A neat stitch up between Hearts and the SFA has come to light.
On Monday Hearts Chairman Callum Paterson met with the SFA to review all of the audio and video coverage of the conclusion of their defeat to Celtic on Saturday.
After the match Hearts fanned the flames with a statement referencing:
Reports of serious physical and verbal abuse towards our players and staff
There was no physical abuse of players and staff. The club knew that. The ‘victims’ were on a club coach that drove straight back to Tynecastle after the match.
A small pitch invasion lasting less than three minutes did take place.
During that period Derek McInnes conceded that the match was over. He could have spent five minutes in the dressing room then allowed the game to be concluded.
The Hearts manager didn’t want to go through that trauma.
Hearts briefed their media messengers to expect a further statement on Sunday.
Keith Jackson got four days out of a fantasy about a ‘missing minute’.
The SFA were quite content to let the story run. They knew the facts, they knew the media fantasy. It took a further statement from Hearts on Wednesday to force the SFA into action.
We have also written to the SFA and SPFL setting out our observations and questions regarding the circumstances surrounding the premature ending of the match.
SFA FORCED INTO REVEALING THEIR SECRETS
Hearts Chairman Paterson was well aware of the circumstances. He had been at Hampden two days earlier to view all of the evidence.
Aside from the audio the telling comment from the SFA statement was:
We note the contents of Heart of Midlothian’s statement yesterday and accompanying letter signed by the club Chair, Calum Paterson. In the interests of transparency, we are happy to set out the facts.
Regarding references to a ‘premature ending of the match’, the Scottish FA’s Chief Governance Officer, Gary Booth, the Head of Refereeing, William Collum, and VAR Manager Martin Atkinson reviewed the audio-visual footage of the period in question on Monday at the club’s request, with Mr Paterson in attendance.
While it was the agreed intention for this meeting to be conducted privately, recent statements have compelled us to consider the public interest in providing clarification and chronology.
If it hadn’t been for the Hearts statement on Wednesday we would be left in the dark about Saturday’s timescale.
Throughout Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday the SFA were content to let the moon-howlers throw dirt at Scotland’s most successful club.
Hearts CEO Andrew McKinlay is the Vice-President of the SFA. He has a foot in both camps, McKinlay has regularly been linked with becoming the CEO at Ibrox, home of his favourite club.
Hearts are due sympathy for the way that the match ended, Celtic fans shouldn’t have been on the pitch after Callum Osmand’s goal.
They denied their fellow fans the normal conclusion to the match. The Celtic players looking around an ecstatic stadium, Hearts kicking off, the final whistle with players celebrating and dejected in equal measure.
McInnes would have had to take to the pitch to console his players. Tearful Hearts players would have acknowledged their fans.
That is a side show.
Hearts have been happy to facilitate a media pile on, portraying Celtic’s title win as a great miscarriage of justice.
THE MELTDOWN HAS ONLY HEIGHTENED THE JOY OF CELTIC SUPPORTERS
For most Celtic fans the meltdown has been the icing on the cake.
Off the radar anger from Tom English, Kenny Macintyre, Andy Halliday and Ryan Stevenson on Radio Scotland. One issue, one viewpoint, no counter argument.
TalkSPORT have probably been worse. A station overloaded with presenters that detest Celtic.
Jim White and Simon Jordan couldn’t care less for Hearts. Their contempt for Celtic has been crystal clear. White even used the word tainted when he questioned O’Neill on Monday morning. A phrase he’d never use in conversation with Ally McCoist or Graeme Souness.
Jackson at the Record has been on a crusade. Almost like trying to convince readers that Andrew Cavenagh is actually the San Francisco 49ers, He isn’t.
Some in the media were aware that the ‘missing minute’ was nonsense.
So we can now say – which we haven’t been able to say openly for days – that Derek McInnes told match officials he wanted Celtic v Hearts ended the moment Celtic went 3-1 up and fans invaded the pitch. https://t.co/uM6zsuqJV1
— Graham Spiers (@GrahamSpiers) May 21, 2026
No, this is not what I’m saying. “You suggesting your entire industry has been lying”??? Wow…do you just throw accusations in there because they sound exciting?
— Graham Spiers (@GrahamSpiers) May 21, 2026
No. The information needed to be corroborated, not just blithely thrown out there. And today, we at last have the SFA evidence.
— Graham Spiers (@GrahamSpiers) May 21, 2026
Some classic gymnastics there from Spiers. Trying to have one foot in the media bubble while portraying himself as the bastion of truth and justice.
Thursday’s statement and video clip from the SFA lifted the lid on how Scottish football operates.
It is all about vested interests and secret meetings. CEO Ian Maxwell is a huge supporter of secret meetings and agreements.
The last 10 days has been illuminating. It started with Celtic being correctly awarded a penalty against Motherwell. Again Spiers gives the game away.
Scottish refereeing has a competence issue, but since the introduction of VAR, the institutional bias that used to drive instinctive mistakes has been mostly fixed.
The people who used to benefit from that institutional bias don’t like it.
— TheTributeAct (@TheTributeAct) May 14, 2026
The Scottish media and football authorities have never been held in lower esteem.
The events of the last 10 days have reinforced that view. There is no way back for either as transparency exposes most of their old secrets.
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1 Comment
by Stevie S
Would like to know what the process there is .. effectively the SDA have brought the game into disrepute …we can understand…up to a point but the hearts geezer should have stood down immediately..and this is what we should demand ..tougher with Mcinnes Bloom their chair have all brought the game into disrepute