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Post by Macmoish on Jan 5, 2012 14:02:06 GMT
After all the firings. My memory of Darlington: Constantly finishing bottom of the Football League but getting reelected... Wish them well
The Northern Echo
Staff cull leaves Darlington FC unable to host home game
Thursday 5th January 2012 in Sport
By Paul Cook ADMINISTRATORS at Darlington Football Club have dismissed all but five members of non-playing staff. The Quakers’ financial position is so severe that the move means there are not enough employees left to host the next home game – against Fleetwood Town on Saturday, January 21. On Tuesday, it was believed there were only days left to save the club, but The Northern Echo understands administrators are working to a timescale of two weeks, meaning the club will no longer exist if a buyer is not found by January 17. The club was put into administration on Tuesday for the third time in nine years, only eight months after Wembley success in the FA Trophy. Harvey Madden, from accountancy firm Rowlands, which was appointed as administrator by chairman Raj Singh, said that without any financial support, he would have little option to cease trading in a “very short time”. Since the players were not paid last month and only received part of their previous wages, they are entitled to hand in a 14-day period of notice. Employees dismissed include ticket office staff and the groundsman. Players are expected to be paid £200 for playing this Saturday away against Barrow, in Cumbria. Earlier this week, Mr Singh repeated his warnings from November that he would not put any more money into the club, dashing the hopes of the Darlington Football Rescue Group being in a position to put a package together in the summer. Darlington MP Jenny Chapman, who is due to meet the rescue group this week, hoped a deal could be finalised in time, but believes a new club may be the only option. She said: “I am meeting with interested parties and trying to encourage a deal to come together as quickly as possible. “We have to be realistic because the club does not own its land or stadium. Obviously, they would have to take the club onward and take over the responsibility it has to its employees and other contracts. “I will be working alongside other people to try and find a solution, but I do not want to give the impression I am leading on it.” A club spokesman said: “We are waiting to see if anybody comes forward.” Sean Hamilton, head of business recovery at Price Waterhouse Coopers, in Newcastle, said the administrator’s statement did not sound promising. He added: “The thing about football clubs is that you have to have a connection with the club. At lower levels, you do not make any money in football. It is more of a cash drain than a way of making money.” Former captain Kevan Smith had been preparing a bid for the club, but halted his plans after the club went into administration. To contact the administrator, call 01642-790790. �� In yesterday’s story, it was incorrectly reported that 75 per cent of profits from nonfootball related activities go to Darlington Borough Council because of a covenant on the land surrounding the stadium. However, if the land was sold for non-sport use, 75 per cent of the increase in value of the land would go to the council because it originally sold the land to the club at a low value, reflecting the use only for sports. A council spokesman said that if the land was sold for higher-value uses, then it was fair to the council taxpayer that the correct value of the land was paid. www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/9452616.Staff_cull_leaves_Darlington_FC_unable_to_host_home_game/ |
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Post by Macmoish on Jan 5, 2012 14:03:53 GMT
Northern Echo
LATEST SPORT NEWS Days left to stop Quakers closure
8:30am Wednesday 4th January 2012 By David Roberts » Chief Reporter (Darlington) IT has a history stretching back 128 years, but in a matter of days, Darlington FC could be just that – history. Only a few months after the Quakers lifted the FA Trophy at Wembley in front of 10,000 fans, the club faces an uncertain future after being put in administration for the third time in nine years. Fans, players and staff are now praying for a miracle in the form of a new owner after those handling its affairs warned that unless a buyer was found soon, it would cease trading. Chairman Raj Singh said he had been working for the past two years to try to reduce costs. However, money is still owed to staff and former manager Mark Cooper, while the club’s running costs need subsidising. It is believed any potential owner would need to find between £300,000 and £500,000 to keep the club operating. Mr Singh said he tried everything possible and thanked those fans who had supported him. He said: “I would like to think the majority of our supporters are level-headed and understand my position, and know how hard I have worked to try to bring success to the club. “To those who think I have let them down somehow or have been cheated by me, I hope one day they will see it from my point of