Old rules applied to Hearts' £100k fine appeal

Hearts have been told their planned appeal against the record £100,000 fine they were hit with last week for ill-discipline will be heard under the SFA's old rules.

The Tynecastle outfit have until Friday to lodge officially the required paperwork at Hampden after announcing their intention to contest the heavy penalty handed down by the last-ever meeting of the governing body's disciplinary committee last Monday.

Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov is said to have been enraged by the extent of his club's punitive censure, which marked the seventh year in a row they had fallen foul of the SFA's end-of-season disciplinary analysis.

It came following a campaign in which Jim Jefferies' side earned five red cards, with a sixth for Eggert Jonsson being down-graded to a caution on appeal, and 92 yellows. The board will sit for what will probably be the last time following the changes voted through last week by the SFA's annual general meeting, which agreed that a semi-autonomous judicial panel should rule on disciplinary issues in time for next season.

An SFA spokesman said: "If Hearts do contest the decision of the disciplinary committee, the appeals board would meet to consider their appeal.

"Going forward, there won't be an appeals board as such, but because the matter is outstanding from the old committee structure it would rule in this case.

"Hearts have seven days from the receipt of the letter informing them of the decision, which was posted out to them on Thursday.

"We would be hopeful that the appeals board would then sit as soon as possible and that the matter would be resolved before the start of the new season."