Hearts boss facing ban and charge of disrepute

Hearts manager Jim Jefferies is to be banned from the touchline and charged with bringing the game into disrepute following comments about referee William Collum and his assistant Francis Andrews at Celtic Park on Saturday.

Jefferies rounded on Andrews for failing to flag Daryl Murphy offside in the lead up to Celtic's opening goal in their 3-0 victory. He was ordered to the stand by Collum but then complained afterwards that the match official had treated him "like a two-year-old".

Collum's report was due to be considered by the Scottish Football Association today, with Jefferies certain to be issued a dugout ban for using foul and abusive language towards an official. His comments afterwards are also likely to lead to a disrepute charge, although the Hearts manager reported Collum to SPL delegate John Connolly for the way the official spoke to him.

"I said 'you're due me an apology for the first goal,' and I was spoken to like a two-year-old kid," explained Jefferies. "I got talked to like a wee schoolkid and I'll be complaining about that. He said to me: 'I'm not dealing with you or talking to you.' I didn't ask him to deal with me, I just asked for an apology. The monitor was there.

"I've reported it to the SPL delegate. You go from a situation of being 1-0 down and you need somebody to do their job properly and they didn't. You can't blame Celtic, they can only use the advantage and they scored from it."

Meanwhile, Tony Capaldi returned home to England over the weekend following contract talks with Hearts and remains unsure whether his move to Tynecastle will be ratified by majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov. The Northern Ireland internationalist discussed personal terms with senior Hearts officials on Friday and was informed that he had to wait for Romanov to authorise his signing on a short-term contract.

He trained at Riccarton last week having been earmarked as a potential replacement for the injured Lee Wallace, who is unlikely to play again before January due to knee ligament damage. Capaldi, 29, is a free agent and is now awaiting to discover if Hearts will proceed with his signing.