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Darlington have entered Administration, it has been confirmed this afternoon. A club statement reads:
Darlington Football Club has entered into Administration. Dave Clark of Brackenbury Clark & Co has been appointed as Administrator and will take over the running of the club with immediate effect. Brackenbury Clark & Co has retained the services of solicitors, Walker Morris who has significant experience in football club administration.
The Quakers slip into Administration for the second time in just over five years. The first Administration was largely caused by the overambitious building of the 27,000 capacity Darlington Arena, with the latest crisis largely being blamed on the costs of running the structure.
The Quakers are getting barely one tenth of the Arena's capacity through the doors on matchdays, and the club announced in December that they were considering demolishing part of it to make way for office buildings - however the current economic crisis made those plans unviable at the present time.
The club will immediately incur a ten point penalty, slipping from seventh to eleventh in the League Two table while further points deductions may follow next season depending on how they are able to exit Administration.
Update: Departing chairman George Houghton has told the Northern Echo the club are losing £54,000 a week, and have a £4million debt. He claims to have put £1.1million into the club since December to cover ongoing losses and is the largest creditor having put in £3million during his two and a half year tenure.
