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Hearts in turmoil - Time to stand up to Romanov!

The SPFA promise to back Steven Pressley in his battle with the Tynecastle club's Lithuanian owner. Other football bodies must make a stand as well.

by ScottishFootballBlog . on 07 December 2006

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Steven Pressley: backing from players' union (gettyimages.com)

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Congratulations to the Scottish PFA for coming out and making a stand against Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov.

Fraser Wishart, secretary of the Scottish Professional Footballers' Association, said: “The SPFA condemns in the strongest of terms what it regards as the wholly unjustified treatment of Heart of Midlothian FC towards our member, Steven Pressley.

"The SPFA and its parent body, the GMB union, have long been concerned about the unorthodox managerial and employment practices of the club and the effects this has had on the personal and professional welfare of our members at the club.

"Steven Pressley has had and will continue to enjoy the full support and backing of the SPFA. We, along with our legal team, will offer Steven every assistance to enable him to seek redress via internal football procedures or other means."

Pressley is the only person to come out of this whole mess with any dignity - and he deserves the full backing of everyone in the game.

I almost hope this does end in a Scottish courtroom and that Romanov’s running of the club, good or bad, is exposed once and for all. George Burley and Phil Anderton also still have issues with Romanov that may only be resolved through some kind of legal process.

At the same time Romanov, and his representative on earth, Pedro Lopez, are trying to ensure that any staff leaving Gorgie sign confidentiality agreements that keep a lid on the Tynecastle drama.

The mysterious Mr Lopez now seems to be calling the shots as Director of Infrastructure. Does any other club in Britain have a Director of Infrastructure?

But the fact is that individual disputes, even those backed by trade unions, will not go far enough. The SFA, the SPL and UEFA need to act.

Hearts seem to be in the process of being ripped apart by the personal whims of a man who still has no official role at the club.

Many people will enjoy one side of Edinburgh being made a mockery of. But the whole of Scottish football is suffering while this pantomime is being played out.

For the good of the game, Vladimir Romanov must be brought to heel by the football authorities.

Has Elvis been treated abominably - or does Vlad have a case? We would welcome your comments on this article.

Comments (1)

by blakdreem on December 07, 2006

Fairly empassioned article here. As a fully paid up member of the Tynecastle pantomime i felt all the ecstacy of last year and all the pain of this year. I have got to say though that Elvis, who has my utmost respect, has brought this onto himself. I am sure He was acting in the best interests of the players, club etc etc but with 20-20 hindsight it was simply the wrong move, for him and the club and i do not believe that it is only Vlad that would have acted in this way faced with the decent. I have to be honest here - the very first thought that went through my head when he read out that statement a few weeks back was - "Elvis has just abdicated his captaincy". I believe his days are over as a Hearts player and really we are just mostly sad about that, he deserved to finish his career at Hearts and walk away with his head held high - he will be denied that. The SPFA are duty bound to protect any player in a sticky situation when there is no clear evidence of that player being in the wrong so their stance