The Foundation of Hearts "handed over" £5M ($6.2M) to Scottish Premiership side Heart of Midlothian as part of its bid to "secure fan ownership at Tynecastle."
The supporter group reached the milestone after initially joining forces with club Owner Ann Budge to "help take the Gorgie outfit out of administration in May 2014." The Foundation’s annual accounts to June '16 show that a total of £4.3M ($5.3M) of fans’ cash had been advanced to the club, with £1.6M ($2M) raised during that 12-month period alone. The FoH has around 8,000 members "making monthly pledges" and needs to raise a total of £9.2M ($11.4M) to ensure it achieves its objective of being handed Budge’s 75.1% shareholding by '20 (Scotland DAILY RECORD, 12/15).
The Scottish Professional Football League is "running so scared of national minimum wage legislation" its lawyers "have advised signing players on zero hours contracts." The "despised deals are among a raft of controversial suggestions made to combat the growing issue of illegal pay levels in Scottish football." The SPFL has even been advised by its lawyers, Harper Macleod, "to consider a request to the Scottish government to exclude football from living wage regulations," which guarantees workers aged 25 and over at least £7.20 ($8.90) an hour.
However, that "scandalous suggestion" has been slammed by SNP MSP James Dornan, who accused the SPFL of “arrogance” in believing it can operate outside the law (Scotland DAILY RECORD, 12/15).
