Northern League preparing to welcome Darlington

8:00am Wednesday 23rd May 2012 in Sport Photograph of the Author By Scott Wilson

Shildon FC's 2,500 capacity ground Shildon FC's 2,500 capacity ground

THE Northern League are preparing to accommodate Darlington ahead of Friday's Football Association announcement about which league the club will be playing in next season.

The FA are still to confirm Darlington's punishment for failing to exit administration by the proper procedures at the start of the month.

A delegation including DFC 1883 chairman Denis Pinnegar and board member Laura Drew argued for leniency when they met FA officials at Wembley last week.

However, it looks as though their pleas have fallen on deaf ears, and The Northern Echo understands there is a strong possibility of Darlington being placed into Division One of the Northern League ahead of the start of next season.

If confirmed, the news will be a major blow to club officials, who had been hoping to secure a place in either the Evo-Stick League Northern Premier or Division One North.

That could still happen, but it is telling that Northern League officials have been instructed to start making preparations for the Quakers' possible inclusion in next season's competition.

Interestingly, Durham City's demotion from the Evo-Stick League means the Northern League's top-flight currently has an odd number of clubs. By installing Darlington, the FA would be preventing the need for a further reshuffle.

The Quakers will discover their fate on Friday, and little more than two years after they were playing against Bradford City, Notts County and Crewe Alexandra in the Football League, they could find themselves lining up against the likes of Newton Aycliffe, Consett and Team Northumbria.

They are also set to be in the same division as Shildon, who will be their landlords at Dean Street.

If they bypass the Evo-Stick League, they will have been relegated four divisions since they end of last season, when they finished in the bottom four of the Blue Square Bet Premier.

The FA's punishment would be one of the most draconian ever dished out, and reflect the governing body's unhappiness with Darlington's failure to adhere to the regulations that govern a club's exit from administration.

FA rules state that in order to leave administration and reclaim a place in the football pyramid, a club must agree a Creditors' Voluntary Agreement (CVA) with its creditors.

Despite the best efforts of DFC 1883 board members, Darlington were unable to agree a CVA as part of the deal that saw administrator Harvey Madden relinquish control of the club earlier this month.

They could not reach an agreement with the club's major creditor, former chairman Raj Singh, and inherited footballing debts relating to outstanding wages owed to the club's former players.

Pinnegar has promised to do all he can to help local businesses who lost out when the club was placed into administration, and has pledged to pay the players' outstanding wages.

However, his assurances are not understood to have placated FA officials, who are concerned that a lenient interpretation of the rules on this occasion could establish a dangerous precedent for other clubs to exploit in the future.

To further complicate matters, Darlington have not been able to transfer their existing footballing share, the notional ratification that enables them to compete in an FA-affiliated competition.

As a result, while DFC 1883 opted not to go down the route of liquidation and reformation as a 'Phoenix club', the FA are effectively treating the latest incarnation of the Quakers as a separate entity to the one that ended last season.

There are also issues over the ground rating of Dean Street which could prevent Darlington from playing Evo-Stick matches at the stadium.

Yesterday, an FA spokesman simply said: "We will be announcing our decision on Friday and will not be commenting before then."

If Darlington are demoted to the Northern League, questions will be raised about the wisdom of keeping the club alive in the second half of last season, rather than investing the money that was raised through bucket collections and personal donations into the creation of a brand new club.

However, DFC 1883 remain hopeful that their approach will enable professional football to return to Darlington at some stage in the future and safeguard the 129-year history of the club.

Comments(33)

laughingboy51 says...
8:48am Wed 23 May 12

I knew it would all end in tears!

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dave3mrr says...
8:53am Wed 23 May 12

And the Gazette says Evostick League. No one will really know until Friday so let's wait.

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Pierremontquaker03 says...
9:35am Wed 23 May 12

Its all speculation. which newspapers love, as dave3mrr said - the decision will be Friday.

