A winding-up order against Hearts is hardly newsworthy, it happened in 2009 and 2010, but Vladimir Romanov’s comments this week suggest his days of funding the club have ended. Much of the debts are owned to the Ukio Bankas, which Romanov is a large shareholder in, while players, small creditors and HM Revenue and Customs are also exposed.
Romanov previously converted a large chunk of Hearts’ debt to shares held by the bank, an investment it is unlikely to see a return on, so the possibility remains that Ukio could write-off the Hearts debt and use their majority creditor status to out-vote HMRC and allow the club to pay as little as a penny in the pound.
This is, however, a seriously worrying time for Hearts fans as well as the club’s creditors. In Scotland we tend to refer to Ukio Bankas as Romanov’s bank, as though it was a wholly owned business. It’s not. Ukio have fiduciary responsibilities to their shareholders, all shareholders. As such, the prime residential development opportunity off Gorgie Road presents a huge problem. Hearts previously received a bid of over £20m for their stadium from a housing developer and Ukio will have title to the land.
When Ukio Bankas previously converted Hearts debt to shares they would have slipped straight into the bank’s assets column, irrespective of their resale value. On paper, there would have been no negative impact for the bank. Writing-off debt when you hold an asset is a different scenario. Anyone who believes that a bank can easily walk away from a £20m asset sale has not fully appraised the situation. Without players, who have not been paid and have been told to find new clubs, or a stadium, there is no football club.
There is a Kodak Moment coming soon at Tynecastle; I predict Livingston FC might be in for another name change in an attempt to harvest some new support.
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In like Phil. (thumbsup)
Where are the Philvisreturns of yesteryear?
Ya jammy, dodger!
Folly Folly – You have to get up pretty damn early in the morning to outsmart old Philvis. (thumbsup)
So it seems.
(I’m away back to bed!)
An odious football club – good riddance…
HH
Giggs
Haha Paul, I liked the title.
It seems karma is sending out invoices.
Time to pay up.
There is a Kodak Moment coming soon at Tynecastle; I predict Livingstone FC might be in for another name change in an attempt to harvest some new support.
It’s Livingston Paul67, and we don’t need no stinkin’ Jambo’s!
LB
Are the football authorities in Scotland going to allow 2 out of the 3 biggest clubs in the country to fold in a short space of time?
If the wee Horribles go to the wall does that not increase the likelihood that all the stops will be pulled out to stop the horrible Horribles imploding?
Much improved performance last night from a very youthful side.Thought Mathews ,Frazer,Wanyama and Forrest were all excellent.
Can we replicate this form against Murderwell on Sunday?Why not!Man for man what have we got to worry about and surely confidence should be sky high after this display.
Can we catch rangers(assuming no points deduction?Why Not?!
They are obviously well organised with a very good spine (by SPL standards).But injuries (where they have been extremely fortunate up to last week)and suspensions(ha!)will see them start to drop points.Look what happened when they rested players against Falkirk!
Their home form has been very average (2nd half against us notwithstanding)and their European record lamentable-look at the subsequent records of the two teams that beat them.
Malmo lost their Champions League Play Off and have lost all 4 of their Europa League games in a very average group.
Maribor have lost 3 and drawn 1 of their games in one of the weakest groups in the competition.
Compare that with the “Pub Side” who we lost to last year who subsequently qualified for the Champions League after beating a Spanish or Italian team ,(I think)finished a credible 3rd including a 2-0 win against Arsenal.They then went all the way to the Final in Dublin where they lost 1-0 to the European team of the year(after Barca of course!)
Let’s go on a run and win this league!
Paul67 – Wish I could say I felt sorry for Hearts, the good of Scottish football and all that.
But I can’t.
Too many of their fans – not all of them, but too many of them – are, for want of a better word, radges.
Let them eat bankruptcy. (thumbsup)
Anyone else noticed the true blue staunch Celtic fans who have been spamming the blog over the last few days, are conspicuous by their absence this morning?
I know I have…..
RogueLeader, I don’t say this often but:
“It seems karma is sending out invoices”
Is worthy of Samuel Clements himself.
LiviBhoy, corrected, thanks. And very true.
philvisreturns, I hear you.
RogueLeader – It seems karma is sending out invoices.
(Hollywood trailer voice)
In a world…. of radges.
