Hearts have been placed under an indefinite transfer embargo over a failure to make payments to players.
The Scottish Premier League has announced Hearts have “not paid a number of bonuses and appearance payments” and also face a disciplinary hearing.
It is understood some players are still awaiting bonus payments from the William Hill Scottish Cup final win over Hibernian on May 19.
A statement from the SPL read: “As a result, and as described in SPL Rule A6.23, Heart of Midlothian is subject to an embargo on the registration of players until such time as the SPL board is satisfied that the remuneration default no longer continues.”
The rules Hearts have been cited for relate to failure to pay players and club officials and were brought in during the summer following a series of late payments by the Edinburgh club last season.