The Darlo rollercoaster carries on - for those not familiar with the story, basically Darlo exited administration without agreeing a CVA with creditors, due to demands of the ex Chairman. At the same time the new owners of Darlington FC took on the footballing creditors so it wasn't completely a story of stiffing all creditors - plus there is also provisions for creditors to get some money back if we recieve payment on ex player clauses. We are the same club, the assets and name were purchased.

Anyway, we took this route out of administration knowing fully that the punishment should be a further demotion to the Evostik Premier, there is a rule stating this, and a precedent set - Northwich, Boston to name but two. In earlier days, before the rule was set, Luton and Leeds took this route and received 20 and 15 point deductions but no automatic relegation - I think the automatic relegation rule was then brought in to standardise the punishment.

So how come Darlo ended up in the Northern League? A lot of fans seem to think that we must have gone bust and set up a phoenix club. No, that's not what happened. We are the same club.

Basically when a new owner takes a club out of administration, the football share needs to be transferred by the old chairman to the new owners, and unprecedented in football history this never happened. The old chairman Raj Singh signed over the share but with attaching conditions that he wanted met - the local newspaper has seen said documentation.

This forced the new owners to apply to the FA for a new share, and in a nutshell, that is how we ended up in The Northern League - step 5, because the FA looked on the application for a new share as being effectively the same as a new club joining the pyramid. And thus placed us according to their rules. The thing is of course, we aren't a new club. To rub salt in the wounds it seems the FA are unhappy with us keeping our legally entitled name Darlington FC, and are trying to pressure us to change it.

Anyway, the latest is that ex chairman Raj Singh is now saying that he signed the share over with no strings and is claiming that the new owners 1883 have "cocked" up. To be fair, I'm not sure I believe him

To conclude, if we get the original share, we've got solid grounds to appeal being placed in step 5, and based on that if the FA continue to be sticklers for their own rules, then they would have to treat us as the same club and relegate us from the BSN to the Evostik Premier.

Then we'd have to bring the ground up to scratch to take part at that level, and be granted permission, but, one step at a time.

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Darlington in the Northern League - Everyone, please remain calm. We are trying to solve this problem as quickly as possible. Please be patient.

Thats great and shows the lack of logical thinking put in to this whole process appeal get put in the EvoStick and then realise the ground you are now sharing isnt up to the required standard ? Yes you could improve it but the deadline has already past and other clubs like Woodley Sports have failed to meet the deadline so why should Darlo be any different ?

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Picking Darlo's dummies up at Heritage Park

When can the NL who have made you welcome find out whether or not to include you in the fixture list which is something that must take weeks to organise.

I agree Malvern, but whoever is due to play Darlo will get a free weekend, if they go to the glue sniffers league, quite easy.

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WE ARE THE PRIDE OF NORTH YORKSHIRE,
WE'RE BLACK AND WE'RE WHITE,
WE HATE NORTH SHIELDS AND JARROW ARE SH*TE,
WE GO ON A PI$$ UP, BOTH HOME AND AWAY,
AND IF YOU LOVE TOWN, REPEAT WHAT I SAY.

the fixtures are being released this sat coming too

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Picking Darlo's dummies up at Heritage Park

You have a ground and a league to play in. Two things you didn't have until recently.

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"Wonder who Judas will be supporting after we smash his "local" team at SJP"

Really? That's early!

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Darlington in the Northern League - Everyone, please remain calm. We are trying to solve this problem as quickly as possible. Please be patient.

IIRC they are usually released earlier than this.

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WE ARE THE PRIDE OF NORTH YORKSHIRE,
WE'RE BLACK AND WE'RE WHITE,
WE HATE NORTH SHIELDS AND JARROW ARE SH*TE,
WE GO ON A PI$$ UP, BOTH HOME AND AWAY,
AND IF YOU LOVE TOWN, REPEAT WHAT I SAY.

Crikey in some other leagues you're waiting until mid July.

I wonder who we'll get first?

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Darlington in the Northern League - Everyone, please remain calm. We are trying to solve this problem as quickly as possible. Please be patient.

It would seem that the fundamental point of the FA is that they define clubs by their affiliation to the FA (ie the share). Unfortunately the FA retain absolute discretion over approving the transfer of the share from one corporate entity to another and thereby keeping the club (in FA terms) alive.

So if Darlo get the share signed over, the FA should really approve this although they retain discretion to decline. But with the share signed over, Darlo should be in the Evo Prem.

The one thing I would say is to be wary of using precedents as the rules around adminstration and exiting were changed last season so older cases will not apply to the current rules. Some good info on the Non League Matters forum on this.

The issue that arises for me from this outcome is that fly-by-night chairmen with shareholder loans will be able to hold clubs to ransom. To prevent this, the FA should insist that on an insolvency event, the share is effectively put in custody of the FA who may then unilaterally transfer that to a new legal entity that meets certain financial and operational criteria. This would avoid the peverse debt 'punishment' that new Darlo are getting for avoiding the blank-canvas phoenix approach.

I hope your appeal is successful and you do ply your trade in the Evo-stik next season. The stench of your arrogance and disrespect for the Northern League are overpowering already. Obviously cut from the same cloth as Bishop Auckland supporters, because the sooner they nick off the better as well.

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SPENNYMOOR FC

3 TIMES IN A ROW NORTHERN LEAGUE CHAMPIONS

WINNERS AT WEMBLEY

Their arrogance stinks - i hope they are not successful in their appeal and have to play in the Northern League. I also hope that they dont win promotion in their first season nor the 2nd or 3rd - that will take the arrogance away

will be very hard for them to get out of the NL first time of asking!

Arrogance? What arrogance have we shown towards the NL exactly?

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Darlington FC - Estab 1883
Once a Quaker, always a Quaker

Please tell me you are kidding.

All Darlo fans posting on here have gone out of their way to be respectful, and in turn have been given a good impression of Northern League clubs and fans.

Are you just making stuff up because that's how you'd like it to be? Or have you got a problem with any particular comments?

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Darlington in the Northern League - Everyone, please remain calm. We are trying to solve this problem as quickly as possible. Please be patient.

I would not say we have been arrogant.
Wherver we end up we end up, and we will be the biggest team in that league, though not necessarily the best.
Hopefully we do well andmake friends along the way, as well as helping to fill the coffers of the smaller teams on away days etc.
No arrogance and everyone wins.