Heart of Midlothian, the Edinburgh team owned by Lithuanian banker Vladimir Romanov, beat Aberdeen last week to secure second place in the Scottish Premier League. Though they lost over the weekend to Rangers, the match was meaningless, as second was already won. They could still accumulate more accolades next week in trying to win the Scottish Cup, but the ticket to the UEFA Champions League is already in their hands. All that's left is hardware.

We've had Lithuanian footballers in the Champion's League before; Edgaras Jankauskas was on the Porto team that won it all in 2004. But Hearts has become a sort of odd proxy Lithuanian team this season. First, Romanov took the team over. Then he flooded it with loaners from another team he owns, FBK Kaunas: Jankauskas, Saulius Mikoliūnas, Deividas Česnauskis, Nerijus Barasa and other, non-Lithuanian Kaunas players. Ūkio Bankas became the shirt sponsor, and now there's a reverse colonization going on: Lithuanian business, Lithuanian players, Lithuanian commercials will now be oddly on European televisions until Hearts bow out of the Champions League.

The qualification is also the first time Scotland is sending a non-Old Firm team to the most prestigious club league in the world. It's been a weird ride, following the antics of Romanov over the season: he sacked at least one, if not two coaches, and now Valdas Ivanauskas is the interim coach, he installed his son into a high position in the club, etc. It will be interesting to see what happens if Hearts actually get anything done in Europe.