Leyton Orient up for Sale...again...

[EnglishRed]

Get John Sitton back in as manager.

And he can bring his facking dinner an all

 

[Etienne Vermeer]

Companies House have issued a strike off notice against Leyton Orient Football Club Limited.

Surely it's in Becchetti's best interest to sell and get something rather than liquidation?

 

[Look Out There Are Llamas]

Surely it's in Becchetti's best interest to sell and get something rather than liquidation?

We have a winding up hearing on 12th June. We were afforded a stay of execution for Becchetti to settle the debts or sell up. Some debts have been settled, but others like Hearn's rent for the stadium and the training ground haven't been settled and obviously the accounts are now three months overdue.

There are apparently two interested parties that Becchetti and his mother dearest have met with so you'd hope something can be resolved before the 12th. Because of the interest I highly doubt liquidation will be on the table, administration is a possibility/ probability. To be honest though, with Becchetti I don't really think anything can be ruled out, he doesn't make rational decisions.

Statement by LOFT probably sums it up better:

Leyton Orient are due in court again on 12 June, where the winding-up petition first brought in March will be heard for a determination. There is no indication of planning for next season in any way. Nobody knows who is making decisions about which players are being offered renewed contracts for next season. In all aspects, there remains a huge cloud over our club's future.

At the original winding-up hearing on 20 March, Becchetti promised via letter to inject £1m to pay off creditors within 8 to 10 weeks. That was over 9 weeks ago, meaning he has just days remaining to fulfil that promise.

During those 9 weeks, with the exceptions of HMRC and (after unacceptable delay) the wages for March and April, there has been little or no improvement in the situation with respect to trade creditors being settled. In fact, we have had further creditors come forward to us for assistance in recovering sums due to them.

There is also the matter of the unpaid rent on Brisbane Road, with Barry Hearn stating over 10 days ago that action was about to be taken. The next wages bill is also due to be paid at the end of May.

Becchetti now faces a stark reality – he must sell the club within days, otherwise the situation at the club will get even worse.

If serious bidders for the club are being frustrated in their attempts to complete a purchase, this potentially leaves the club in the invidious position whereby on 12 June, the creditor position is worse, promises made by the owner to pay the creditors remain unfulfilled, yet potential bidders that could save the club would be unable to take a position to pay the creditors.

This would potentially leave the court with no option but to order the winding up of the club.

In view of this, as a last resort, in the event that the club is not in new hands by the hearing on 12 June, LOFT will make an application on that date for administration.

The Regeneration Fund is now in a position whereby LOFT could afford to pay administrators, and given that, in our judgement, there is at least one serious buyer, we will have no hesitation in using our standing with the court that comes from Powers of Attorney from creditors and shareholders to make this application, in order that the club's liquidation is averted.

This course of action is desperate and very much a last resort. It raises the prospect of a points deduction and a variety of potential sanctions from the National League. Indeed, it could shape the club’s future for many years to come.

However, LOFT’s board is united and unanimous that administration would be preferable to both the current paralysis at the club, and to the alternative of liquidation and having to reform as a phoenix club; an option that, while we are prepared for it, remains very much the scenario of last resort.

In an administration, we would also look to use our position to work with the administrator to undertake a full investigation into the financial management of the club over the last three years. In the event that any evidence of negligence or wrongdoing were to come to light, we would seek recourse to the full extent of the law.

Leyton Orient can only move forwards as a football club once a change of club ownership takes place and it is entirely right that we should attempt to seek an end to the current situation for the club’s fans, creditors, minority shareholders, and other stakeholders.

It is clearly in everyone’s best interest that a deal is completed before the hearing on 12 June and we call on all concerned to conclude that deal properly and swiftly.

 

[Etienne Vermeer]

A strike-off notice is literally a company being dissolved. So yeah hopefully it gets nowhere near that.

 

[The Terminator]

Jim White on talksport has today said he believes Becchetti has gone and we will hear more tomorrow. *Prays*

 

[The Terminator]

Rumours circulating this evening that the new second bidder is Becchetti's preferred option to sell too - Alan Bowers who is apparently a property developer in North London.

Would be a tad disappointed for Nigel Travis if this is true, although the gentleman who put this on Twitter thinks it would be a good deal.

The End appears to finally be in sight, then we can all finally move on.

 

[E10rifle]

A property developer? How wonderful. I can't see this going wrong at all.

 

[Look Out There Are Llamas]

Yup...

Travis is by far and away my preferred option.

 

[Look Out There Are Llamas]

Congratulations and well done Francesco Becchetti.

http://www.theleaguepaper.com/featured/8261/the-flps-alternative-awards-2016-17-villain-of-the-year/

 

[The Reverend Skyblue]

I'm following this story all the time. I hope and pray the Orient survive this and with the ground still intact.
Selling to a property developer in London surely means the end of the club after he has bankrolled the club for a season or two so it looks like he didn't buy the club so he could put up two tower blocks on the site.
I've had so many great times at this ground, my late father used to work in the area and he would take me out of school so I could go to work with him for the day , and every time after work we would walk round the corner and catch any game going on at Brisbane Road.
I will be devasted to see you disappear, I think only you have more incompetent and distrustful owners than us in the entire league.
I can't believe two years ago you tore us a new areshole in both league games in league one, and now you are on the brink of oblivion.
Good luck and I hope you get through this

 

[Look Out There Are Llamas]

Sadly he's no longer a league owner

 

[GTFCfish]

I'm following this story all the time. I hope and pray the Orient survive this and with the ground still intact.
Selling to a property developer in London surely means the end of the club after he has bankrolled the club for a season or two so it looks like he didn't buy the club so he could put up two tower blocks on the site.
I've had so many great times at this ground, my late father used to work in the area and he would take me out of school so I could go to work with him for the day , and every time after work we would walk round the corner and catch any game going on at Brisbane Road.
I will be devasted to see you disappear, I think only you have worst owners than us in the entire league.
I can't believe two years ago you tore us a new areshole in both league games in league one, and now you are on the brink of oblivion.
Good luck and I hope you get through this

You wouldn't wish them well if you knew what they did to those poor kiddies ice creams......

