Authorities seek Romanov answers

Romanov has been critical of the media in Scotland

The Scottish Football Association wants Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov to explain quotes attributed to him in a Russian football magazine.

The SFA have also written to Romanov and Hearts regarding comments made on the club website.

Romanov was quoted in Futbol magazine making allegations against match officials and Celtic and Rangers.

In his website article, Romanov again addressed referees but without directly referring to Scottish officials.

Hearts and Romanov have two weeks in which to reply and the issues will be considered at the next meeting of the SFA's general purposes committee on 26 April.

The Scottish Premier League have also made note of Romanov's website outburst, but will not act before they receive his response to an earlier request for clarification of the original quotes from Futbol.

Romanov has insisted that he was misquoted when it was suggested that he had accused the Old Firm of "buying off" players and referees.

Earlier this week, Hearts lost an appeal against a £10,000 fine from the SFA for carrying prior criticism of referees from Romanov on their website.

Romanov was himself fined £10,000 after accusing referees of "intrigues" to stop them winning the Scottish Cup last season, and his appeal has yet to be heard.