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Members' newsletter and Thank You!
5/7/2017

Members should have received our latest newsletter at the weekend, as well as a couple of emails since then. We're trialling a new membership database and mailing system, so please check your Spam folder before contacting Mark our membership secretary to check we have your correct details.

To repeat to the wider Orient fanbase what we said to members in the newsletter - we're sorry that we had to be so vague about what we knew around the takeover, when we knew that everyone was looking to us for answers and reassurance. But we had to respect the Non-Disclosure Agreement that Nigel had signed in order to be able to begin sale negotiations with Becchetti.

We couldn't even reveal that there was an NDA in place, as to do so would in itself have been a breach of his NDA! We simply could not risk doing or saying anything that could cause the deal to collapse.

Having been contacted by almost all of a number of parties interested in purchasing the club over the past months, it became clear to us that Nigel's bid represented by a long distance the best opportunity to move the club out of Becchetti's hands and into stable and responsible ownership.

We can now safely report that we have been working with Nigel's consortium since early March to try and help them achieve this. One of LOFT's Board flew over to Boston to meet them, for the purpose of actively supporting the bid, and since then we have been co-ordinating our actions and communications around the bid's progress, to do all we could to force Becchetti to the table and stay there.

We're also sorry that we were mostly silent after the winding-up hearing was dismissed on 12 June. We had to say or do nothing while sale discussions carried on between Messrs Travis and Becchetti, as we didn't want any action or statement by us to cause Becchetti to pull out of negotiations.

Thank You!

We said in our initial reaction to the club sale that "we can never thank everyone enough for their support, but we'll try anyway". Here is our attempt to say thank you to all who helped the LOFT Board get through the last year or so.

In no particular order (and profuse apologies to anyone missed out):

All our families and friends who have had to put up with the sheer amount of time, effort and stress needed to keep LOFT at the forefront of everything going on
Shona Duthie and all at the Waltham Forest Guardian
Elliot Byrne
Fred Nathan
Phil Parry at BBC London
Dave Victor
Graham Lane and Alex Roy at Wilkie Farr and Gallagher
Bobby Friedman at Wilberforce Chambers
Supporters Direct
All the other Supporters' Trusts who supported us, particularly Blackpool, Charlton, Spurs, Luton and Northampton, plus the Tangerine Knights
John Cryer MP
Waltham Forest Council
Paul Levy and Steve Nussbaum of the Orient Outlook podcast, in particular for their magnificent support with auctions for the fund
Leyton Orientear
Susan Murray and Red Imp Comedy Club
Steve White and the Protest Family
Attila the Stockbroker
Lee Dearing and the Supporters Club for the Quiz Night
Leytonstone Ex Servicemen's Club
Birkbeck Tavern
Supporters Club, Northcote Tavern, Leyton Star and Leyton Technical for fundraising
Waltham Forest Trades Council
Thorpe Hall School Enterprise Club
Tim Reder, Frankie Adams and Dave Winter
The National League – the only footballing governing body to actually be helpful!
All who contributed to the Recovery Plan – we’re very glad not to need it now!
Every single LOFT member – for all your thanks, support, encouragement and help
All our volunteers who rattled buckets or helped with events
Everyone that donated memorabilia for auction
Every single Leyton Orient supporter who contributed to the fund, joined in our calls for change, or who did their bit otherwise to Stand Up For The Orient
Every football fan worldwide who showed how much Orient matters
All the minority shareholders who heeded our call for support in representing them
All the clubs that allowed us to stage bucket collections at matches – Tottenham Hotspur, Cambridge United, Luton Town, Brentford, Crewe Alexandra, Accrington Stanley and Whitehawk - and the fans of those and other clubs who donated at those collections
Transport for London

Thank you, all!




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