Players receive wages at Hearts following SPL demand

Hearts today announced their players had received their overdue December wages - on the day the Scottish Premier League imposed a seven-day deadline to comply with a number of orders or be faced with unlimited sanctions.

A SPL sub-committee met today after players' union PFA Scotland submitted a formal complaint on behalf of Hearts' first-team squad on December 16, when wages were not paid on time for a third consecutive month.

The SPL today made a series of demands - ordering the payment of December's wages, interest owed, costs for proceedings, plus timely payment of this month's wages, due on January 16 - with a January 11 deadline in order to halt the financial uncertainty surrounding the club.

Hearts this evening announced one of those orders had been met, but insisted the payment on the day of the SPL's meeting was merely coincidence.

A statement on the club's official website, www.heartsfc.co.uk, read: "Hearts will carefully consider today's SPL judication into the matter of late payment of players' wages and will decide on the course of further action.

"Meanwhile, the club has today received funds and has paid the outstanding players' wages for December.

"The payment is the result of successful business conducted by the club and it is coincidental that this has happened on the same day as the judication by the SPL."

PA