 

[Farleigh]

So are you joining us next season or not? The suspense is unbearable.

 

[Raymondo316]

So are you joining us next season or not? The suspense is unbearable.

Conference AGM is coming up soon, if Orient dont get their act together soon i could see the league refusing to accept them

 

[Meadow]

Conference AGM is coming up soon, if Orient dont get their act together soon i could see the league refusing to accept them

That won't happen unless L'Orient get wound up. I think the Conference have to accept them as part of the terms for the EFL accepting two teams from the National League. Serious doubts were raised about Chester City in 2009 but the Conference took them in under pressure. They didn't finish the season and their record was expunged.

 

[Raymondo316]

They could agree to accept them, but they could do a Boston and put them in the league below.

 

[The Terminator]

So are you joining us next season or not? The suspense is unbearable.

We'll be here next season, our sale will more than likely go through next week to Alan Bowers and Co (I've never heard of them either, don't think its the ex West Ham player). Becchetti has to get rid of us sharpish now otherwise he will lose more of his money.

We're just playing catchup in terms of preperation.

I'd rather have had Nigel Travis and Kent Teague buy us who were the other bidders, but surely this new group cannot be any worse than Becchetti was............................................They are apparently friends of Barry Hearn.

 

[The Terminator]

Looks like Becchetti is holding up the sale on his side and has done for a few weeks now, just leave you fucking c***

 

[HertsWolf]

Good luck Orient fans. It seems only yesterday I was watching the play-off match against Rotherham for you to get into the Championship. Changed times. Hope it turns better for you.

 

[genesimmons]

Whats the bond needed at the agm

 

[Gibber_McGee]

Whats the bond needed at the agm

When we were in financial trouble under our previous asset stripping owner whilst the fans were in the process of rescuing the club we had to pay the National League a bond of £250,000 to start the season. It was unhelpful to say the least.

 

[ForeverUnited]

I think ours was the same, obviously wasn't paid by the owner then we were expelled from the conference.

 

[Luke Imp]

I like that.

In a financial mess? No problem! Give us a massive bond. That's sure to help.

 

[Jemfy]

The logic of the bond makes a little sense. The idea is that it is to compensate the clubs who do not have a home game against that team for the loss of income. If the team were thrown out then a reprieve would be granted to keep the full complement of fixtures.

In terms of practicality - it's pretty hard on the clubs it is imposed on, and unfair in the sense that they don't get a chance to make it. More often than not I think if the club can't raise the bond it's probably just speeding up the inevitable now.

 

[White Army]

Whats the consensus towards the Hearn family Orient fans? Did Barry sell you down the river, or at the time did it look a good deal?

 

[Look Out There Are Llamas]

Whats the consensus towards the Hearn family Orient fans? Did Barry sell you down the river, or at the time did it look a good deal?

Imo it's yes to both. I'll elaborate more when I'm home, but, Becchetti's family are obviously loaded - He owns a £25m converted pub in Mayfair... If those resources were placed adequately into the running of LOFC it's probably enough to become a stable Championship club minimum really.

On the flip side, it takes about 20 minutes on Google to realise he's previously liquidated a sports team, he is in legal disputes over waste management in Albania and his uncle has been investigated by Italian prosecutors and something looks a bit off.

 

[The Terminator]

Whats the consensus towards the Hearn family Orient fans? Did Barry sell you down the river, or at the time did it look a good deal?

Furthering on from Llamas answer who is spot on, the bloke still has as many admirers shall we say at Brisbane Road as well as haters.

You don't realise until they're gone, just how good a job people like Barry Hearn do at clubs for 20+ years, the club ALWAYS found a way under Barry and his leadership. For what its worth, an approachable man with lots of energy and charisma who never backed down from answering a question face to face.

I didn't agree with every decision he ever made though, infact I still despise the fact he turned our ground into a housing estate (which he benefits from) and the way he sold the ground to himself - Which alot of our fans still hold against him and rightly so.

But I would shake the mans hand if I saw him again, he ran the place well for 20+ years and although there were many, many boring summers in those 20 years, you don't realise until now that a boring summer at a football club is usually a sensible one.

 

[The Terminator]

And there is more news and rumours. Looks like someone has finally found Alan Bowers through a mutual friend:

https://twitter.com/leeboyce23/status/869927235087740928 (He is the short man with the white hair)

Meanwhile the bloke who met him's group of mates have been going around twitter claiming Becchetti won't sell to Nigel Travis, because our fans trust are sticking their noses in and he's their preferred bidder. Apparently this should've all been done weeks ago, but Becchetti is deliberately digging his heals in.

A few of Bowers mates have gone around the internet saying its a done deal, but it doesn't look that way as Becchetti is dragging things out for whatever reason.

Frustration is not the word.

 

[Look Out There Are Llamas]

I know nothing about Bowers, but the idea of he and his consortium gives me the creeps. I get the impression. Mr Travis and Mr Teague have pure intentions. Can we say that for the other party?

 

[Look Out There Are Llamas]