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morgan1 says...
10:07am Wed 23 May 12

I would like to know the 1883 deal, what do they own and why dont they have the league voting share.
Is this deal complete, done and dusted or does it depend on paying 70K to the administratror by the end of the month.
Is it a club in its own right or does it still have financial committments to pay before these dated deadlines.
If this is the case and it fails to honour committments made does the assets return to Darlo 2009 and the whole club is then liquidated.
We need a clear statement from 1883 as to these questions.

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monteforte says...
10:42am Wed 23 May 12

Are the Evo Stik also preparing for the possibility of Darlington??

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al_quaker says...
10:59am Wed 23 May 12

morgan1 wrote:
I would like to know the 1883 deal, what do they own and why dont they have the league voting share.
Is this deal complete, done and dusted or does it depend on paying 70K to the administratror by the end of the month.
Is it a club in its own right or does it still have financial committments to pay before these dated deadlines.
If this is the case and it fails to honour committments made does the assets return to Darlo 2009 and the whole club is then liquidated.
We need a clear statement from 1883 as to these questions.
1883 have said that the football share is still with the previous owner. Rules say they have to sign it over, and 1883 were unable to reach a deal with the previous owner.

This was said on the ask 1883 forum on darlofc.co.uk.

If you have any questions, if you ask them on there, 1883 are pretty quick to answer them.

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holmesc1 says...
1:16pm Wed 23 May 12

Discusted if they demote darlington the crappy northern league. Typical FA one ruel for one club one rule for another. How come chester, Halifax, telford etc actually get liquadated and are still placed in evo stick league. Its not on unless the FA are getting stricter. If Darlington are placed in the northern league they might as well have been liquated in january instead of all the hard graft by the fans. Raj Singh is as much to blame as george reynolds for the clubs downfall

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darlobri says...
1:18pm Wed 23 May 12

Really hope its not the Northern League,that is going to make it so hard to get back where we should be. Does anyone know what players,if any

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darlobri says...
1:20pm Wed 23 May 12

Meant to say......what players do we have left!!

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morgan1 says...
1:25pm Wed 23 May 12

They are not relegating any team, to all intent and purposes this is a Newco beyond a doubt. In fact its more awkward than being liquidated as Darlo 2009 still have the league voting share and I guess a right to play in the conference North, if someone paid a CVA to Darlo 2009, is it not still in administration.

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laughingboy51 says...
2:00pm Wed 23 May 12

if it is the Northern League it would take years to get back in to League 2........lack of money, admission charges would be low and how can you attract and pay decent players.............
....

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monteforte says...
2:20pm Wed 23 May 12

Ask 1883 forum ?..So many questions left unanswered?
Why don't DFC 1883 simply issue full and frank statements on here

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darlobri says...
2:37pm Wed 23 May 12

Agree with laughingboy51....if it is as low as the Northern League it will be a long way back and at the moment we cant attract any players as we dont even have our own ground. If the plans for new stadium next year go ahead this needs to be sorted ASAP or we will just end up as another Northern League team plodding on from season to season.....lets jusy hope it is Evostick!!

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morgan1 says...
2:59pm Wed 23 May 12

I think this is going to be my last comment but I will post here and elsewhere to see if anyone answers.
As an investor in CrowdCube I gave my email address. To this day I have never be emailed and asked directly if I could increase my stake. Once the CIC came on the scene these investors were forgotton about, not all were fans.

Looking at the situation the club needs £5M to buy stadium, running costs, playing budget etc and then about £1.5M in year 2.

Of the 943 investors this is approx £5k year 1 and £1600 year 2.
With Ordinary Shares and of the Net Profits at 10% dividend, 20% Community and 70% back to club.
I simply dont see why this was not asked, I would have done it for at least some return and I believe you would have had many more people not just fans simply to get a small return and by now you would have been in the Conference North for next season..

