" Leyton Orient in crisis - help needed "

Good evening all & apologies for having to post this topic.


I am a Leyton Orient fan who lives in the lovely city of Cardiff. Some of you may have heard that HMRC have applied for a Winding Up Order against the club because our owner, Francesco Becchetti, has not paid some tax bills, owing at least a quarter of a million. There is a High Court Hearing on 20/03/17.

It is a very serious situation, not least because our owner appears to have vanished & we understand that several prospective buyers of the club have contacted Leyton Orient but have had no response. I should add at this juncture that a statement was put out on his behalf last month which included him saying that he wanted to sell.
The club is in danger of liquidation & our best case scenario may be administration.

I am asking if any City fans are able to make a donation to our Fans Trust no matter how small.

The link is http://www.leytonorientfanstrust.com/fund.asp

There is a good summary of the situation on LOFT's website.

I am an ordinary LOFT member & write this in my capacity as an O's fan.

John McCarthy
PS Good to see that things are improving for you on the pitch.

Sent a few quid mate

Had this on talk sport earlier today! Problem you got is owner not going to show at court so will be liquidated probably!! Hard to buy club as he is not talking to anyone not even officials at club, this guy as got history of just walking out on previous ventures and leave them liquidated? ? Not sure how you are going to proceed as apparently the debt in total is 3m plus rumoured staff not been paid, Your best scenario is administration if that is possible to achieve unfortunately an expert wasn't confident of this happening! Such a shame any club should be saddled with a tw*t of an owner.

Had this on talk sport earlier today! Problem you got is owner not going to show at court so will be liquidated probably!! Hard to buy club as he is not talking to anyone not even officials at club, this guy as got history of just walking out on previous ventures and leave them liquidated? ? Not sure how you are going to proceed as apparently the debt in total is 3m plus rumoured staff not been paid, Your best scenario is administration if that is possible to achieve unfortunately an expert wasn't confident of this happening! Such a shame any club should be saddled with a tw*t of an owner.

The directors can apply for Administration. Not great, but far better than Liquidation.
If there are potential new owners out there the club could at least survive, even if it means a relegation to the National League. The owner , even if he is also a major creditor, cannot block a sale by an Administrator and the Orient Trust would also have to be consulted in a potential sale.

Had this on talk sport earlier today! Problem you got is owner not going to show at court so will be liquidated probably!! Hard to buy club as he is not talking to anyone not even officials at club, this guy as got history of just walking out on previous ventures and leave them liquidated? ? Not sure how you are going to proceed as apparently the debt in total is 3m plus rumoured staff not been paid, Your best scenario is administration if that is possible to achieve unfortunately an expert wasn't confident of this happening! Such a shame any club should be saddled with a tw*t of an owner.

The directors can apply for Administration. Not great, but far better than Liquidation.
If there are potential new owners out there the club could at least survive, even if it means a relegation to the National League. The owner , even if he is also a major creditor, cannot block a sale by an Administrator and the Orient Trust would also have to be consulted in a potential sale.

Hope they can survive, but whilst it's said owner willing to sell it appears he won't only going by what was on radio! Even with administration it's a very long way back for club.

I'll be happy to help when I have a little more money.

Wouldn't wish something like this on our biggest rivals.

Good luck with this, would hate it here! Have your rich neighbours weighed in with a few £££'s too?? The bill HMRC are after is the same as some players weekly wages. Seems mad at times.

Had this on talk sport earlier today! Problem you got is owner not going to show at court so will be liquidated probably!! Hard to buy club as he is not talking to anyone not even officials at club, this guy as got history of just walking out on previous ventures and leave them liquidated? ? Not sure how you are going to proceed as apparently the debt in total is 3m plus rumoured staff not been paid, Your best scenario is administration if that is possible to achieve unfortunately an expert wasn't confident of this happening! Such a shame any club should be saddled with a tw*t of an owner.

The directors can apply for Administration. Not great, but far better than Liquidation.
If there are potential new owners out there the club could at least survive, even if it means a relegation to the National League. The owner , even if he is also a major creditor, cannot block a sale by an Administrator and the Orient Trust would also have to be consulted in a potential sale.

Hope they can survive, but whilst it's said owner willing to sell it appears he won't only going by what was on radio! Even with administration it's a very long way back for club.

An Administrator can sell to whoever he likes ( with League approval of the new owner) under current League insolvency rules. The current owner no longer has any blocking powers.

Thanks to all who have responded.Appreciate the messages of support.
As a matter of interest, our owner previously walked out on an Italian volleyball club.
In my view, the best we can hope for is an early administration, points deduction this season & relegation to the 5th tier. In any event we're going down as 6 points from safety. My fear is that it will be a lot worse than this.
It is of crazy that the amount owed in tax is a weekly wage for some players.
I hope that LOFT does approach other London clubs although West Ham are unlikely to help because of the Olympic Stadium spat.
Like you, I would not want any other club to go under.

Bring back Orient FC

Shocking really. I wish in cases like this where a foreign owner won't respond or show up, that hmrc would take temp control and then sell club in to interested parties or fan groups/trusts. A relegation I guess but at least still going. Seemed rosey under Barry Hearn a few years back, where did it go wrong with the new bloke? Put money in but without a clue? It sounds very familiar....good luck. My first ever away game was at orient.....April 88. It was very eventful.....

Shocking really. I wish in cases like this where a foreign owner won't respond or show up, that hmrc would take temp control and then sell club in to interested parties or fan groups/trusts. A relegation I guess but at least still going. Seemed rosey under Barry Hearn a few years back, where did it go wrong with the new bloke? Put money in but without a clue? It sounds very familiar....good luck. My first ever away game was at orient.....April 88. It was very eventful.....

My understanding is that they took a gamble trying to get promoted under Slade. Was it Rotherham that beat thm in the play off I can't quite recall. Since then it has been all downhill. It sounds like an owner went for glory, failed at the first step and lost interest.

Too much money in the game now, and the gap between the have's and the have not's is growing all the time. Ten or fifteen years from now, it will be unrecognisable from the traditional game that has been the British sport since the 2nd world war, and I think quite a few teams will be resigned to the history books.

Which is a shame really as crowds are at a record high.contrast that to the 80s and 90s prior to the premier league crowds were poor and a lot of stadiums were derelict.