Hearts captain Steven Pressley on Friday revealed widespread unrest in the Scottish team's dressing room following two years of managerial upheaval.
A planned news conference with caretaker coach Eduard Malofeev was scrapped while Pressley, flanked by team mates Craig Gordon and Paul Hartley, read out a statement.
"Morale, understandably, is not good and there is significant unrest in the dressing room," Pressley said, reading from the statement after training.
The extraordinary move follows repeated interference in team selection by Lithuanian owner Vladimir Romanov and comes just days after manager Valdas Ivanauskas announced he was taking two weeks' rest for health reasons.
"I have tried, along with the coaching staff and certain colleagues, to implement the correct values and discipline but it has become an impossible task," the statement said. "There is only so much coaching staff, a captain and certain colleagues can do without the full backing, direction and coherence of the manager and those running the football club. The last two years have been testing for the players and together they have faced a number of challenges."
Fraser Wishart, the head of the Scottish players union, sided with Pressley and his teammates.
"Under extremely difficult circumstances, they have managed to continue to be successful on the field of play," he said. "It is clear, however, following recent events the players feel that stability at the club and a clear strategy with regard to the way forward at the club is now necessary."
The BBC reported on its Web site that Romanov had threatened to sell all the players if they failed to beat Dunfermline on Saturday.
The BBC said Romanov would move players "to Kilmarnock or whatever club will take them" and then play a team of youngsters against Celtic next weekend.
Former manager George Burley left last October while the club topped the Scottish Premier League amid reports of a bust-up with Romanov trying to pick the team.
His replacement Graham Rix was sacked after it emerged he told the players he no longer chose the team. He was replaced by Ivanauskas.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB