The merricks are utterly clueless in this area. Bordering on stupidity.
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I think it's worse than that. The debt has been compounded. Previously only the ground was threatened. Romanov has speculated over and above this to now threaten the very clubs existence. It's a perfect meltdown built on arrogance, ignorance, hubris, greed and delusion...
The only really new info is re the VAT due on season tickets & for once in this case I think they've overstated the problem. Being generous, 7,000 at £400 = £2.8mm, 20% of that = £560,000. Mind you when you've resorted to looking down the back of the sofa & your Dadsgolf bag for loose change then I suppose that's a sizeable problem!
It would be 1/6 of the total because football sales are made gross of VAT; the fan pays (say) £300 for a season ticket, the club then pays £50 of that* to HMRC when they account for their VAT. Effectively the sale from the club's point of view is £250 + 20% (£50) of VAT.
*less any input VAT that can be reclaimed. In the case of a football club that will be minimal because the vast majority of their spending is on items without VAT (ie staff and player wages).
The figure in the Herald is absurdly high; £1M would be more akin to their VAT liability for a full year. At the very worst they would have to pay for a quarter, or they may even be on the monthly payments on account system.
A Blind man with a stick can see it they are ****ed
Close the thread they're saved. Fat toothless lump who hasn't kicked a ball for years Kevin Kyle wants to help them :faf:
Health warning: Please don't click on the link if you are squeamish.
http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scot...t-me-help.html
You know if it hadn't been for this Iain MacLeod bloke and his mates forcing the Pieman out they would never be in this situation that they are in just now; if they had sold Tynecastle at the height of the property boom they would have cleared their then debt levels and that could have been a springboard for them to push on.
Instead 9 years later they have brought this on themselves, with open arms, they opened the door for Romanov and now they are paying for their over reaction and folly with the very fabric of the club they thought they were saving.
When it looked like Hibs were heading to Straiton we got it together to say no and the board got into dialogue with the fanbase and worked out how we could stay at ER; instead, when faced with the same dilema, the Hearts support threw chairs and threatened the family, business and home of their owner til they got their way like a bunch of spoilt schoolchildren upset at not getting their favourite pudding for dinner.
But for the determined and positive actions of the Hibs support, we could have been at a souless IKEA stadium instead of at the fully restored Easter Road.
£1 million due for VAT
They are well and truly Donald Ducked
http://www.heraldscotland.com/mobile...earts.21304917
What the hell are that club up to, surely when a season ticket is sold they know to put the VAT money to the side for the taxman.
The lack of any planning/organisation is unbelievable.
Any injection of half a million now from a rich fan just keeps there life support machine running for a couple of weeks.
I still can't understand why there fans aren't all down at Tynie, dragging fedofeetass or whatever his name is out and booting him back to Lithuania and insisting that someone out with the Lithuanian regime is installed to handle and oversee this current shambles.
Here's today's article from The Herald:
Hearts are on the brink, both of crisis and salvation.
The situation at the Tynecastle club grows graver by the day, and it seems unlikely that Heart of Midlothian plc will avoid falling into administration. Yet that turn of events may be necessary for a rescue bid to succeed. That dilemma is being faced by all of the potential buyers of the company that owns the club, and it appears certain that further distress must be suffered before Hearts can be saved.
Half of the £104,000 bill owed to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs has been paid, but a winding-up order will be served if the remaining balance is not met. The salary bill was not paid in full on Friday, leading to a registration embargo automatically being implemented by the Scottish Premier League. That in itself would be a minor consideration, since a club in financial difficulties will not be on a recruitment drive, but the board have effectively invited offers for all of their players and the squad could be stripped of its best talent. With season ticket sales having fallen, Hearts need £500,000 just to survive until the beginning of the season.
These are the details, but it is the bigger picture that is so debilitating. A VAT bill from the season tickets already sold will need to be paid before the end of the month and could be more than £1m, while a further PAYE bill will be due at the same time. With all of the season ticket revenue already committed, Hearts face critical cash flow problems. However, a controlling stake cannot be purchased at this time. BBC Scotland reported yesterday that there are six potential buyers monitoring events, although those close to the situation believe that the Foundation of Hearts – a coalition of supporters groups – is best placed to make an offer to save the club. Members of the FoH board addressed fans on Friday night, and afterwards Ian Murray, the independent chair and Edinburgh South Labour MP, admitted that administration might be necessary to solve Hearts' problems.
FoH have generated more than 4000 pledges to their website, which crashed at one stage last week due to the sheer volume of visitors, and they are now beginning the process of turning those pledges into cash, as well as seeking new backers amongst the fans. Members of the Edinburgh business community, including Ann Budge, the multi-millionaire who earned her fortune in IT, will also provide financial support, and the intention is to lodge a bid by July 4. Of the remaining parties reportedly interested in buying the club, three are from North America, one is based in London and the other has already been revealed as a consortium of Scandinavia-based businessmen. The latter have spoken with FoH about a joint bid, and further talks will clarify their intentions.
Although Hearts need a quick solution, nobody can move any more swiftly. Ukio Bankas hold 29.9% of the club, as well as ownership of Tynecastle Stadium as security against a £15m debt. The bank is now insolvent, and the administrator stressed last week that the intention is to sell the shares as part of maintaining Hearts as a going concern. A further 50% of shares is held by UBIG, the investment group which has yet to be formally placed into administration by the Lithuanian court. Although essentially now just a shell company, its assets have been frozen and the 50% shareholding cannot yet be sold.
