For the second time in their history Darlington have been relegated from the football league and, after 2 points from their first 12 games, there was a sense of inevitability about it. The club’s story over the past decade is a sorry reflection of the pernicious impact of the Premier League further down the footballing system and of the perils of poor regulation. In George Reynolds, a multi-millionaire with prior convictions for safe-cracking and burglary, the Quakers arguably had the most unfit and improper chairman in English Football history for the first half of the decade. Unusual man-management aside (he published players' wages in the local paper as a means to motivate them through shame and supported his wife after she publicly accused the players of throwing matches) his unrealistic and untamed ambitions of becoming the biggest thing in the North East have ruined this small town club. Ludicrous bids to sign Faustino Asprilla and Gazza followed with the Colombian even being paraded around the ground, along with a move to their new 25,000 capacity Darlington Arena. But by 2004 the club were in administration and Reynolds was gone, arrested on charges of money laundering (he was jailed for tax evasion in 2005 after being found with £½ million in the boot of his car). The new stadium, more than anything else, is the irreparable millstone around their neck. Without a wealthy backer, it consumes money they cannot produce. It houses escalators that will never be used and, less than a decade into its existence, has the feel of a mausoleum. Local planning regulations have limited capacity to 10,000 but they average under 2,000 with the largest attendance being for Elton John. It is bland, expensive, out of town and painfully inappropriate, everything that is wrong with modern football stadia. Their old ground, Feethams, was within 5 minutes walk of the centre of town, compact if with a propensity to flooding. The change is deeply sad. Darlington had a good side last year but a second administration in 5 years took them out of the play-off reckoning and destroyed their team spirit. Assets were stripped, Colin Todd and Dean Windass were brought in but left after 7 losses from 9. Steve Staunton only won 4 out of 23 games and with a whimper, league status was abdicated in April. This time last year, The Worm was celebrating Brentford’s promotion at Darlington. Locals were pessimistic but not, I think, expecting things to have gone this badly. One fears for the club and wonders quite how far down the pyramid the Darlington Arena can go, or rather, how far down it might drag them…
TNI ranking
ATHLETICS
CRICKET
CYCLING
FOOTBALL
FORMULA 1
GOLF
RUGBY
SNOOKER

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