view, and try to remember that wonderful day we had at Wembley last May. “Some of the unfair flak and criticism I have had over the last four weeks just made me more determined to call it a day sooner rather than later.” In a statement yesterday, administrator Harvey Madden, of Rowlands accountants, based in Yarm, near Stockton, said: “I am currently exploring all options to try and find a way to enable the football club to remain in existence, but the position of the club is such that without any financial support from outside the club or anyone willing to acquire the club I will, unfortunately, have little alternative but to cease to trade in a very short time. “Every day is critical if the club is to survive.” Earlier this month, Mr Singh met local businessmen who were exploring ways to take over the club and run it for the benefit of the community. However, the Darlington Football Club Rescue Group (DFCRG) said it was not in a position to take over immediately. Last night, group spokesman Mark Meynell said: “We are not going to let it go without exploring every avenue, but we are not in a position to come in and clear the debt. That was never our strategy.” Because it has gone into administration, the club – 13th in the Blue Square Bet Premier League – will receive a ten-point deduction, dropping it to just above the relegation zone. A transfer embargo will continue until it is out of administration. Caretaker manager Craig Liddle described the announcement as tremendously disappointing. He said: “I would like to think we can keep the club going. It has been a big part of my life and I would like to think we can continue that, but it is out of my hands.” The Northern Echo Arena is owned by businessmen Philip Scott and Graham Sizer. The stadium’s owners said they were still keen to see a successful football club, and said: “As owners of the arena, we will talk with any new party about a lease that can offer some continuity. “A new arrangement will need to be made with any new owner. We will want to talk about an interim lease which still offers a rent level appropriate for the size and scale of the operation.” A council spokeswoman said the authority wanted “a successful, thriving football club” and had “always worked hard, wherever possible, to support the club”. She said: “We will work with the administrators to continue to support the business in whatever way we can.” Andy Smith, from Darlington Supporters Club, said he was not ready to give up hope, adding: “This is a devastating blow to Darlington fans. We are used to not having a great deal of success, but after winning the FA Trophy, we thought that was a turning point.” Mr Madden can be contacted on 01642-790790. www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/9449253.Days_left_to_stop_Quakers_closure/?ref=mr
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Post by gramps on Jan 5, 2012 17:43:40 GMT
Really sorry to read this. It is so sad ............................ and we think we have problems!
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Post by cpr on Jan 5, 2012 17:48:28 GMT
No staff to host a game, did they hire the administrators from Billy Smarts?
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Post by Macmoish on Jan 13, 2012 0:46:30 GMT
David Conn/The Guardian - The End?
Death knell prepares to toll for Darlington FC
The Quakers may have played their last match after 129 years of football, wrecked by a folly of a stadium which cost £25m and took fans from their beloved Feethams groundDarlington fans shake hands with their then chairman George Reynolds after an honourable 2-1 FA Cup third-round defeat against the eventual finalists Aston Villa in the 1999-2000 competition. Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian Darlington Football Club, formed in 1883, founder members of the proud Northern League in 1889 and of the Football League's Third Division (North) in 1921, now in the Blue Square Bet Conference, are on their death bed. An administrator, appointed to handle the club's insolvent husk in the ridiculously outsized stadium built by George Reynolds, Darlington's last owner but three, says 129 years of football history could be over within days. "As things stand we have no offers to take the club over, no money to keep it going, no reasons to be optimistic whatsoever," Harvey Madden, of Rowlands accountants, says. "We will be having meetings at the end of this week, possibly the beginning of next, but it does not look good." At such times, thoughts turn to proud memories, and Darlo's post-war story is mostly one of serial, stubborn survival. The core of loyal fans are taking pride in past players, from Arthur Wharton, England's first black footballer, who joined in 1885, to Craig Liddle, who played 315 matches in defence from 1998 to 2005. And at Feethams, the unique, charming ground for cricket and football, with its twin towers, which sits abandoned in the town, missed by all who have shivered in Reynolds's 25,000-seat arena since he moved the club there nine years ago. The last owner, Raj Singh, appointed Madden after declaring the club unsustainable at