Hearts officially tell SPL about pay delay

Hearts will today formally notify the Scottish Premier League of their failure to pay August’s salary to a number of first-team players.

The club confirmed the “short-term delay” on Monday afternoon and apologised to the players. In line with new Financial Fair Play rules in the top flight, Hearts are obliged to provide confirmation of any delay to salaries to the SPL.

If not, it is a breach of rules on top of the failure to pay and could incur additional sanctions.

While avoiding sanctions for a lack of communication, Hearts must wait to find out if they will be punished for the initial offence of not paying their entire squad on the due date. Regulations passed by the SPL on May 30 state that clubs are required “to pay their players and HMRC on time and be subject to sanctions if they do not.”