Overview
- The Scottish FA ruled owner Seref Zengin and director Gerry Strain not fit and proper under Article 10, banning them immediately from any role, administration, or influence at Hamilton Academical.
- Hamilton has seven days to set out how it will comply with the ruling or face disciplinary proceedings under the Judicial Panel Protocol.
- The club is left without directors because Companies House lists Strain as the sole director and former chairman Jock Brown recently resigned, though the SFA said Brown would have been deemed fit.
- The SFA cited serious financial mismanagement by Zengin, including repeated late payments to players, HMRC, and pension funds, and found Strain directly involved in SPFL charges, loss of Club Academy Scotland status over child-wellbeing standards, an adverse child-wellbeing case review, and breaches involving payments to amateurs and trialists under an embargo.
- Strain says he is seeking urgent legal advice, and Zengin says he has complained to the Scottish Government while pursuing a sale to a consortium, following earlier penalties of a 15-point deduction that led to relegation, a further six-point deduction, and a £22,000 fine.