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quakersam says...
3:17pm Wed 23 May 12

It would of all been a gamble though morgan. It's like rolling a dice and picking a way forward. We wouldn't have been in the Conf North next season as Raj Singh wouldn't agree to sign off his 800k waiver of debt. The only way he would of signed this over would be for him to have a percentage of the clauses on the Dan Burn deal and a percentage on development of the land/stadium.
1883 took this to The FA but they rejected the conditions that RS had put into the deal so we were screwed either way

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quakersam says...
3:28pm Wed 23 May 12

morgan1 wrote:
I would like to know the 1883 deal, what do they own and why dont they have the league voting share.
Is this deal complete, done and dusted or does it depend on paying 70K to the administratror by the end of the month.
Is it a club in its own right or does it still have financial committments to pay before these dated deadlines.
If this is the case and it fails to honour committments made does the assets return to Darlo 2009 and the whole club is then liquidated.
We need a clear statement from 1883 as to these questions.
The deal is done yes. It was an initial 70k to the administrator to take the assets of 2009 Ltd to 1883 Ltd (goodwill, name, history etc). There is a further 30k to pay, which means the deal was 100k in total.
It doesn't have the league share as RS tried to put the same clauses into signing the share over. 1883 couldn't accept these conditions and The FA know about this, hence why they are giving us a new "footballing share".
It is a football club in its own right, however we are awaiting a league placing and share on Friday from the FA.
1883 Ltd has taken on the liabilities and players contracts under TUPE (they run till the end of June), so we have to pay the players for two months. We are also paying back the footballing creditors over 3 years (this is required by the FA to be granted a footballing share). This is another 100k hence why 200k is needed for these purposes and to sign a manager and players by the end of june (gets us up and running).
We have two players under contract for next season (McReady and Phil Gray). McReady could net us some big cash in the future.
If it fails to honour the commitments, I'm not sure what happens to the assets to be honest.

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quakersam says...
3:28pm Wed 23 May 12

morgan1 wrote:
I would like to know the 1883 deal, what do they own and why dont they have the league voting share.
Is this deal complete, done and dusted or does it depend on paying 70K to the administratror by the end of the month.
Is it a club in its own right or does it still have financial committments to pay before these dated deadlines.
If this is the case and it fails to honour committments made does the assets return to Darlo 2009 and the whole club is then liquidated.
We need a clear statement from 1883 as to these questions.
The deal is done yes. It was an initial 70k to the administrator to take the assets of 2009 Ltd to 1883 Ltd (goodwill, name, history etc). There is a further 30k to pay, which means the deal was 100k in total.
It doesn't have the league share as RS tried to put the same clauses into signing the share over. 1883 couldn't accept these conditions and The FA know about this, hence why they are giving us a new "footballing share".
It is a football club in its own right, however we are awaiting a league placing and share on Friday from the FA.
1883 Ltd has taken on the liabilities and players contracts under TUPE (they run till the end of June), so we have to pay the players for two months. We are also paying back the footballing creditors over 3 years (this is required by the FA to be granted a footballing share). This is another 100k hence why 200k is needed for these purposes and to sign a manager and players by the end of june (gets us up and running).
We have two players under contract for next season (McReady and Phil Gray). McReady could net us some big cash in the future.
If it fails to honour the commitments, I'm not sure what happens to the assets to be honest.

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morgan1 says...
3:30pm Wed 23 May 12

As the question was never asked we will never know if sufficient money could have been raised to resolve the issues of RS.
Bear in mind getting something is better than getting nothing.
I think the pitch should have been straight forward where investors get a small return there are lots and lots of people willing to invest that have nothing to do with football, just want a small return on their investment, at least you would still have had a home, been in Darlington, in the Conference North and ability to get back quickly.
It would have been a gamble worth taking you could not have been worse off than you are now.

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morgan1 says...
3:48pm Wed 23 May 12

Forgive me Quakers AM on this but are you saying that 1883 ltd, is a club in its own right which is presently indebted to the tune of £130K -£150K to be raised by end of June, and why are you trying to raise the 70K if this has already been paid or was it borrowed or needs to be paid back or is part of it the 30K yet to be paid to the administrator.
To me this still sounds like there is no club unless 200K is raised almost immediately.

