Cod Almighty | Diary

You cannot own people's memories and dreams

2 March 2017

Right, you are one of the 4,000 or so who went to Blundell Park on a cold Tuesday night, watched a piss-poor game, and you are still feeling sorry for yourself? Think yourself lucky. You might support Leyton Orient.

In 11 games in 2017, Orient have picked up just four points and are six points adrift of safety, 91st in the Football League. That is the least of their problems. Since our rough guide to Orient in September, the antics of 'owner' Francesco Becchetti have grown still more injurious to the club. During the transfer window, most senior players were released in what looked suspiciously like a fire sale. Managers came and went – current incumbent Danny Webb is their fourth this season. This week, they were served with a winding-up order by HM Revenue and Customs for unpaid taxes of around £250,000.

Be honest with yourself. You love the rite of passage that is the cold Tuesday night game. You would think yourself less of a fan if you had not shivered your way through a really poor match. You'll be boasting about it longer than you will be boasting about watching Town at Wembley. Right now, Os fans would offer anything to know that next season they will be able to watch their team in the most inhospitable conditions.

On 20 March, when the winding-up order is heard, there is a real risk that Leyton Orient will cease to exist. In their current form.

In some form of other, the Os will live on. The Leyton Orient fans' trust is meeting tonight to raise money towards a disaster recovery fund. Maybe that'll help the club stave off the immediate crisis and get it into more benign custodianship. Maybe that'll go towards setting up a phoenix club – a marathon undertaking under the best of circumstances. Property prices and West Ham's new presence in Stratford mean O's fans have anything but the best circumstances. But fans will ensure the club survives, somehow.

Middle-Aged Diary looked this morning, and neither the Football League site, the Football Association site nor even the Os' official site had anything to say about the winding-up order. What could they say? It was on their watch that Becchetti was allowed to take control of Orient. The way the game is administered takes for granted that now they are powerless. A club becomes the property of its owner and the thousands of people whose emotions are invested in it must ride the storm.

Not only must we risk a large part of our happiness being dependent on the form and fitness of 11 footballers and the person who picks them. We are also subjected to the whims of people who, by the transfer of electronic digits, lay claim to 'ownership'. But shares in a football club are just bits of paper. Ownership comes from enduring and enjoying those cold Tuesday nights. To adapt the phrase, you can no more own a football club than you can own the wind. It is time the game was administered in a way that reflects who really suffers when a club is run the Becchetti way.

Up the Mariners. And up the fans of the Os.