Darlington FC could cease to exist "before the weekend"

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rephlex said:
Excuse me if I have missed an earlier post, what is the significance of tomorrow? Arn't they falling apart today? The reason I ask is that D'ton is my home down, so despite living many miles away these days it would be sad to see the club go under.

Definitely the move from the 3,500 (ish) stadium to the 20,000 one out of town killed the club though. I remember when the fans were promised "premiership football in five years", and we certainly had the stadium for it, but the team were pretty poor. Debts piled up and it fell on hard times, down the leagues, and it seems, out of existence.
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Basically it'll be d-day if you will. If no progress-the club is liquidated, which is why today was the deadline for offers for the club.
It may not be the ideal package offered by Houghton, but like StuW said-it's still a lifeline. And it's not the best timing as there's no players available anymore and they need them registered by tomorrow for the next game
 
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Didn't the fans trust at Darlington raise 50k- And then have to decide if they wanted to invest that to to the administrator to keep the club going until the end of the month or if they wanted to use to help set up a phoenix club?
 
Giggles said:
Didn't the fans trust at Darlington raise 50k- And then have to decide if they wanted to invest that to to the administrator to keep the club going until the end of the month or if they wanted to use to help set up a phoenix club?
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From what I've heard/read they decided to keep the money, in case the worst happened so they'd have immediate funds available to kick things off again from scratch if they had to. Things have taken a nasty turn though-the lad who was head of the trust was assaulted in his home, after receiving threatening e-mails and abusive ones after word got out that the money wouldn't be handed over. The police aren't sure if it's related or not to whats happening to the club, but it's happened soon after people found out that the trust wouldn't be handing the money over.
 
Well, half the problem now if you have no players is you have until the end of the month to sign mercenaries, coaching staff, etc. It's a mammoth task even if you get the money together, as presumably once the "football money" dries up (and it isn't like the conference prem gives you the big bucks), then it will only add to the difficult running costs. Whilst I would like it to keep going, there is a recession on, and it won't be the last "business" to overspend and fall over. It's quite an irony that the former-safe-cracker-turned-chairman Reynolds massively burdened the club, but looks to have robbed us of the club after all.
 
rephlex said:
Well, half the problem now if you have no players is you have until the end of the month to sign mercenaries, coaching staff, etc. It's a mammoth task even if you get the money together, as presumably once the "football money" dries up (and it isn't like the conference prem gives you the big bucks), then it will only add to the difficult running costs. Whilst I would like it to keep going, there is a recession on, and it won't be the last "business" to overspend and fall over. It's quite an irony that the former-safe-cracker-turned-chairman Reynolds massively burdened the club, but looks to have robbed us of the club after all.
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I thought if the club was saved, the players and manager would be re-signed.

We was in Administration for about 7 months, finding a quick solution won't be easy [The paperwork took about a week to complete, although we did have a mug of an administrator] hopefully they will survive.
 
Well, probably true, but if I was a player and there was 2 weeks left of the transfer window, I'd want to secure the future of myself and my family by getting resigned ASAP, so my point was once you're sacked I imagine you look around for alternatives pretty quick. There would probably have to mean losing the better/older players. Would be great if they resign everyone though.
 
Talks between administrators and George Houghton have collapsed, and has ruled himself out stating the level of debt is too high. It's now all down to the rescue group which is the fans group. Literally the last chance saloon. This time tomorrow the club could be no more.
 
The fans would be absolute idiots to blow 50,000 of supporters money on a club in that level of debt though, that would pay perhaps the staff for two months, of which there is no guarantee whatsoever it will lead to anything positive? I'd definitely return it to the contributors, or if not possible, donate it to a local charity/good cause. Seems extremely wasteful to "throw good money after bad" in the faint hope it will be sorted.
 
forgot to mention major credit should go to Middlesbrough fans too for raising over £5,000 via buckets. True meaning of the words Footballing Family.
 
If I had it my way all premier league players would donate a weeks wages to Darlington.
 
Not saying it is their fault but what I am saying is the players of the premier league earn tons of money and surely donating just 1 weeks wages wouldnt hurt them and would do Darlington a huge favour.
 
Well, cfc, just doing some quick maths in my head if you assume an average wage of 10grand a week for prem players and 40 players a squad, that's 8million. Which would likely solve the problem many times over. It rather puts it into perspective really when you see Balotelli driving around in his Maserati which costs about as much as the wage of the entire first team squad at a team like D'ton. For a year.
 
rephlex said:
Well, cfc, just doing some quick maths in my head if you assume an average wage of 10grand a week for prem players and 40 players a squad, that's 8million. Which would likely solve the problem many times over. It rather puts it into perspective really when you see Balotelli driving around in his Maserati which costs about as much as the wage of the entire first team squad at a team like D'ton. For a year.
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Bit of a poor example with all of Balo's charitable acts recently. ;)
 
A deal has been reached provisionally between administrators and investors last night. From whats coming out the future of the club would be secure until the end of March.
 
rephlex said:
Well, cfc, just doing some quick maths in my head if you assume an average wage of 10grand a week for prem players and 40 players a squad, that's 8million. Which would likely solve the problem many times over. It rather puts it into perspective really when you see Balotelli driving around in his Maserati which costs about as much as the wage of the entire first team squad at a team like D'ton. For a year.
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You are entitled to your [rubbish] opinion, just leave Balotelli out of this!
 
While it would be nice to see Prem footballers doing something like that, I think it's unfair to expect them to put their hands in their pockets to save a club, who's board level management epically cocked up in managing it. If a prem footballer wanted to-great. But they shouldn't be made to feel guilty to give their money that they earned performing at the highest level of English football. It's their money and they have the right to do with it what they chose.

I do get annoyed when I read on twitter that footballers don't do enough within the community too when they do. They visit hospitals, they give gifts, they visit schools. They do quite a bit. They're copping some unfair flack since this started
 
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Talks have reached stalemate-allegedly, Singh refused to answer his phone to discuss the situation.

As a result, Darlington Football Club has been liquidated according to reports. Players have said the club is gone

Gutted for the fans, the players, the staff and the people in the area. Hope the people responsible are happy.
 
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Actually, nowhere in my post do I mention the footballers giving their money to lower league clubs. What I stated was it puts it in perspective when the affluent footballers at the top of the tree have "throwaway" items which cost as much as the entire wage bill for a year. Balotelli was picked as an example for no other reason than I know he's on a lot of money and has a maserati.

It was, if anything, a criticism of the way the money just doesn't flow down the leagues very well right now due to the TV money being overwhelmingly premiership based.

Regardless it appears all of this is mute, if reports are indeed correct then it's a shame the club has folded.
 
BREAKING NEWS: next three scheduled games to go ahead after money secured to allow operation until at least January 31st. ..
 
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