch at full-time and became involved in a heated exchange with John McKendrick, the fourth official.

Should the suspension stand, Laszlo will have to sit in the stand for the matches against league leaders Celtic at Parkhead on December 13 and the home encounter with fourth-placed Dundee United a week later.