Investigation begins as Hearts players are paid at last

THE Hearts players and backroom staff all received their delayed wages yesterday as the club's parent company prepared to hold an investigation into what went wrong.

The players got their wages a week late, while the staff's monthly salaries were two days late – both because of what a spokesman for Hearts called a "technical hitch". The nature of that hitch has not been revealed, but the club have said it is "highly unlikely" to happen again, suggesting it was not a cash-flow problem.

As well as being an unwelcome distraction, the episode has been an embarrassment to Hearts. What was dismissed initially as a blip that would be remedied almost immediately turned into a saga, with no-one knowing for sure what the outcome would be.

First, the players went without pay on Friday last week, and Hearts reported that they would all be paid early the next week. This did not happen, and the players were soon joined by other members of staff who missed their monthly salaries. A promise was made that the money would all be paid by yesterday, and the money came through – but not without the players having to keep waiting for a brief spell after all other employees had received their wages.

Now Ukio Bankas Investment Group (UBIG), the Lithuania-based business of which Hearts are effectively one branch, are to hold an internal inquiry into the matter next week. Sergejus Fedotovas, the high-ranking UBIG employee who is also a director of Hearts, has been blamed by some of his colleagues for the "hitch", and will be asked to explain what went wrong.

"We are waiting for Sergejus to come back from Scotland next week and will need to go through exactly what happened," Jurga Chomskyte-McGeever, UBIG's head of marketing and communications, said yesterday. "There have been no problems at UBIG.

"We hope it will never happen again. We don't expect it to, as there are no objective reasons why it did this time."

Objective reasons would include such matters as a shortage of funds. By implying there was a subjective reason for the problem, Chomskyte-McGeever was apparently suggesting human error was to blame. She refused to comment on Fedotovas's future at Hearts, but it appears likely that someone will be made to carry the can for the pay delay.

For Hearts' employees, the main feeling yesterday was one of relief. Csaba Laszlo, the manager, said he and the players had been able to concentrate on preparing for today's game against Dundee United, but admitted he had regarded the payment delay as a difficulty.

"It's not a big problem," Laszlo said. "Today everybody is paid.

"Today a lot of players looked, also myself. We have the money in our accounts and we are being paid, and now we are concentrating on the football.

"I don't like to talk about the money. We would like to go out and show we have a unit in the dressing room. We want to show we are a football team.

"We don't have a big problem in the dressing room and for me the most important thing is to keep the spirits up. Everybody can see that the players' priority is to play football.

"Always in your life you have problems, and you must have solutions. For me solution is beating Dundee United.

"If you talk with Christophe Berra, with Christos Karipidis, with the experienced players, they tell me it's okay, coach, everything is positive."

Asked if he was sure the difficulty would not recur, however, Laszlo could only say he hoped there would be no repetition. "I hope so. I can't answer that question.

"I don't run that side of things and I have no influence over that. For me, I have my part to play and I have my job which I hope to do for as long as I can.

"I hope it will never happen again, but my job is to bring results. My job is not to think about or discuss this situation.

"At the moment. the most important thing is the Dundee United game. It's a very heavy game for us."

Laszlo has been able to deal with the situation relatively calmly because it is not new to him, he went on to explain. "I had to wait three years to get one year's salary from Ferencvaros. I got my last year's salary from them just four months ago after leaving the club three years ago.

"Sometimes you have these situations, but also at Ferencvaros, I concentrated on my job. We also had a very good team and were always at top, playing very good football."

Mike Tullberg, the Danish striker who is in the Hearts squad for the first time today, said that he too had experience of going without pay while at Italian club Reggina.

"In Italy before I was not paid for the first four months I was down there, so for me one week or two weeks is not an issue for me," said the 22-year-old, who is currently on loan to Hearts from Reggina. "It's nothing I use time thinking about.

"Down there it's normal. It's not a big deal. Maybe you get two months' salary, then you go without salary for some months. But you get used to it.

"I don't think it's a cash problem (ie in Italy]. In the south of Italy you have a different culture than you have in Denmark or Scotland."

Tullberg, who has signed on loan from Reggina for the season, tore a thigh muscle in pre-season training. He is expected to come off the bench at Tannadice, where Hearts are determined to show they have not been adversely affected by the "hitch".

"We are just thinking about getting the three points," the Dane added. "The only thing I have to concentrate about is to go out on the training pitch and regain my form and help the team.

"I don't think it will happen again, but if it will it will. I think it was just a fault, like the club said."

• A spokesman for MTZ-RIPO, the club in Belarus in which Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov has an interest, refused to comment yesterday on whether its players had received wages this week.