League Two side Leyton Orient faces a "winding-up order over an unpaid tax bill," according to Tom Collomosse of the London EVENING STANDARD. The "struggling" club, owned by Italian businessman Francesco Becchetti, will have the case heard at the High Court on March 20. Orient faces the threat of liquidation if it cannot settle its debt to U.K. tax authority HMRC, which is reportedly in the region of £250,000 ($307,200). It was reported last month that Becchetti "was willing to sell the club, but was reluctant to take any less" than the £4M he paid to buy Orient from sports promoter Barry Hearn in July '14 (EVENING STANDARD, 3/1). The BBC's Bill Wilson reported a number of potential offers have reportedly "not been considered sufficiently financially attractive." While the taxman is the "principal petitioner for a winding up, it now remains to be seen whether other creditors will come on board and support the action." In its most recently available financial results, for the year ending June 30, 2015, Leyton Orient put its "book value," the net value of the company running the football club, at -£5,512,449 -- "in other words, the club had debts exceeding its assets" of more than £5.5M (BBC, 3/1).
'DISASTER RECOVERY': In London, David Conn reported the Leyton Orient Fans' Trust will hold a meeting on Thursday to raise money toward a "disaster recovery" fund. The special general meeting of L.O.F.T., "which was called before the winding-up petition became public," is to consider ways of raising money and being involved either in a sale by Becchetti or, "in a worst-case scenario, having to form a new club if Orient go bust." A club spokesperson said that it would "not be issuing any comment about the winding-up petition" (GUARDIAN, 3/1).
