HEARTS reacted with shock and dismay last night after receiving a record £100,000 SFA fine for a seventh successive season of poor on-field discipline.
The final act of the association’s now-disbanded disciplinary committee was to hand out the highest fine ever imposed on a Scottish club for indiscipline, of which £60,000 is payable immediately and £40,000 is suspended.
Hearts revealed last night that they would appeal the penalty, which comes after seven successive seasons falling foul of the SFA’s disciplinary code, and 12 months after a then-record fine of £60,000.
The club, who were informed of the decision by email on Thursday, are thought to be particularly disappointed as the co- efficient which the SFA uses has dropped from 8.33 in season 2009-10 to 7.54 in 2010-11. They received six red cards – one of which was rescinded an appeal – and 91 yellow cards, compared to 10 red cards and 89 cautions in the season before.
A statement on the Hearts website said that the fine “grossly underestimates the improvements made”.
Of the remaining £40,000, half has been suspended until January and is payable if there is no notable improvement in the club’s discipline, with the other £20,000 suspended until the end of next season.
The record fine comes despite the Hearts manager, Jim Jefferies, promising to implement a code of conduct and is one of the first acts of Campbell Ogilvie, the new SFA president who spent four years as managing director at Tynecastle. An SFA investigation into the incident in which a Hearts supporter ran onto the field and attacked Neil Lennon, the Celtic manager, last month is ongoing.
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