SPL to consider sanctions after Hearts' wage delay

Thursday 20 September 2012

The Scottish Premier League board will convene tomorrow afternoon to discuss the latest wage delay at Hearts, with a transfer embargo among the potential sanctions which could be imposed upon the Edinburgh club.

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The league's governing body were officially notified of the delay by the club yesterday – with the players affected understood to be Marius Zaliukas, Andy Webster and Andrew Driver – and the issue will be one of the more pressing concerns on the boards agenda at their monthly meeting tomorrow.

Hearts are in breach of financial fair play regulations which were hardened at the end of last season, and could potentially face punishments which include a ban on registering new players. Describing the wage delay as a "remuneration default", rule A6.23 of league guidelines state that a club cannot, without expressed board permission, "register any professional player with the league until the SPL is satisfied that such remuneration default shall no longer continue".Despite concerns over further cashflow problems – Hearts proved unable to pay their players on time on a number of occasions last season – a transfer embargo would still be a concern to John McGlynn, the Hearts manager having made no secret of his desire to add another forward to his squad. His side have scored just one goal in their last five outings, and continue to be linked with Rudi Skacel, who departed the club in the summer.The SPL are expected to clarify the situation following the meeting, with the circumstances somewhat clouded by the overdue fee – believed to be around £300,000 – which is thought to be owed to all member clubs by the league.The absence of such a financial boost, which is a sponsorship and broadcasting fee, is thought to be partly attributable to the delay in some Hearts players receiving their monthly salaries, although no other top-flight clubs have as yet encountered the same problems.For that reason, Hearts are hopeful that severe punishments will be avoided in the aftermath of the meeting. However, when the proposals were passed on May 30, Neil Doncaster, the SPL chief executive, stated that the league planned to take a grim view on any club in breach of the regulations."By making any failure to pay players on time a disciplinary issue, the SPL has sent a clear signal of the importance of clubs living within their means," said Doncaster. "Clubs which fail to live within their means will be punished proportionately."Providing distractions from these issues has become a prerequisite for Hearts managers and McGlynn seems suitably adept. The coach has been running his side through a series of set-piece drills in training to help their quest to add goals to their games.His decision to focus on dead-ball situations is likely informed by his side winning 24 corner kicks during recent defeats by Dundee and St Mirren, only to fail to take advantage."We are working hard on that in training. In every game we have played, it seems, we have had loads of corner kicks – the St Mirren game, the Dundee game and others," said the Hearts manager. "Hearts were a big threat last season in regards to scoring goals from set pieces and that is what we are working on recapturing. We're hoping that, at the weekend, if we can get the same number of corner-kick opportunities we can turn them into goals."Rediscovering goal-scoring form at Tannadice would be a welcome fillip for Hearts, especially as they face one of their less profitable trips on Saturday. The Tynecastle side have suffered five defeats in their last six visits to Dundee United, with their last win at Tannadice coming in February 2009, when Michael Stewart scored the only goal in a 1-0 win."Past meetings are not something that come into my reckoning at all," said McGlynn. "I look at the fixture as simply our next game, and that happens to be Dundee United. We don't believe we are playing badly, we don't believe we are doing much wrong. We think that we can go to Tannadice and win."Many people were talking about Dundee United as the second force in the SPL, but on Saturday we can go above them. With two or three wins the table will look better."

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SPL to consider sanctions after Hearts' wage delay

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