Vlad to be Hearts President

VLADIMIR Romanov will become the new president of Hearts this summer when he finally elects to join the board at Tynecastle.

The Lithuanian owns an 80.1 per cent shareholding in the club through his Ukio Bankas Investment Group but is not listed as an official of the club. This has prompted the Scottish Football Association to write to Hearts requesting clarification on Romanov's influence at Tynecastle.

However, the issue will almost certainly be cleared up at the end of the season when Romanov names himself as president.

His son Roman, who is expected to remain as chairman, has given the strongest hint yet that Romanov Snr will soon enlist as Hearts' official figurehead and in the process fend off the investigations of the SFA.

"We feel more than anything that we need a president of the club, somebody who represents Hearts," said Roman. "We will decide who it is soon, but it is true that it could be Vladimir.

"We will announce a decision on it by the summer time, although we haven't ruled out the possibility of it being someone else."

The Romanovs are preparing for boardroom restructuring in the summer that will also include Campbell Ogilvie being inducted as a director.

At the moment the Hearts board contains only Lithuanains in Romanov Jnr, his cousin Julija Groncaruk and Sergejus Fedotovas, who is a non-executive director. Earlier this year finance director Stewart Fraser resigned his directorship, and then Liutauras Varanavicius followed on the grounds of his conflicting interests between Scottish and Lithuanian football, where he is president of the Lithuanian FA.

Ogilvie presently holds the title of general secretary and operations director with Hearts and conducts the day-to-day running of affairs at the club in the absence of Romanov Jnr.

It now appears that the chief executive title held in the interim by Roman Romanov after the sacking of Phil Anderton last year will be dispensed with.

"I still have the chief executive title but we have an operating director in Campbell Ogilvie, who we believe is doing a good job at the moment," said Romanov. "As for the chief executive position, you could say that the job is being done by Campbell Ogilvie.

"We plan to bring more Scottish people onto the board at Hearts because we recognise that area needs addressed, however we don't wish to rock the boat just now.

"The club has had many changes this season so we will wait until the end of the season."

Taken from the Scotsman