the arena, having thrown in around £2m in three years, and been crippled by the stadium's running costs. A local consortium is looking into salvage possibilities, but the overwhelming obstacle is the vanity stadium Reynolds built and named after himself. With crowds of less than 2,000 huddled into one stand, the Darlington Arena is a rattling monument to the reckless buying, selling and mismanagement of historic football clubs. The Football League used to laugh at the very idea of testing whether football club owners were "fit and proper people", and back then it presented Reynolds in supporting evidence. He was a respectable businessman, it said, whose criminal career, which earned him time in prison for robbery, was behind him, so how would a test barring criminals apply to him? The answer was obvious, incorporated into the fit and proper person test when the League finally adopted it in 2004, that convictions are a bar until they are spent. But Reynolds's case posed more difficult questions about his fitness, and the source of his money, which were never tackled, and to which football clubs are still vulnerable. He had made a fortune in chipboard, and via his company, GRUK, put £7m into Darlington, which was in financial difficulties then, with Feethams requiring repair. Later, in 2005, Reynolds undertook not to act as a company director for eight years due to "unfit conduct" which, according to the Insolvency Service, was that the money was sunk into Darlington while GRUK was making "gross losses", "to the detriment of GRUK's creditors … imprudently or irresponsibly." Reynolds, in his autobiography – Cracked It! – chronicled his criminal life as a safecracker and thief, and the Dickensian misery of his childhood, when he was consigned to a residential approved school, where he was beaten and abused. But sympathy and admiration for his success dried up among most Darlo fans because Reynolds was a bully who did not listen to supporters dissenting from his grand plan. Had he done so, he would never have considered spending around £20m building a 25,000-seat stadium for the Quakers. In his time, and that of subsequent owners, it has proved a millstone to service, and a miserable experience for spectators. In October 2005 Reynolds, having lost the club and been forced to put it into administration, was convicted of defrauding the Inland Revenue and sentenced to three years in prison. The arena is now owned by two businessmen, Philip Scott and Graham Sizer, who lent the last owner, George Houghton, £1.7m at 10% interest. They are not interested in taking over the club but said they will talk about a favourable rent deal for anybody who will. A local consortium has been formed but the shortage of money is so acute that Madden is warning the club will fold before they have had a chance to inspect the disastrous accounts and consider whether any plans are viable. Madden said he dismissed 12 staff the day he walked in because there was no money to pay them, and five employees remain, plus the players and the club legend Liddle, now the caretaker manager, awaiting their fate. The supporters trust has raised £50,000 over years of rattling buckets, and some are urging it to hand that over now, to give the club a brief while longer to see if a rescue can be achieved. However, the trust says there is no viable long-term plan in which it can properly invest its members' money; they do not want to lose it for Madden's fees. For years, since the first in a straggle of administrations, the trust has been preparing contingency plans for forming its own supporter-owned club and starting again, as AFC Wimbledon, now in the Football League, did, should the club finally fold. Claire Stone, the trust secretary – the chairman, Tony Taylor, resigned following abuse he received – said she takes her autistic son, and four other young people with similar difficulties, to Darlington's matches. "Going to support the football has been a great benefit to these children; they have learned to socialise with each other, and make friendships. If the club does fold, we will be devastated. We love the club, we want it to continue, but we cannot throw trust members' money into a black hole." If Darlington do die, in the greatest financial boom English football has ever known, it will be at a folly of a stadium, built with millions improperly spent while Feethams, a beloved sporting home, sits rotting back in town. www.guardian.co.uk/football/david-conn-inside-sport-blog/2012/jan/12/darlington-insolvent-arena-trust-administration
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jan 13, 2012 11:52:42 GMT
their 25000 stadium would come in handy
Can we move it to White City
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Post by saphilip on Jan 14, 2012 9:34:27 GMT
An ex con in charge of a FC building a stadium of 25k for a club that barely attracted a 5th of that no. for their homes game is always going to be a dangerous combination.
Reading recent reports I think the Quackers will be no more soon - so we wait for the AFC to come up in its place - and who knows playing their matches at the old ground.
