Hearts have admitted playing an ineligible player in last night’s 2-1 Betfred Cup victory over Cove Rangers.
Andrew Irving came on as a second half substitute but hadn’t had his registration uploaded onto the SPFL website.
The SPFL have a host of sanctions available including a 3-0 defeat or they could use a similar punishment as given to Rangers (IL) in 2012 when they were fined £250,000 for fielding unregistered players for over a decade.
During that period the club won five SPL title as well as collecting millions of pounds of prize money from the UEFA Champions League.
Tonight Anne Budge stated on the Hearts website:
It is with much embarrassment that we have to advise that during last night’s Betfred Cup group stage match away to Cove Rangers, Hearts inadvertently fielded an ineligible player.
Due to an administrative error on the club’s part at the end of the January transfer window, Andrew Irving entered the field of play in the 65th minute as an unregistered player. Andrew was given an extension contract in January, 2018 and his extension paperwork was all properly completed and in order. However, it was not loaded onto the online SFA registration system at the time. His official registration, therefore, ran out on 9th June, 2018. Unfortunately, this was not picked up in advance of last night’s game.
While stringent processes are already in place to try to prevent something of this nature occurring, clearly mistakes can happen. An additional step in our internal procedures will be implemented immediately to try to ensure this cannot happen again.
The club would like to apologise to its supporters, to Cove Rangers Football Club and to the footballing authorities for this inadvertent breach of the rules.
A hearing with an SPFL panel has been scheduled for Monday, July 23rd and will be attended by representatives of the club, where sanctions against Hearts will be determined. Until then, no further comment will be made.
The SPFL have a range of punishments available, the hearing for the Hearts case will be held with two rounds of fixtures still to be played in the Betfred Cup.
After beating Spartans on the pitch last season Albion Rovers were kicked out of the Irn Bru Cup with a 3-0 defeat awarded due to fielding an ineligible player. The Coatbridge side were also fined £2,000.