Karma’s Credit Control department…
Aint taking any more crap…
Coming to a football club near you:
HUNAGEDDON (thumbsup)
Paul67
They wont be missed as far as I am concerned.
Rancid club whose number one fan is also a Rancid individual… HH
Philvis….Lennon n Mc….Mjallby
For just a moment I thought that I had written something sensible :-) OR (and more likely ) I wasn’t the only one slipping a wee hauf in my coffee.
Then it dawned – ‘The Untouchables’. Obvious now.
Off to write the ‘Official Match Report’ now!!! That should be interesting. I think I’ll base it on ……The Enduring Mystery of David Fernandez and his doppleganger.
Hail hail
Estadio
Paul67
Are we about to witness the consolidation of the east and west beasts into one antichrist?
Imagine the lure for bigots to worship such a club.
RobertTressell – Vote Yes for Strike Action on 30th November says:
4 November, 2011 at 12:32
Auldheid/ Bonty – perhaps some of us, and I include myself in this, heap pressure on too. We make heroes of ‘decent’ players too soon and despair when they don’t live up to the tag we placed on them.
Funny thing is I remember it took a good while before Henke, Chris Sutton or Big Bad John were lionised in the way Kayal, Izzaguirre and Hooper were last season. Joe Ledley has been one of our more consistent performers, as has the very youthful Adam Matthews. Stokes scores as many as Hooper but gets more criticism. Yet he has been a better player this season. Forrest, despite his great season to date is yet to achieve the acclaim of the trio I mentioned. Long may they stay under the radar of adulation – it seems to help the form.
The converse of this is that there are some players who will never be ‘good enough’ and get over the top attention for being ‘useless’ – Loovens, Dan M, Samaras – to name a few (still don’t get the criticism Forster comes in for – two great saves again last night) and their game suffers as a result.
When I was ‘Redbiddy’ at Keep-the-Faith I wrote about the power of positivity and the draining nature of negative vibes coming from the stands. I also wrote that we could learn a lesson or two from genuine supporters of ‘small’ clubs who never win anything, lose or draw as often as they win but still keep going back for more. Enjoying football is what that is all about. Enjoying the camaraderie and belonging. We have something great to belong to. We should really enjoy it.
Of course the last time I wrote about joy and football I was having a go at the leeches of the EPL who had ruined everything for almost everyone else around Europe. Rangers did much the same when they bought their way to 9-in-a-row on borrowed cash. The real poison at the heart of football is the same thing that poisons almost everything else in life – greed.
Rant over, back to work for me. Have a good day.
Has anyone ever seen Philvisreturns and Paul 67 in the same room???
Hmmmmmmm
SP
Still smiling after last night…
philvisreturns says:
4 November, 2011 at 12:31
—–
I prefer your old retort on the old Beeb Fans Forum – make them eat bleach.
HH
Giggs
http://thefrontofthebus.blogspot.com/2011/11/faith-being-kept.html
Now we know why SFA reform was a must. It was after all the regime under Peat and his predecessors that presided over the destruction (nearly said mass destruction but that might be pushing it) of Scottish Football. There has been a lot of wrong being done.
I’d like though to elaborate on “wrong” here. I know it has the moral context of good or bad/evil and judging something so is an almost inescapable part of the human condition, but I’d like to introduce another aspect, a direction that ultimately we are faced with after the judging.
Wrong is also what does not work, it can disguise itself for years as being right, but ultimately if it is wrong it will cease to work and so cease to be the modus operandi.
On the other hand what is right is what works and stands the test of time and changes in and during time to continue to work.
So what has being going on in Scottish football (to keep the moral aspect of judging Rangers out of any judgement) has simply been wrong for EVERY club involved.
I think this wee tale covers it.
Modern football is like a description of a scene from hell where a visitor looks into one room and sees an emaciated group around a table on which is set a large pot full of stew. They cannot eat because their arms have been set straight at the elbow and elongated so that they cannot get a spoon in their mouths. It is a miserable place. Then the visitor goes upstairs and enters a similar room with occupants similarly handicapped, but where everyone is well fed and contented. “How can this be?” he asks his guide. “Well downstairs all their energies are spent in the nigh impossible task of feeding their insatiable hunger, whilst up here they simply feed each other.”
