Hearts wage delay puts SPL in the spotlight
In December the SPL warned the Edinburgh club that they would be punished if they failed to pay their players on time.
That forced the club to pay up outstanding wages with the players January and February payments made on time.
Today however the club has admitted that this months salaries haven’t been paid on time and that it may be the end of the month before payments are made.
A club statement read: “Hearts today rejected any funding doubts following confirmation that the playing squad would not receive their wages today. The club expects players to be paid before the end of March and players were informed of this yesterday.”
Since the SPL warned Hearts about the non-payment of wages they have been forced to deduct 10 points from Rangers for going into administration.
Craig Whyte put his club into administration ahead of HMRC who are owed £15m in unpaid tax dating back to May when Whyte bought the club for £1 from David Murray.
Any attempt to punish Hearts for late payment of wages is bound to be complicated by news that another SPL side hasn’t been meeting their tax requirements. A further complication is that Hearts are owed around £800,000 by Rangers for the sale of Lee Wallace in July.
Hearts are involved in a major cost cutting exercise with the club statement highly critical of some squad players who rejected the chance to move on during the January transfer window.
The club warned: “It is, however, unfortunate that it was outwith the power of the club to persuade some remaining fringe players to leave early as they elected to stagnate, preferring to take the club’s money while offering very little or nothing in return.
“This is an issue that the club will resolve to a large extent at the end of the season and at that point we would expect that payment delays should be eradicated.”
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