Hearts ready to battle Rangers for Lee Wallace cash

HEARTS have consulted lawyers over an £800,000 payment owed to them by Rangers for full-back Lee Wallace. CVA proposals for the Glasgow club to exit administration could leave Hearts with as little as £64,000 of the money due, a figure Tynecastle officials will not accept.

Rangers and Hearts agreed a £1.5million fee for Wallace, who is a full Scotland international, last August with £700,000 of that paid up front. Another £500,000 is due in July, with the remaining £300,000 to come in July 2013.

Duff and Phelps, the administrators at Ibrox, are ready to offer around 8p or 9p in the pound to their creditors in order to agree a CVA and exit administration.

That could leave Hearts with just £64,000 of their £800,000.

The Edinburgh club will almost certainly reject such a proposal but could then be left with nothing if the CVA offer fails and Rangers are subsequently liquidated. Lawyers have been contacted by Tynecastle officials in order to ensure their money is secured eventually.

“We are analysing the situation. We are looking at it with our legal advisors and considering what the options available to us are,” said Sergejus Fedotovas, one of Hearts’ Lithuania-based director.

At the club’s AGM last month, Fedotovas said: “The situation will become clearer after the outcome of the Rangers situation.

“Our claim is valid and we expect Rangers to pay when it’s due.”

Meanwhile, Hearts have handed full-back Fraser Mullen a new one-year contract and he will play in the club’s under-20 side next season. Mullen made his debut for Hearts against Auchinleck in January this year.