New cash blow for Hearts
The club have been keen to point out that they haven’t received any cash from their Lithuanian backers for over a year but reality was spelled out at yesterday’s AGM.
With the current playing squad having little transfer value it’ll take a major cash injection to keep the club alive- or face the consequences of administration and almost certain relegation.
Bill Alves, chairman of the club’s shareholders association, revealed: “It’s a worrying time and administration is a real possibility this summer. The club have payments to make and if we don’t make them we’ll be in trouble.
“There is also a £25m debt to UBIG and Ukio Bankas to be financed. If the status quo remains? We’re looking at administration.”
Hearts have already sold 7,000 season tickets for next season but that money would be at risk if the club goes into administration.
New boss Gary Locke has had his squad numbers slashed with striker John Sutton in talks about a move to Aberdeen.
Locke replaced John McGlynn in March with the former Raith Rovers boss given less than a year to prove himself at Tynecastle.
If Hearts go into administration during the summer they will start next season with an 15 point penalty with even more drastic cost cutting applied to the first team squad.
At yesterday’s AGM director Sergejus Fedotovas admitted that the club was £25m in debt to UBIG and Ukio Bankas in Lithuania with the position of their insolvency likely to be known within a month.