Hearts majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov has accused the Old Firm of "buying off" referees and players in Scotland.

The controversial Tynecastle chief is currently involved in a legal dispute with the Scottish Football Association after he appealed against a fine for accusing Scottish referees of bias last season.

And Romanov, who also has an interest in Lithuanian side FC Kaunas, could be in trouble again after yet another astonishing outburst on the state of Scottish football and the influence of its two biggest clubs, Celtic and Rangers.

Speaking in the Russian magazine Futbol, which was transcribed into English in the Daily Record, Romanov said: "Celtic and Rangers? Even Kaunas are a match for them on the pitch.

"They have turned football into a type of showbusiness with their underhand games.

"They buy off players and referees. When it comes to weaker teams then nobody can help.

"But if two opponents are equally matched then the referees can have a real influence on the outcome."

And asked why Eduard Malofeev failed to win a game in his four-week period as Hearts boss last year, Romanov said: "Well, if you've got five people in the team working for Rangers and Celtic, what do you expect?"

The Jambos transferred Steven Pressley and Paul Hartley to Celtic in the January transfer window after the two players, along with goalkeeper Craig Gordon, had publicly revealed "significant dressing room unrest" at the Gorgie club in October.

However, Celtic chairman Brian Quinn dismissed the allegations and threatened to sue.

"I think it is absurd. Absolutely ridiculous. If he is saying this I will take legal advice on this," he told BBC Radio Four's Today programme.

"The Scottish Football Association will clearly take a clear view of this."

Barry Ferguson branded referee Pedro Garcia "a joke" after Rangers suffered a 2-1 defeat to Hapoel Tel-Aviv in the UEFA Cup.

Goals from Salim Toama and Baruch Degu secured victory for the home side in the first leg of the last-32 tie, with Nacho Novo netting for Rangers.

However, the visitors were denied a decent penalty shout when David Weir's header appeared to be handled in the box by Ram Doani and they now have it all to do in the return leg at Ibrox next week.

Ferguson also disputed Hapoel's opener, which came courtesy of a superb free-kick from Toama, after the referee ruled Weir had fouled Zito Ibe Ogbona just outside the box.

"The referee was a joke," said Ferguson.

"I don't even want to talk about him. Everybody saw his performance for themselves.

"He was disappointing, to be honest. For the free-kick, David Weir hasn't even touched the boy and he has gone down like a sack of tatties.

"Foreign referees and players, that is their way, but you have to get on with it."

Weir added: "The referee and the linesman gave us absolutely nothing.

"I certainly didn't think I fouled their boy when they got the free-kick they scored from.

"It was a great strike by their player but it was disappointing that he had the chance in the first place.

"For the penalty incident, I headed the ball towards goal and their player got his hand to it.

"I actually didn't see it hit his hand but I was sure that was what happened.

"And after the match the rest of the boys assured me that it had indeed hit his hand."

Despite the result, Ferguson is still confident Rangers can progress to the next round, where Bordeaux or Osasuna lie in wait.

He added: "I didn't think they were a great team. We were disappointed in the dressing room afterwards.

"I thought we were the better team and I am just disappointed because I thought we were the better team.

"We are certainly going to be confident going into the return next week.

"Hopefully we will get a couple of players back from injury but I believe we can go through.

"We've got Dado Prso, Ugo Ehiogu and Kevin Thomson who might all come back in."