'This is the dawning of a new era' - Former chairman Barry Hearn named honorary president of Leyton Orient

Hearn saved Orient from financial disaster when he took over in 1995
Kevin Quigley
James Benge29 June 2017

Leyton Orient have appointed former chairman Barry Hearn as honorary president a week after a consortium completed their takeover of the club.

Hearn served as Orient chairman for 19 years until 2014, a period that culminated with the club coming within a penalty shootout of reaching the Championship in a League One Play-Off Final defeat to Rotherham.

However Hearn’s successor Francesco Becchetti proved to be a disastrous custodian with April marking the end of Orient’s 112 year stay in the Football League as they were relegated.

A new consortium led by lifelong fan Nigel Travis, chief executive of the Dunkin’ Brands Group, bought the club last week after they had staved off a winding-up petition in the High Court.

The 69-year-old sports promoter Hearn believes this could be the start of a bright new era at Brisbane Road and has labelled the new owners the right people to take Orient back to the Football League.

Hearn said: “In keeping with the rest of Leyton Orient, I am looking forward to it. I have always been a fan and right now I couldn’t be any happier for Orient as a club. Nigel Travis has come in with his group and I really believe they are the right people.

“I was absolutely delighted to say yes when Nigel asked if I would come back as honorary president. I think it is another statement of how well Nigel and his team have started to turn this club around already. There is a long way to go but the moves are looking good and they are doing the right things.

“This is the dawn of a new era, and Matchroom Sport decided today that we are going to sponsor all the youth teams exclusively. That is a beginning of showing that the ethos of community still burns brightly, but I also have my personal belief that this club can be built on local kids coming through our youth team in the future.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in