David Southern steps up to fill Ogilvie's role at Hearts

HEARTS' new managing director is confident the club are on track to comply with Uefa's stringent new financial regulations despite the Gorgie side's last recorded debt being almost £35 million.

David Southern, who was confirmed yesterday as Campbell Ogilvie's successor, believes Hearts are moving in the right direction to meet the strict criteria recently outlined by Michel Platini, the president of European football's governing body.

Southern's new role will see him work closely with both Uefa and the European Club Association (ECA), an umbrella group that looks after the interests of the continent's leading sides.

He believes the work undertaken by Hearts in recent seasons to reduce costs will help drive down the club's debt and bring them into line with Uefa's financial fair play initiative.

"It's fair to say we're confident the work we're doing now and have been for the last couple of years will keep us on track financially," said Southern, who was previously the club's marketing and communications director.

"Uefa's financial fair play regulations state that clubs should be breaking even by 2012 or be in the process of doing so."

This would seem a tall order for Hearts but Southern is unfazed and believes there is wriggle room within the Uefa initiative. "The last recorded debt in our accounts was 34.78m. But the devil is in the detail and Uefa expects you to show you're progressing and showing signs of tackling the problem."

Hearts' last set of financial results, for the year to 31 July 2009, revealed that the club had cut their wage bill by seven per cent, their finance costs by 19 per cent, and their operational costs by 31 per cent. These savings helped produce an operating loss of 8.6m - a decrease from the previous year's 11.2m. Since then the club has offloaded a number of high earners, notably Christian Nade, Laryea Kingston, Jose Goncalves and Michael Stewart.

The debt remains worryingly high, however. Uefa's new regulations will require clubs to live within their means with Platini intent on stopping clubs spending more than they earn. And, although his chief targets are the big-spending English clubs with massive debts, the regulations apply to all clubs participating in European competition.

To this end, Southern will work closely with the ECA and has already represented Hearts at a meeting of the clubs' umbrella group in Geneva last month.

Southern, 44, has been with Hearts since August 2005 but his new role represents a significant step up in duties. "I'll have overall responsibility for the day to day running of the club, covering commercial areas, operational duties and more or less all off-the-field aspects."Ogilvie left Hearts in June to concentrate full-time on his SFA duties and to push through the recommendations of Henry McLeish's Review of Scottish Football. While Southern will not be joining the Hearts board he will be in regular contact with the directors and club owner Vladimir Romanov. In a week when the club owner has been embroiled in a war of words with Gary Mackay, Hearts' record appearances holder, Southern will need all his skills of diplomacy in the new job.

"I'm a great believer in working with people rather than against them," said the new MD, "I believe that has served the club well in the past five years. None of the doomsday merchants have been proved correct. We've grown and developed as a club and I've every confidence Hearts will continue to grow."