Orient rocked by winding-up order
LEYTON ORIENT have been issued with a winding-up order by HM Revenue and Customs. London’s second-oldest club are six points from safety and on course for relegation from the Football League for the first time in their 136-year history. Now fans fear in 18 days they will no longer have a club at all. Wildly unpopular owner Francesco Becchetti is being blamed and it is believed unpaid taxes of £250,000 are being chased. Leyton Orient Fans’ Trust have a meeting tonight to try to save their club. ‘We’re in a desperately precarious situation,’ said Mat Roper, who has watched Orient since 1978. ‘If Mr Becchetti doesn’t settle the debt there is a possibility Orient would be wound up. If we had a “normal” owner we’d expect them to place Orient into administration. ‘That would mean a 12-point deduction but in a warped sense of perspective, relegation is the least of our worries because the future of the club is at stake.’ When Becchetti bought the club from Barry Hearn for £4million in 2014 he launched an Italian reality TV show offering semi-pro players the chance to win a contract at Orient. Since then the drama could have filled its own channel: Becchetti locked underperforming players in a hotel for a week and was hit by a £40,000 fine and stadium ban after kicking assistant manager Andy Hessenthaler’s backside. One director has had enough: chief operating officer Vito Miceli put his season ticket up for sale on eBay last week. He set the starting price at £130; it sold for £50. The fans’ meeting tonight will set out plans to raise a £100,000 ‘fighting fund’ to protect the club. They have also held talks with 13 other fan trusts about creating a ‘phoenix club’ — akin to AFC Wimbledon — if Orient are liquidated. ‘It feels like the lowest point in the club’s history,’ LOFT vice-chair Tom Davies told Sportsmail. ‘We’re a small club and have had financial crises before — in the late 1960s buckets were passed around the terraces and in the mid-90s the club came close to folding, which led to Barry Hearn’s takeover. ‘But in those instances we had owners who, for all their flaws, were approachable and on the same side, so there was a sense that everyone is rallying round. It’s much harder to second-guess Mr Becchetti’s intentions because he never talks to anyone. ‘He’s unaccountable, which is reflected in how he has run the club — the hirings and firings of managers, the high player turnover, the reported meddling in team affairs, the rash spending initially followed by the starving of funds now.’ The Football League and the local council are monitoring the situation, the latter offering to have meetings to try to save the club from extinction. Leyton Orient did not respond when contacted.