A sense of déjà vu must have descended on a number of Hearts players when their salaries were delayed once again. While the majority of the 45 playing staff on the Tynecastle roster can forget about any penalties incurred due to their standing orders being stalled thanks to insufficient funds, a few senior players will have to wait for their full salary. Last season the club were charged by the ruling body "with failing to behave with the utmost good faith to the SPL" regarding salary payments. At the time the club blamed the administrative issues surrounding transferring money from Lithuania where majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov is based.
(c) GER HARLEY | SPORTPIXThis did seem odd at the time as Romanov owns a significant share of the bank, Ūkio Bankas, which used to sponsor Hearts and should have been able to cut through any delays in international transfer of funds. However, the financial crises affecting the world may also have had an impact. It will be interesting to see if the SPL will charge the club again this year over late payments when the ruling body could be accused of being partly to blame. Each SPL club are still waiting to receive a payment of some £300,000 in sponsorship money. While a proportion of the total payout has been issued; the top flight’s ruling body has had to realign their payment structure of such funds due to new deals having to be struck following the expulsion of Rangers and their re-emergence in a new guise in the fourth rung of Scottish football. Of course, some questions may still have to be asked of the Gorgie club regarding the payment delay when the other 11 SPL clubs have managed to meet their salary commitments. It is, perhaps, ironic that Hearts current sponsors are Wonga, a company that specialises in short term loans. Perhaps the repayment levels were not to the clubs liking. With Scottish football finances never far away from being discussed on the sports pages, there may be other clubs which have had to do some inventive accounting to ensure their salary commitments are met. Hearts may be the ones in the spotlight at the moment, thanks to events from last season, but it is rumoured that a number of top flight clubs are only just managing to keep their heads above water. The inter-dependence of Scottish clubs could see a dramatic change in the football landscape if one more club has to ask for some help from administrators to rescue them from the brink of closure. Of course, SPL clubs have entered administration before and survived. However, the removal of Rangers and their significant fans base from the equation has cast a different shadow over the next club to go into administration chances of survival. Nobody in Scottish football is immune from the dangers of tipping the fine financial balance. It is no longer the case of ensuring that your own books balance and all will be well. The 12 team club needs everybody to get their numbers to stack up.
Source: FOOTYMAD