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Post by maudesfishnchips on Jan 16, 2012 17:08:46 GMT
Darlo axe Liddle and players Caretaker boss and all staff made redundant by stricken club By Rob Parrish - Follow me on Twitter @skysportsrobp. Last Updated: January 16, 2012 4:54pm 0 0 Darlington could have folded before Saturday's fixture against Fleetwood Sky Bet Sky Bet are offering all new customers a £10 Completely Free Bet Claim your free bet now Darlington caretaker manager Craig Liddle and all the stricken side's remaining players have been made redundant by the club's administrator. The Quakers were plunged into administration for the third time in nine years earlier this month with outgoing chairman Raj Singh unable to prevent mounting debts. Administrator Harvey Madden has been searching for any parties interested in saving the stricken Blue Square Premier side, but the 129-year-old club now looks on the point of going out of existence. Last-ditch talks were held in the North East on Monday between Madden and three potential investors, and there is still a slim chance that an agreement can be reached to prevent liquidation. Darlo, who lifted the FA Trophy at Wembley in May 2011, were relegated from the Football League in 2010 and have struggled financially ever since moving to their cavernous Darlington Arena home in 2003. Hoping and praying The club are due to face Fleetwood Town at home in the Blue Square Premier on Saturday, but that now appears very unlikely with all club employees being made redundant on Monday afternoon. If the talks fail and the axe finally falls in the coming days, their final fixture will have been the 3-0 defeat at Barrow on January 7th, when more than 1,000 supporters made the trip to Cumbria. Liddle told Sky Sports News: "There is a feeling this could be it, but we're all hoping and praying that the talks can be successful and that we can still be here on Saturday. "But the likelihood of that happening is not great, if I'm honest. "For a lot of people this has been their lives for a number of years. It will be a bitterly disappointing time for North East football, and football in general." www1.skysports.com/football/news/11095/7436483/Darlo-axe-Liddle-and-players |
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Post by Macmoish on Jan 16, 2012 21:29:09 GMT
Terrible and sad. Darlington Official Site has not been updated. (Maybe no paid staff to do the Updating?) This from a week ago ONE LAST TIME... Posted on: Sun 08 Jan 2012 Darlo fan and journalist Dan List pens an emotional feature about Saturday's trip to Barrow... So that looks like that. The bell is tolling for Darlington Football Club and it appears as though the final whistle on Saturday called time not only on a highly-emotional afternoon, but on our very existence. As the whistle blew there was a moment of sudden reality, a realisation that the club we all hold so close to our hearts was more than likely no more, resigned to be a statistic, to be another ex-football club, to simply be history. Article continues Advertisement But for Darlington fans, if Saturday proved one thing, it's that this doesn't have to be the case. As I looked around I saw what supporting a football club should mean. There I saw the usual faces, pale, dejected and teary-eyed. However, if there was a risk of tears from myself it was soon allayed, for when you looked beyond this desperation, you saw what it meant to support our club. There were arms round shoulders, reassuring words and a sense of togetherness that has been absent for too long. We had found our identity again. The weight had been lifted, we were no longer a safe cracker's ego trip or a cowboy's plaything. For one last time we were simply Darlington Football Club, standing amongst friends and watching the team do us proud. That is what football should be about for every fan of every club. It was then that it became clear that the club can't die because Darlington FC is more than just a name, it's a community. Even if starting all over again remains the only way to maintain this, maintain it we must. And, if we can draw upon a level of togetherness similar to that we all showed as the lady was whistling, we can only succeed. The unity at Barrow showed that if the club ceases to be, then 128 years of history will not be lost. It will be carried forward in the hearts and minds of the people that make the club what it is. Dan managed to capture a souvenir from Saturday's game at Barrow - Jamie Chandler's shirt (pictured) after the Quakers captain threw it into the crowd at Holker Street The biggest myth surrounding our club at present is that it's dying because of finances, stadiums and other factors too numerous to mention. On a literal level this may be the case, but in terms of what Darlington FC represents, the truth is the club died a good while ago. In recent years this club has treated good people badly. From David Hodgson to Steve Foster, to countless other players and people behind the scenes that have worked so hard drive the club forward, too many have been mistreated by this club and its owners in the past decade. What they all failed to realise is they might have owned the club, but the club will never be theirs. It's ours. What we now is an opportunity to rebuild our club, as a phoenix from the ashes baptised by the tears of real football fans. So if Saturday was to be our last call, our heads should not be hung in sorrow, but held high, for it is fans of clubs like Darlington that make football what it is. We will be back some day, and this time we will no longer be a rich man's plaything. The fans might not be millionaires but it is us that are all the richer for belonging to something very special for the past 128 years. Forza Darlo Dan Twitter- dan_List ● The views expressed in this feature are the independent views of Dan List www.darlington-fc.net/page/NewsDetail/0,,10339~2570479,00.html |
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Post by Macmoish on Jan 16, 2012 21:30:09 GMT
Telegraph/Luke Edwards
Darlington forced to make players and staff redundant after clubs enter administration for the third time
