The board of the Scottish Premier League will meet on Tuesday evening to discuss possible sanctions against Hearts over their failure to pay their players on time for a fourth successive month.
Hearts players were due to receive their January wages on Monday but the club missed the deadline and the SPL board have scheduled a meeting to discuss what action should be taken.
"On January 4, 2012, a sub-committee of the SPL board made various orders relating to late payment of wages due to 14 Heart of Midlothian players," a statement from the SPL read.
"One of those orders was that Heart of Midlothian should make full payment of January salaries due to the 14 players by the due date of January 16, 2012.
"The Scottish Premier League has now received confirmation from Heart of Midlothian that the club has failed to comply with this order.
"A meeting of the SPL board of directors has been called. At that meeting, the SPL board will consider the situation and decide upon the appropriate course of action."
Hearts failed to pay the wages for October and November on time and another delay in December resulted in the first-team submitting a complaint to the SPL.
A deadline of Monday was imposed for January's wages but failure to deliver means that the club faces a large fine, docked points or prevented from bringing in any new players.