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quakersam says...
3:54pm Wed 23 May 12

Of course it will have been known. 800k plus 250k for football creditors plus 250k for non-footballing creditors. 1.3m just to pay off debts. We raised 335k. You honestly believe we could have raised £1m more? I admire your optimism but it wouldn't have happened. 1.3m to save a club going to the BSN wouldn't have been worth it anyway.
And why should Raj have got any of his money back when he came out and said he's not expecting anything back and said the club was debt free in 2011, well it was apart from that 800k loan ey Raj.

Investors were never going to get a return on their investment. This is a club that died in January and came back to life half an hour later. Money was to save the club and anything made would be ploughed back into the club.
This wasn't about people making money from the club. It's about asking yourselves what you can do to help the club, not what the club can do for you.

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quakersam says...
3:59pm Wed 23 May 12

morgan1 wrote:
Forgive me Quakers AM on this but are you saying that 1883 ltd, is a club in its own right which is presently indebted to the tune of £130K -£150K to be raised by end of June, and why are you trying to raise the 70K if this has already been paid or was it borrowed or needs to be paid back or is part of it the 30K yet to be paid to the administrator.
To me this still sounds like there is no club unless 200K is raised almost immediately.
70k has already been paid, this was the original 70k that went into CrowdCube from the SuppClub, Uncovered & Trust. This money paid for the exclusivity on buying the assets.

30k is needed to complete the deal.

The further money needed is to pay costs we have incurred, the players wages for May, sign a manager, sign players, all other associated costs with starting a football season (kits / ground maintenance / lease fee etc).

Technically there is a club there but liabilities need paying that 1883 Ltd has taken on

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morgan1 says...
4:29pm Wed 23 May 12

Throughout my life quakersam one of the biggest lessons to learn is about 'assumption' which tends to lead to the biggest **** ups in history, usually costing lives.
It was assumed you could not raise £5M but no one ever asked the 943 investors to find out, all because of an assumption.

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mensamoo says...
4:30pm Wed 23 May 12

The FA are totally mercenary on this. A football club is not just a financial business. It is a part of our history and community. Why should a few toss pot chairman be allowed to waste what belongs to the town? And how are shildon going to cope with a thousand supporters, which is hopefully what we will get.

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laughingboy51 says...
4:38pm Wed 23 May 12

mensamoo wrote:
The FA are totally mercenary on this. A football club is not just a financial business. It is a part of our history and community. Why should a few toss pot chairman be allowed to waste what belongs to the town? And how are shildon going to cope with a thousand supporters, which is hopefully what we will get.
Optomistic or what?

1,000 supporters for the Northern League...you are having a laugh

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quakersam says...
5:10pm Wed 23 May 12

morgan1 wrote:
Throughout my life quakersam one of the biggest lessons to learn is about 'assumption' which tends to lead to the biggest **** ups in history, usually costing lives.
It was assumed you could not raise £5M but no one ever asked the 943 investors to find out, all because of an assumption.
True, as the saying goes assume makes an **** out of you and me, but being realistic, we didn't raise the 750k that was the target, there was no way we would raise the c1.3m that would have been needed in the timeframe we had. Not unless there were multiple businessmen willing to throw in a couple of hundred grand each.
I'd rather not take the risk than something that has the potential to backfire.
Where do you draw the line between being optimistic and realistic..

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loonyleft says...
5:58pm Wed 23 May 12

Welcome to the northern league darlington,you will never leave hohohoharrharr.

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antagonist1 says...
8:19pm Wed 23 May 12

rather slanderous mr alanruns !!

