Hearts fined £10,000 for attack on referees

THE Scottish Football Association has punished Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov over his criticism of referees' integrity, fining the Tynecastle outfit £10,000 for publishing the remarks on the club's website last month.

Romanov has been a regular critic through the media of the SFA and referees, but has escaped penalty up until now. The appearance of his remarks on his own club's website allowed the SFA to call him to account.

An individual disrepute charge against Romanov was not considered by the SFA's general purposes committee at its Hampden meeting yesterday afternoon as the Lithuanian banker was not able to attend in person. His case has been deferred until the committee's next meeting in December.

However, the separate charge against Hearts for carrying Romanov's comments on their official website was dealt with severely by the committee. In addition to the hefty fine, Hearts were also warned about their future conduct. The Tynecastle club were represented at the meeting by Pedro Lopez, described as their director of infrastructure, and who is deputy to chairman Roman Romanov. It is understood Lopez questioned the SFA's right to impose such a punishment on Hearts but his protests were dismissed.

The comments from Vladimir Romanov which prompted action from the SFA were those which questioned the conduct of match officials during Hearts' ultimately successful Scottish Cup campaign.

Romanov said: "Last season, you didn't manage to protect the Scottish Cup and gave it to Hearts, despite all the referees' efforts and intrigues."

The fine represents further bad news during a difficult week for the Hearts owner, who on Monday allowed head coach Valdas Ivanauskas to take a two-week break from his duties because of ill health.

Eduard Malofeev, the club's sporting director, has been appointed interim head coach until Ivanauskas returns and the Russian's reign began with a deafening silence yesterday as the club circled the wagons.

The veteran Malofeev took charge of training in the morning at Hearts' Heriot-Watt University base following an hour-long meeting with the first-team squad. Requests to speak to Malofeev were refused, and the caretaker coach is not expected to make any comment until the pre-match briefing on Friday. In the afternoon, assistant coach John McGlynn travelled with a strong reserve side to Stirling Albion's Forthbank Stadium for the second-string Edinburgh derby with Hibs, but was prevented from commenting on the developments by a Tynecastle employee following the 2-1 defeat.

McGlynn, the one constant during Romanov's rollercoaster reign at Tynecastle, did, however, find time to share a joke with one Hibs fan who asked whether he also "needed a holiday".

But Hearts supporters were left in the dark as to how the latest managerial changes are affecting the team when he and the players - who included first- teamers Julien Brellier, Bruno Aguiar, Saulius Mikoliunas, Jamie Mole and Michal Pospisil - were ushered away under instruction not to speak to the media. McGlynn would only say: "We had a meeting. The players are aware of the situation and we battle on."

Malofeev has been put in charge of the side ahead of Saturday's home match with Dunfermline and was yesterday cleared by the SFA to continue in that temporary position, despite uncertainty over whether he has the necessary coaching qualifications to take the post in the long-term. Derek Hunter, the SFA's club licensing manager, explained: "We received a call from Hearts yesterday asking how this issue works. According to a clarification memo sent out by UEFA in 2004, they are allowed to replace the manager for a limited period of time with people who don't meet the requirements.

"If somebody is not able to perform their role within the club, because of health reasons for instance, there are not any repercussions with regards the club and UEFA.

"One thing you are not allowed to do is to allow the situation to continue for longer than half a season."

Anatoly Korobochka, one of Romanov's football consultants, took in the reserve match at Forthbank yesterday. Malofeev, however, missed the opportunity to watch his fringe players in action, failing to show as they went down to two goals from Dean Shiels. It is understood he was involved in meetings at the club.

Mole snatched a second-half equaliser for Hearts after they were reduced to ten men shortly before half-time when the Portuguese full-back Tiago Costa, a summer signing, was sent-off for two bookable offences. And, after Shiels had restored Hibs' lead, substitute Sam Morrow evened up the numbers when he was also dismissed for two yellow cards.

Taken from the Scotsman