This is taken from an article in the Second CQN Magazine on Who Owns Football but is also viewable here in its unedited form.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kpMnLxNJhhK3i2dsLpd9oRHxjvDrS8GLGhNNVKEldRw/edit
At some point somebody is going to have to demonstrate leadership to resolve this mess or there will be no one left to starve.
Estadio – You’re as drunk as I’m going to be in 8 hours.
Slainte! (thumbsup)
starry plough – Has anyone ever seen Philvisreturns and Paul 67 in the same room???
I’m much handsomer than Paul67. (thumbsup)
RobertTressell – Vote Yes for Strike Action on 30th November says:
4 November, 2011 at 12:35
See my post of 12:36.I must have “seen” yours coming. ;)
Paul, fair’s fair. Games between Periphery of Midlothian and the Govan Gombeens will certainly liven up Division Three.
If R*ngers were to reinvent themselves by piggy-backing on a wee team, who would they use? Morton?
Craig Whyte explores a novel way of escaping his creditors
(thumbsup)
Snoopy Doggy Dog @ Soltude on Saturday to watch Cliftonville v The mini Bloodog scum (Linfield, in case you didn’t know)
He’s knows the score does Snoop.
IF this HEarts thingmy comes to pass and they cannot fulfill their fixtures where does that put us in the league? I estimate Rangers lose 4 points? And we don’t lose any? IS that what happens?
And if they do go under it will be a great opportunity for the SPL, SFA and member clubs to lay down a marker for other fiscally errant football teams.
And do they have any decent centre backs we could ‘harvest’?
Ok off for a walk in the sun n showers. Did I tell you I met TET the other day?
Quiet fella. :)
If the Jambo’s go under (Hopefully) will all points won be deducted as all their games will be null & void….another reason to be cheerful.
Love to see the domino effect starting with the mini’s…..sends out the message loud & clear which should already have been apparent after Clydebank, Airdrie, Dundee, Livingston etc but clearly deaf ears or covering their eyes works at Hearts & Rangers, possibly Aberdeen too. Dark days ahead for those clubs, months and hopefully several years ala Leeds, Portsmouth, Forest.
Now is the time to take full advantage bhoys….similar effort as last night in our remaining games shouldn’t be too much to ask for….NO club in Scotland should outwork us, while they certainly can’t outplay us.
Ledley should be back in the side….but I hope Lennon doesn’t mess about with the balance too much….Drop McCourt and put in Ledley, Rogne / Mulgrew for Loovens / Dan and I’d be happy.
GiggsyBhoy – I prefer your old retort on the old Beeb Fans Forum – make them eat bleach.
I thank you my good man.
However, that wasn’t so much a retort as it was a manifesto. (thumbsup)
RogueLeader @ 12:32
“Anyone else noticed the true blue staunch Celtic fans who have been spamming the blog over the last few days, are conspicuous by their absence this morning?
I know I have…..”
Not only that. There are a certain group of blog names normally found here after not-so-good results who also seem to be too busy elsewhere at the moment.
I was composing a mental list of them this morning.
I’ll not name names. But it’s so predictable.
Paul67 – That is a compliment and a half! Many thanks!
TheOriginalSadiesBhoy : yes the Ballieston boys could play.. though me and Thomas where Broomhouse boys and only became Ballieston boys on those Saturday mornings ;-) Myself and Thomas made our school debuts for you together in a cup final, it was for the older lads a year or two above us..Norrie Innes etc..think you had injuries ? You told us make sure we didn’t give away any free kicks because their top guy had a great shot..cue me giving away a free kick which they duly scored from :-( My name is Gerry, Mody I was called by the lads though.. cant say my surname on here at the minute, due to other matters..lol.
ChairBhoy : Are you guys enjoying a pint while watching the games anywhere, Id try pop in ?
Craig Whyte in the near future
(thumbsup)
Foulkes
“What he should be doing is going with the grain rather than against the grain. Hearts have a lot of influential supporters, people who are councillors, bankers, businessmen, all different walks of life. We probably have as wide a range of influential supporters as any club in Scotland.”
This ‘influence’ might explain why they got let off with the Neil Lennon attack.
RogueLeader – Dude, he compared you to the guy from Quantum Leap.
That’s AWESOME! (thumbsup)