Darlington’s players will be asked to play against Blue Square Premier leaders Fleetwood Town at the weekend despite being sacked on Monday.Harvey Madden, the administrator put in charge of the club earlier this month, have terminated the contracts of the club's remaining playing staff, as well as caretaker manager Craig Liddle. The Quakers, who are facing extinction, were already down to a skeleton staff following their drop into administration, but the final staff members were told their contracts needed to be terminated to ease costs. It is the third time in nine years the North East club have found themselves in this postion, with former chairman Rav Singh unable to cope with rising debts. They are currently just above the relegation zone in the Blue Square Premier League following an automatic ten-point penalty for breaching financial regulations. The club has to meet the costs of running a stadium with a 25,000 capacity, despite an average crowd of less than 2,000, after another ex-chairman, George Reynolds, decided the club could one day play in the Premier League. A statement from Harvey Madden said: "Given the current financial position of the club and, as a consequence of my legal obligations, I have had no alternative but to terminate the contracts of all playing staff and the retained administration staff. "Notwithstanding this, there remain parties interested in either injecting funds into the club to enable it to continue operating or acquiring the club. Every effort is being made to progress this to try to save the club. "However, at this stage I have still not received any formal offers and unless a deal is concluded as a matter of urgency, time will have run out for Darlington Football Club." Instead of a weekly wage based on their contracts, the squad will be asked to play against Fleetwood in return for a match fee. The Football Association will postpone making a decision on whether to allow Darlington to continue playing until after further talks have taken place between the administrators and prospective buyers, although it is understood they would be unlikely to give them a green light to proceed. “We've been made redundant with immediate effect,” said Liddle, who also used to play for the club "If further talks are successful, they'll look to re-appoint a manager, whether that be me or somebody else, and they'll have the task of trying to piece a team together for Saturday's game against Fleetwood.” Defender Paul Arnison, who has already put his house up for sale, added on Twitter: “Just been sacked, gutted to say the least.” The move does not necessarily signal the end of the 128-year-old club, as the Darlington Football Club Rescue Group, which has been heading the survival bid, believes a plan to invest in the club and the surrounding land is still plausible. Head of the rescue group, Mark Meynell, said: "The administrator has left the door open. We were expecting a decision one way or another by 5pm on Monday, but the fact the door has been left slightly open means there is definitely still a chance. “We don't want to overstate it, but it is a chance. We have done all we can for now.” www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/9018563/Darlington-forced-to-make-players-and-staff-redundant-after-clubs-enter-administration-for-the-third-time.html?
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Post by Macmoish on Jan 16, 2012 22:22:45 GMT
David Conn/The Guardian
Darlington administrator makes all players and coaching staff redundant
• Parties remain interested in 128-year-old club
• 'No alternative but to terminate the contracts'Time is running out for Darlington Football Club's existence after the administrator made every member of staff redundant, including the caretaker manager and former long-serving defender Craig Liddle, as well as all the players. A consortium of supporters who formed the Darlington Football Club Rescue Group told the administrator they have an investor potentially interested in funding the club, but need more time to formulate a business plan. The administrator, Harvey Madden of Rowlands accountants, gave them until midday on Tuesday to provide him with the money to continue, or he would be forced to put the 129-year-old club into liquidation. In the meantime, Madden said he has no money to pay Darlington's wages or bills, and would become personally liable if he were to keep the club running. So he called Liddle and all the players and staff to a meeting, where they were told he had to lay them off immediately, and handed out letters of redundancy. In a statement, Madden said: "Given the current financial position of the club and, as a consequence of my legal obligations, I have had no alternative but to terminate the contracts of all playing staff and the retained administration staff. Notwithstanding this, there remain parties interested in either injecting funds into the club to enable it to continue operating or acquiring the club. "Every effort is being made to progress this to try to save the club. However, at this stage I have still not received any formal offers and, unless a deal is concluded as a matter of urgency, time will have run out for Darlington Football Club." Darlington, now in the Blue Square Bet Conference Premier, were formed in 1883, were founder members both of the Northern League, in 1889, and of the Third Division (North) in 1921. In more recent times the club has struggled for financial survival and in 1999 was taken over by George Reynolds, a former career criminal who in 2005 went to prison again for tax fraud. He built the Quakers, whose crowd in the Conference rarely gets above 1,700, a 25,000 seat arena which he named after himself. Raj Singh, the third owner of the club since Reynolds was forced to put it into administration in 2003, gave up himself a fortnight ago and put the club into administration having sunk around £2m into trying to win promotion. John Bramhall, the deputy chief executive of the Professional Footballers Association, who has been representing the players made redundant, said: "Major commitments to players and wages were made as recently as the summer; some players have left other clubs and moved up to play for Darlington, taking on commitments to do so. It is very disappointing for the players to face this situation now – two have not been paid since October, and the rest since December." Claire Stone, secretary of the Darlington Supporters Trust, said that plans have been made to start a new club, should the worst happen, and Darlington fall into liquidation. www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/jan/16/darlington-staff-redundant-administration
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