Hearts launch fresh attack over title loss to Celtic

Hearts Chairman Calum Paterson has used the club website to launch another attack on the SPFL over losing the 25/26 title to Celtic.

There were more tired unsubstantiated claims from Paterson such as the bizarre notion that the team in top place in the Premiership must play the final match of the season at home.

Hearts had to play two out of five post-split fixtures at home which would suggest a schedule of A, H, A, H, A which was exactly what they got. Away to Hibs, Motherwell and Celtic.

From the simple question of ‘There was frustration over a lack of communication from the club at the end of the season. Can you explain some of the things that were happening behind the scenes?’ Paterson decided to let go with his frustrations over losing the SPFL title to Celtic.

The final week was difficult on a number of fronts.

Amongst other things, we were disappointed by the unprecedented decision that, as the team leading the league at the time of the split, we had to play our final game away from home.

There is absolutely no rule or tradition on that mater. Sky Sports usually have Matchday 38 as presentation day. Over the last 15 years Celtic have usually had the title won going into the split or had a six or more point advantage.

The circumstances at the end of that game were, from our perspective, completely unacceptable.

We took advice and we made our concerns very clear to the football authorities.

Standing back from it all, I think we’d like to see greater transparency and consistency around key decisions in Scottish football, because standards and processes matter, particularly at important points in the season, and I think there’s room for improvement.

I understand the frustration about how little supporters heard from us afterwards.

There was, and remains, a live police investigation into actions against our players, and that obviously limited what we could say publicly, but I think even with those constraints, I think we could have communicated more clearly.

Tony Bloom didn’t seem to be limited in what he had to say. He told TalkSPORT about assaults to Hearts on the pitch.

Hearts issued two statements referring to reports of attacks on players. Since the players returned to Tynecastle on the club bus the club would know if any players were attacked on the pitch.

HEARTS CAN’T LET GO OF THEIR TITLE LOSS

In the end, we had to think about what was best for Hearts.

And that was to fuel the  anger of  the Scottish media while knowing something hadn’t happened.

With a new management team coming in, a new season to prepare for, we felt the right thing for us was to draw a line and look forward.

But our supporters should know that we did everything we could to stand up for Hearts.

We know that Callum, we know it.

We will always do that, and we certainly haven’t forgotten what happened last season.

I bet you won’t. Men in their seventies are still babbling away to film makers about crying on the pitch at Dens Park 40 years ago. You Tube and Copa 90 are your friends for that.

But our focus now has to be on putting the club in the strongest possible position for this season and beyond and of course communicating better along the way.

Your focus seems to be on losing the SPFL Premiership title to Celtic.

Within a week of getting the bus back to Tynecastle your club captain left to join the club that finished in third place last season.

Lawrence Shankland left as a free agent, perhaps time should be spent examining why that contract clause was agreed.

A few weeks later he was joined by Derek McInnes at Ibrox.

That is certainly an interesting timeline.

Especially since the club never broadcast any interviews from Shankland or McInnes following the title loss against Celtic.

@Record_Sport Breaks silence ? they never shut up about it. 3 statements a day at one point. Sfa fact checked them at one point. Mortifying ?

— Gerry Duddy (@Gduddy) October 26, 2026