I grew up in a family of football fans. There is a nigh religious reverence to the sport at times in British culture in general, and whilst my I didn't grow up in the most extreme of such environments, it was certainly an omnipresent factor. This blog is written for those of you who don't like football.
Gonna try and condense a lot of history and information, so here goes:
Hearts, are my family's team of choice. They are (kinda) the third best team Scotland, but not in any clear cut manner. Scottish football has, more or less, two tiers: Rangers and Celtic, the Glasgow teams, both tussle each year for the title, whilst everyone else goes for the third position. The Old Firm, as the Celtic and Rangers are known, are rarely troubled, and beyond them there is no real solid hierarchy.
A while back, Hearts got into financial trouble, and it looked they'd have to sell their much beloved stadium. In swooped a rich Lithuanian businessman named Vladimir Romanov, however, and all was saved! Right?
Well, fans have ordained him “mad Vlad” if that’s any indication.
Recently, after a season that shows that Hearts are on the right track to become stronger, with ambitions of going after the Old Firm, one of the Hearts players has been put on the sex offender’s register after, well, preying on two underage girls, 12 and 14. Much to the anger of much of the fans, Hearts have decided to keep him on. An utterly stupid decision.
But that’s not what this blog is about. With all this controversy flying about, Hearts have released the following statement. And, really, you have to give this a read:
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"What's happening with the club today is not a new thing. For almost 7 years we have been fighting to shield the club from crooks, criminals and thieves. Many of the top players at the club have felt the bitter results of the swindles that have been carried out with them on their own skin. Skacel and Webster have returned to the club after realising where these 'football patriots' have led them.
"Over a short space of time 4 players at our club have been on the wrong end of the law. We note that 3 of them are represented by the same agent - Gary Mackay - who has been so vicious in his attacks against Mr Romanov.
"Taking into account the facts that have been omitted by the media it can be presumed that each of these cases is not a coincidence, but the result of targeted actions of a mafia that wants to manipulate the club and the results.
"Every year Hearts fights to be in the top 3, but even last season in the last 12 games of the season it was almost like someone replaced the team with a different one. Whose fault is that? Players? Manager's? Or it is mafia.
"Stealing players, bad games, problems with the law - all of that on top of record SFA fines. Problems are just shifted to another level.
"Mafia are dragging kids into the crime, in order to blackmail and profit on them. It is not possible to separate these people from pedophiles, and you don't need to do that. Each year we are forced to fight against these maniacs harder and harder. We are standing in their way not letting them manipulate the game of football in the way they want. As such they undermine us in every possible way they can.
"The task of the club is to tear these kids out of hands of criminals."
Source: http://www.heartsfc.co.uk/articles/20110624/hearts-statement_2241384_2381659
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Yeah. What?
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