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george~stark says...
10:47pm Wed 23 May 12

Total Disaster. I warned you could not mess with FA rules. Also no united effort, too fragmented.It needs one body, totally committed to a return to Feethams .It seems there are too many people thinking of self importance rarther than the whole.
Whatever league we are in GET TOGETHER,and quickly investigate all ways of getting home whilst there is a chance.
As I have said before we need an influential figurehead to put forward lucid arguments for the case and by influential I mean in real terms , eg. someone who has the contacts to achieve things rather than people who seek their 15 minutes.

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BTH says...
8:40am Thu 24 May 12

Whatever happens on Friday(and it sounds increasingly likely it will be bad news) things will never be the same again. I am one of those supporters of who moans on to anyone who will listen about being in league two for years and about the standard of football, players, managers, chairmen, the Arena etc etc. but still went because deep down I love going. I dont know anything about how to run a Football Club but all I want to do is to watch Darlo simple as that. You never know how much you are going to miss something until you dont have it anymore and its getting to that stage now.

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asupporter says...
10:47am Thu 24 May 12

It will be a great shame if Darlo are placed in the Northern League by the FA as it will mean all of the work done to save the club has been wasted. Buying the assets of Darlington 2009 Ltd (goodwill, name etc) only makes sense if the club keeps its place in the Evostick and maintains its position at least as one of the senior none league clubs in the NE. In the Northern League Darlo are only one division above Darlington RA (they finished 5th in division two last season and could well go up next year. Playing at Shildon is a desperate gamble which again only makes sense if the club are in the Evostick league within striking distance of a return to their former glories and with a fighting change of raising the money necessary for a return home in year or two. I hope this story is wrong and we do get into the Evostick League - life will be difficult enough there but in the Northern League the outlook is grim.

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doonhamer says...
7:03pm Thu 24 May 12

Fact: Dean Street Shildon does NOT come up to Northern Premier (Evostik) League standard. Question: Why did 1883 not consider a ground share with Bishop Auckland, Durham City or Spennymoor United, clubs that have Stadia that meet the required ground grading. Perhaps someone at 1883 had an idea where Darlo were heading ?????? Fact: Anyone failing to pay creditors will meet with the strongest punishments. Several clubs have been mentioned, but Aldershot mirror Darlos plight. They dropped several leagues, added the suiffix Town to their name and began the long haul back from the lower depths of the Isthmian League. Seven promotions later they are back in the Football League. They kept their fan base, created record attendances at over 20 minor grounds and have never looked back. One slight problem though, most of their away fixtures were all ticket, for example if we play at Bedlington next season capacity is just 1,200.

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laughingboy51 says...
7:51pm Thu 24 May 12

doonhamer wrote:
Fact: Dean Street Shildon does NOT come up to Northern Premier (Evostik) League standard. Question: Why did 1883 not consider a ground share with Bishop Auckland, Durham City or Spennymoor United, clubs that have Stadia that meet the required ground grading. Perhaps someone at 1883 had an idea where Darlo were heading ?????? Fact: Anyone failing to pay creditors will meet with the strongest punishments. Several clubs have been mentioned, but Aldershot mirror Darlos plight. They dropped several leagues, added the suiffix Town to their name and began the long haul back from the lower depths of the Isthmian League. Seven promotions later they are back in the Football League. They kept their fan base, created record attendances at over 20 minor grounds and have never looked back. One slight problem though, most of their away fixtures were all ticket, for example if we play at Bedlington next season capacity is just 1,200.
well said, my sentiments entirely.........Shi
ldon's ground not suitable for Evostik....so why choose it ...I think the way things are looking Darlington FC won't be lasting much longer!

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the-big-yin says...
10:37am Fri 25 May 12

mensamoo wrote:
The FA are totally mercenary on this. A football club is not just a financial business. It is a part of our history and community. Why should a few toss pot chairman be allowed to waste what belongs to the town? And how are shildon going to cope with a thousand supporters, which is hopefully what we will get.
i told you all..... northern league next season....contacts at the f.a. told me the outcome....it will take you years to try and get back into the league....unlucky...
..

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