SFA D-Day for Hearts as report reveals £28.5m of debt

Hearts are in debt to the tune of £28.5m as they go before the SFA today pleading for mercy.

While clubs across the country cut their cloth to stay afloat the Jambos spend spend spend policy under Vladimir Romanov bought them two Scottish Cup’s.

Hearts went into administration in June and were immediately hit with a 15 point penalty and a signing ban although they were able to sign Danny Wilson on a lucrative three year contract.

Administrators BDO, who are being paid £264.31 an hour, pleaded with supporters to buy season tickets to keep the club alive with fans stumping up despite no assurances that the club will complete the season.

Last summer the SFA almost went into meltdown as they tried every move possible to catapult Sevco into the top flight with that move only thwarted by clubs put under pressure by supporters furious that a newco were being given preferential treatment.

The SFA have the power to suspend or terminate Hearts’ membership with the underlying issue being that the club is likely to be liquidated in mid-season leaving a hole in the SPFL fixture list.

Once again Stewart Regan and his committee members face the conflict of applying the rules against the commercial desire to put an attractive product in front of potential sponsors.

Adding spice to today’s hearing is the list of over 200 creditors that created debt of £28.5m. The bulk of that figure is owed to Romanov’s Lithuanian banks who are owed £15.5m and £8.2m with £1.9m owed to HMRC.

The SFA’s ability to effectively govern the game has been questioned since they issued Rangers with a licence for the 2011/12 season despite owing HMRC £6m for the so called wee tax case dating back over a decade.

Despite that incident there appears to be no willingness by the SFA to tighten up it’s licencing policy with supporters kept in the dark about the health of their clubs by the non-appearance of audited accounts.

If the SFA had refused Rangers or Hearts a licence it would have alerted supporters to the problems faced by their clubs before administration arrived.

Today’s activities at Hampden will send out a message to clubs across the country about how seriously the SFA treats financial fair play. Failure to severely punish Hearts will confirm the opinion that success on the park can be achieved at any price with those clubs that live within their means and pay HMRC the real losers.