Home And Away | Megabucks players, not fans, should cough up to save football’s heritage
League Two side Leyton Orient avoided a winding up order this week at the High Court in London with the club £5,512,449 in debt
The indignity of having your club hauled before a bankruptcy court can only be topped by the absenteeism in the dock of the incompetent who led your team to Skid Row.
Just ask those Leyton Orient fans who took a day off work to attend the High Court in London to see if owner Francesco Becchetti had any solutions to save their old club – the second oldest in the capital - from oblivion.
The Italian multi-millionaire businessman didn’t even bother to leave his £20 million (HK$193m) Mayfair mansion and show at the winding-up hearing.
Instead, he left it to the legal team to settle a debt with the tax man thought to be around £250,000. This bought a stay of execution until the next court date in June.
Despite the reprieve, supporters fear the club remains in mortal danger – and with good reason. Orient have a list of creditors and the club’s latest set of accounts showed it had debts of £5,512,449 – more than the value of the club’s assets of £5.5m.
The court was told Becchetti would invest £1m to pay off remaining debts in eight to 10 weeks. He remains missing in action and any remaining trust in the man who bought the club in 2014 amid the usual fanfare of promises has long evaporated.