Once UBIG, who are owed £10m by Hearts, are formally declared insolvent, it is likely the Scottish Premier League will rule that the Tynecastle club are technically in administration. This would cause the team to begin next season with a 15-point deficit, while the new Scottish Professional Football League rulebook will contain several scenarios if HFC plc were to eventually be liquidated.
"We have a rulebook, and it covers all eventualities," said Neil Doncaster, the SPL chief executive. "In the event that anything happens to any member clubs of that new league after June 27, it will be up to the new board and the new rulebook to determine what happens."
Administration would at least clarify the situation for potential new owners, and the insolvency process would strip Hearts of their debt. The intention of FoH is to buy 51% of the club to enable fan ownership and they are willing to work alongside other potential investors. Ian Murray's role is crucial, since his status as an independent figure has helped align fan groups, while he is also widely respected by key individuals in Lithuania.
The administrators of Ukio Bankas want Hearts to remain as a solvent business, having agreed terms on interest payments on the £15m loan until 2015, but they are also likely to work in conjunction with any administrators appointed to UBIG to sell the Hearts shares as a single package. The situation is complicated, but a rescue plan is possible. It will require significant funds, although the cash flow problems can be addressed within 12 to 18 months, but more setbacks will also have to be overcome.
I don't think administration is a viable option as they have nothing for the administrators to use to fund them through it.
Seems to me latest fire sale is final attempt to raise the funds for this and retain a small element of control of the process.
If this isn't successful and it won't be without a white knight being prepared to write off their cash injection then it will be a very quick route to liquidation.
Whilst in the end I want them to be obliterated, I am quite happy that it rolls on a bit longer and the flumps get fleeced for a good few quid more and suffer the agony of their raised hopes being dashed at the last minute.
Every £1 they chuck in now is a £1 they don't have to give to any sevco type new hearts, so a bit of patience is required to ensure they are parted from as much cash as possible by the current regime.
Interesting article in Scotsman saying 10 days to administration. Point i liked was 150 staff, 26 players with rest being coaches etc. All you ever hear is we have reduced wage bill by showing the player reductions so we now can afford bigger salaries for new players guess they didnt realise the wage bill encompasses everyone else.
The article seems to suggest that it is only a matter of time before the Lithuanian authorities undertake any insolvency action against UBIG.
Given that UBIG’s problems go further than being owed £10,000,000 by Hearts; surely this is not a given?
If Hearts cannot be sold because UBIG's assets are frozen and they are reportedly losing £10,000 per week; they simply cannot continue to exist.
So.......wages up to £9.4M in the year they pumped us in the cup final.
According to these bams in FOH total wages next season will be £1.5M !!!
And yet some of these ****ing ***** still say they were not cheating.
Utter, utter *******s the lot of them. They cheated not onlu hibs but every other club on the way to that cup final (and arguably the gretna one too).
I am as ****ing angry as I ever have been about this after reading that article in scotsman.
I hope they die, and when the pink wongadome gets bulldozed I will be there with my hibs top and a bottle of champagne.
Last word - *****
My old man had a heart attack today, successful operation, told him about the Scotsman article and he smiled and said he'd be out for the party.
I suspect this is what they have been doing to get to the end of the season. Deferring payments here and there or moving major sales from one month to the next to the next again in order to defer the VAT payments and get to the end of the season when the ST money would come in and then they could pay everything and start again.
The end of the season is here and the ST money, which was spent before it came in, is gone. They are potless.
After over a hundred years of being run well they pushed the boat out over the last 25 to get one up on us and its killed them.
Am I right to think that if hearts don't pay their players nextt month then the players can start looking for new clubs as their contracts won't be valid any longer? (If they're still a club then that is)
Exactly, you just wonder what can of worms (or how many cans of worms!) is going to open up once an independent administrator/liquidator gets hold of the books.
Every time a 3rd party has made overtures about buying or investing in HMFC in the past, the management has been adept at hiding the financial information from them.
Nothing would surprise me about this lot. The wilfully blind "Big Teamers" are about to have their eyes opened, I suspect, and what they will have to see won't be pretty!
Even Jim Jefferies admits they cheated to win 2 cups. :fenlon:yw:
http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scot...-promises.html
HEARTS legend Jim Jefferies believes trying to bankroll Vladimir Romanov’s wild promises wrecked the Jambos.
Jefferies fears for the club he captained with distinction and who sacked him in his second spell as boss nearly two years ago.
The Dunfermline boss, 62, is in no doubt Hearts’ downfall started in 2005 when Romanov arrived with far-fetched promises such as winning the Champions League inside 10 years and recruiting World Cup players.
And their troubles have nothing to do with the Jambos supporters.
Jefferies said: “I can’t believe the suggestions that the supporters are to blame. The supporters have been fantastic, they’ve probably kept them afloat, so I don’t know where that has come from.
“There’s only one reason they’re in this position, mis-management and the money wasted on trying to chase certain promises.
“It’s there for all clubs if someone with a lot of money comes in, you either make a success of it or throw it away with bad decisions — and there’s been many of them.
“When you keep throwing money at it there’s going to come a time when it’s going to run out and that’s what’s happened now.
“I’m talking about the football side, because it would be wrong for me to comment on any other part of the club, because I don’t know how they operate or what effect it had on running Hearts.
“But obviously a lot of money was thrown at Hearts. There’s a couple of cup final successes but a lot of the time it’s come at a cost — and that cost cannot be met.
“You see what happened to Rangers and you just hope for the best for Hearts.
“It looks like they will be losing players, although I think clubs will wait and see how things pan out. They’re never going to pay money for players they might get for nothing further down the line.”