Hearts face the prospect of unlimited sanctions from the Scottish Premier League after failing to pay their players on time for a fourth successive month.
January's wages were due yesterday, with Hearts setting a midnight deadline for delivery of salaries.
However, the SPL have announced Hearts have missed the deadline and the SPL board will meet this evening to determine how to proceed.
A statement from the SPL read: "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.
"A meeting of the SPL board of directors has been called for this evening.
"At that meeting, the SPL board will consider the situation and decide upon the appropriate course of action."
The SPL board of directors is presently comprised of SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster, SPL chairman Ralph Topping, plus Stephen Thompson of Dundee United, Eric Riley of Celtic, Derek Weir of Motherwell and Steve Brown of St Johnstone. It is understood Hearts were yesterday afternoon attempting to process payment of salaries from Lithuanian bank UBIG, controlled by Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov. By missing the deadline, Hearts face the prospect of dramatic consequences for failing to meet orders imposed by the SPL. Sanctions could be imposed, including the prospect of a large fine, docked points or a transfer embargo - all of which would have untold consequences on the future of the 138-year-old club. The present situation is a consequence of delayed wages in October and November. A further delay in December prompted 14 members of Hearts' first-team squad to submit a complaint to the SPL via players' union PFA Scotland. Their December pay, which had been due on December 16, was received on January 4, the day the SPL sub-committee adjudicated over the dispute between the players and Hearts, ordering the club to comply to a number of demands - including timely delivery of January's salaries. But now Hearts' players have again received their payment late; the last time it was delivered on time was in September. However, Hearts contend they met the deadline. A statement on the club's official website, www.heartsfc.co.uk, read: "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 club totally refutes the suggestion made in today's statement from the SPL that it failed to comply with this order. "The club has made payment of the remuneration to each of the players on January 16, 2012 and has documentary evidence to this effect."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article