Barry Hearn: I’ll help rescue Leyton Orient if supporters' plan secures long-term future

Exclusive: Club’s former owner says he won’t throw money away for short-term revival
Sustainable future: Barry Hearn says he won’t throw money at short-term rescue
Kevin Quigley
Tom Collomosse2 March 2017

Barry Hearn is willing to help rescue Leyton Orient from their plight, but only if he can be convinced there is a viable plan to revive the troubled club.

Hearn is “horrified” at the position of Orient, who face a winding-up order at the High Court later this month regarding an unpaid tax bill, believed to be in the region of £250,000.

In a wide-ranging interview with Standard Sport, Hearn questioned the motives of Italian businessman Francesco Becchetti, to whom he sold the club for £4million in July 2014. A lifelong Orient fan, Hearn shares the fears of many supporters that Becchetti is running the club into the ground.

He stressed that due diligence was carried out on Becchetti, who made his fortune in waste management and recycling, before the sale was made. But he is worried that, unless a buyer is found, Orient could enter administration before the end of the season and face bankruptcy in the future.

The points penalty that would follow would almost certainly consign Orient to relegation from League Two and an uncertain future outside the Football League.

Hearn will watch with interest as members of LOFT, the Leyton Orient Fans’ Trust, gather tonight to try to raise an initial £100,000 to protect the club. Hearn, who owned Orient for 19 years, admires their intentions but fears they are unaware of the “doomsday scenario”.

Hearn said: “If they said, ‘Could you give us some help for six months to get us started?’, I’m not saying no now because I’m a fan. But I’m not throwing it away on something where there is going to be another problem in six months’ time. I can’t consider just getting them out of a short-term plan.

“You would never say no but you would need to see a sustainable plan. I’d need to see a management structure there I thought would have a reasonable chance of success. That is not easy to get. For people to help in the long term, they have to be convinced they are not throwing money away.

“Nobody with a brain would get into that situation without looking at how it can be sustainable, and they would do that from a business background. A one-off donation is not the issue. The issue is the future, and the survival of Leyton Orient. It is commendable that LOFT are having meetings and discussing it but at the moment, the club is owned by someone else who clearly has his own agenda. We have to see how that plays out.

“I feel a bit guilty even talking like this as I’ve promised my family I will never be involved in football again. I had plenty of great times in 19 years but it takes over your life.

“Would I help in some way now? If I thought there was something in place that stacked up, then who knows? But I wouldn’t get involved in management — my business is substantial, I’m 69 in June, I don’t get the time.

“I’ve 11 sports I look after. There comes a time when you have to be realistic. I don’t have the energy or enthusiasm to go back into what could be a pretty horrible world, chairman of a lower-league football club.”

LOFT hope money raised could be used to try to buy the club as part of a consortium if Becchetti sells or if Orient go into administration. The supporters’ group have spoken to the Football League and the FA about issues around administration and liquidation.

The money could also be used to start a ‘phoenix club’ in the mould of AFC Wimbledon and although that is seen as a last resort, LOFT have drawn up a three-year business plan.

Hearn defended his decision to sell to Becchetti, arguing he could not have forseen what the Italian would do. When Becchetti bought the club, they had just lost on penalties to Rotherham in the League One play-off final.

Now they are second-bottom of League Two and Hearn is concerned that Becchetti may simply allow Orient to slip into financial ruin.

In Hearn’s view, Becchetti may feel the supporters should be grateful because of the money he invested in the club when he took over. Large sums were spent on players’ wages, far in excess of anything from the Hearn era, which had ended with a playing budget of about £2.5million.

Since a joint protest among Orient and Blackpool fans before the match at Brisbane Road in November, against the owners of their clubs, Becchetti is not thought to have attended a game.

Hearn argued: “This is a very rich man with a big ego and he wants to be loved. We have to look more at that, rather than his financial competence.

“I understand the fans’ frustration but the protests against his ownership could not have been timed more badly. He saw fans protesting against him and now I wonder if this is a little bit of ‘getting even’ time.

“Will he pay [the tax bill] as he doesn’t want the bad reputation, or does he say: ‘I don’t care. These people insulted me’? If he is being vindictive in some way, that’s really bad news. If he turns round and say he’s not putting money in, eventually the piper has to be paid and that involves administration or bankruptcy.

“I don’t have regrets because I don’t know what else I could have done about it. Now I look at it and I’m horrified. If I’d known it would turn out like this I would never have sold the club. I thought this bloke was the real deal and he’s put the money it, but nobody could have believed someone with a successful business background could be so inept at running a small club.

“Do I regret selling it? No. Am I horrified how bad his management has been? Yes. He looked like the perfect solution. I left the club with no debt and £1.8m in the bank. I couldn’t have given someone an easier entry into the world of professional football but it was impossible to know his management would be this bad.”

Hearn says he has barely heard from Becchetti since the sale was completed. Matt Porter, the former Orient chief executive and a key figure in Hearn’s Matchroom Sport company, was forced to resign from the board at the start of October 2014. Others from the Hearn era have left and current club staff complain of a lack of structure behind the scenes, with every decision needing to go through Becchetti.

Leyton Orient owner Francesco Becchetti
Jordan Mansfield/Getty Images

Although he hopes a buyer can be found — and there has been interest from some investors — Hearn has a chilling vision of the future that is shared by many an Orient fan. He said: “A roller-coaster ride sometimes ends in tears and this one looks like it will end in tears. You don’t have 10 managers in two-and-a-half years. That is terrible management.

“The danger is that I can’t see rational thinking or common sense, and that always suggests there is a hidden agenda. It is possible that things have got personal with the fans.

“If he does not put any more money in, I cannot see how there can be a plan [to repay the debt]. That could mean immediate administration, which would guarantee relegation, and would the National League take Orient on that basis?

“I hope LOFT are talking to their members about this because if they are serious about fan ownership, they are getting a basket case and they have to adjust their thinking. I hope I am wrong but it doesn’t look good.

“It comes back to ‘How are we going to do it?’ If I am going to be involved in any way, that is what I need to see. I say to LOFT to show me what you’re all about. Show me the plan.”

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