Without doubt Hearts are now Scotland’s Shame

On the back of a week of public sympathy Hearts are very much in the dock this morning.

They are now Scotland’s Shame.

Last Wednesday night Derek McInnes described a decision in a match not involving his club as disgusting.

That was all that nutters like Kris Boyd, Ally McCoist and Michael Stewart needed to run around shrieking their accusations.

Sky Sports, BBC Scotland and TalkSPORT were happy to give their claims round the clock attention.

All delivered alongside the farcical claim that Celtic run the SFA!

Peter Lawwell couldn’t win a UEFA knock out tie in 20 years. Michael Nicholson is terrified of his own shadow. Yet somehow they have Scottish football stitched up.

That is just another comforting media fantasy alongside the ‘financial meltdown’ of 2012. It wasn’t meltdown, it is called liquidation.

HEARTS HAVE SPENT FIVE DAYS FANNING PARANOIA

Since the Hearts bus raced away from Celtic Park on Saturday their messengers have been screaming all sorts.

Hearts knew all of the facts. Their Chairman met the SFA on Monday while the club fed the conspiracies being pushed hourly by legacy media outlets.

A club statement and interview from Tony Bloom on Wednesday took things too far.

At 6pm on Thursday the SFA announced:

We note the contents of Heart of Midlothian’s statement yesterday and accompanying letter signed by the club Chair, Calum Paterson. In the interests of transparency, we are happy to set out the facts.

Regarding references to a ‘premature ending of the match’, the Scottish FA’s Chief Governance Officer, Gary Booth, the Head of Refereeing, William Collum, and VAR Manager Martin Atkinson reviewed the audio-visual footage of the period in question on Monday at the club’s request, with Mr Paterson in attendance.

While it was the agreed intention for this meeting to be conducted privately, recent statements have compelled us to consider the public interest in providing clarification and chronology.

To that end, we are happy to publish the relevant audio-visual footage.

It was made clear at that meeting that the match official, Don Robertson, took the correct action in ending the game.

We note there has been speculation regarding the blowing of a final whistle. The Laws of the Game require the referee to signal the end of the match, but do not prescribe the method of that signal.

In the context of what unfolded – which is verified by the footage and the Match Incident Report submitted to the Scottish FA – the match official clearly communicated that the match was ended and not abandoned.

In addition, the match clock does not stop when a goal is scored. The footage shows that when the match official confirms the game has ended, the clock is at 53.07 [98.07], more than the minimum additional time of eight minutes signaled.

It was also apparent from the audio that this decision was taken following dialogue with the Hearts Head Coach, who had intimated concerns over player safety.

For the avoidance of doubt, Law 5 of the IFAB Laws of the Game state that ‘the decisions of the referee regarding facts connected with play are final’.

We fully support the decisive action taken by Don Robertson and his team to end the game.

Hearts have been central to the wild claims of this week.

On Saturday evening they stated:

Reports of serious physical and verbal abuse towards our players and staff’. They knew that there was no physical abuse.

Hearts briefed reporters on Sunday that they were about to publish a second statement. Keith Jackson of the Daily Record had his ‘missing minute’ story to run with.

On Wednesday Bloom commented on ‘one or two players being assaulted’. It never happened.

Another club statement on Wednesday revealed:

We have also written to the SFA and SPFL setting out our observations and questions regarding the circumstances surrounding the premature ending of the match.

That was made to fan the flames that their club had been wronged. Celtic shouldn’t be champions.

EVERY HEARTS DIRECTOR IS GUILTY

Two days before that statement Hearts Chairman Calum Paterson had met with the SFA and reviewed the audio from Saturday.

Derek McInnes had agreed to end the match. The SFA had agreed to keep the audio private.

Hearts decided off their own back to pour fresh fuel on the paranoia of their fans and the media.

The SFA reluctantly released the audio and a statement.

Andrew McKinlay is the CEO  of Hearts and Vice President of the SFA. If he had a grain of decency he would resign this morning. McKinlay and his chins will be all on board the World Cup gravy train next month.

Ryan Stevenson, Tom English, Michael Stewart and their fellow travellers can now crawl back under their favourite rock. They’ve did that story to death.

Now they can move on to their next outrageous claims to sully Scotland’s most successful club.

Hopefully Saturday at Hampden is another painful view for those that can’t keep a lid on their hatred for all things Celtic.