The image of former chairman George Reynolds parading a bewildered Faustino Asprilla around the pitch like a hostage who had just escaped a rebel guerilla group will always be etched into Darlington Football Club lore, whether supporters like it or not.
Asprilla, a Colombian international and former Newcastle United forward, was unveiled to fans but never actually signed for the club, owing to a dispute over his proposed contract.
It came to define one of the most damaging reigns in English footballing history, as Reynolds’ lavish spending on a 25,000-seater stadium, named after himself, was one of the contributing factors that forced Darlington into administration in 2003, 2009, and 2012, resulting in eventual expulsion from the Football Association.
Under a new name, Darlington 1883, a Football League stalwart had to start again in the ninth tier of the pyramid. But what has risen from the Reynolds-ignited ashes is something simply remarkable, heartwarming and, now renamed as Darlington FC, the very antithesis of what came before.
“I’ve seen us in the old division three, I’ve seen us Northern Premier League and I’ve seen us in every division in between,” David Steel, vice-chair of the Darlington Football Club Supporters Group (DFCSG), tells i.
“I’ve seen every type of owner there is. I’ve seen going to administration three times and we’re now fan-owned and all that’s happened in my 35 years following the club.
“Stuff like Asprilla and Reynolds and all the other crazy things that have happened is all anyone focuses on. What is happening now is far bigger than any of that. It is about good, honest hard-working folk doing something with something they love. Giving all the spare money they have. And that’s amazing.
“It is the ultimate definition of fan ownership and putting our money where our mouth is.”
Down the years, corrupt owners who would make Robert Maxwell look philanthropic have been all too common. What is less widespread is the level of unwavering backing Darlington supporters provide year after unprecedented year, without asking for anything in return.
The DFCSG consists of 1,270 members who command a 90 per cent shareholding of the club. And since 2017, before the start of each season those members and supporters have dipped into their own pockets, amidst a cost of living crisis, in one of the poorest regions of the country, to provide various managers with the funds to compete each season.
Whip-rounds to save beleaguered local clubs are not unusual, buckets shaken around many a township. But Darlington supporters, in eight seasons, have raised a staggering £1m through their Boost the Budget scheme. And for what? Another year in the sixth tier? No, something far more important.
“There’s no airs and graces with Darlington Football Club,” Steel continues.
“There’s absolutely no ego in any of this at all. It’s all for the club. We all roll our sleeves up and are all volunteers, from our CEO to our chairman. One week I do the turnstiles, then it is something else the following week. On an evening I’ll run the website or do another job. Not many other board members of clubs do this.
“We are in the North East, I am a working class parent. I’m a socialist. You’re talking about normal, working-class people who adore their football club. People who donate put in what they can. It’s not like you get something back as a product. If [manager] Steve Watson spends badly, it is wasted.
“But we keep doing it and it is on us. And we love it that way.”
Darlington is the perfect setting for another restoration project worthy of the silver screen. When Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney sauntered through the Racecourse Ground doors waving their fairy tale script, the Disney series was going to centre on how this well-supported club from a deprived town deserved all the riches coming their way after years of hardship.
There would, of course, be a large number of supporters happy to welcome Hollywood luminaries to the North East. But after putting in the hard yards just to restore their bruised and battered sense of pride, not everyone is looking for a knight in shining armour, having been burned too many times before.
“I roll my eyes when I see Netflix or Amazon looking at Salford or Wrexham,” Steel adds. “I understand it, but read our stories and it’s just as fascinating and just as lovely. Don’t get me wrong, there are some Darlo fans, maybe younger ones, who would be tempted but I love the fact that it’s our club and it’s sustainable.
“We do need our own ground for more commercial revenue. I do want the club to progress, but not at all costs. I do want us to remain fan-owned but I’m not naive enough to think 1,270 of us chucking in 190,000 every May is going to make all the difference.
“We just have to be careful what we wish for. After everything we have done, we could let some crackpot owner come in and run us into the ground again. As we are, it would be difficult to get back to the Football League, but that’s not to say the model cannot evolve. There are fan-owned clubs in the EFL, in Scotland, Germany.”
The Boost the Budget scheme raised a record £190,000 this May, all in time to give former Newcastle and Everton defender Watson the funds to compete, well ahead of the start of the new season which begins in earnest on Saturday. Donations range from £5 to thousands, but every cent helps keep Darlington buoyant, on calmer waters.
Perhaps the most remarkable fundraising scheme yet came in January when Watson was appointed manager on New Year’s Day, with Darlington nine points from safety.
The squad were at rock bottom. So supporters rallied around and raised a quick-fire £32,000, having already given £162,000 the previous summer, to allow Watson to bolster his arsenal, signing four players who were crucial to the club mounting a Steve McQueen-esque great escape. They won 10 of the final 15 matches to stay up comfortably.
“They all, every single one of them, love the club, and that’s priceless,” Watson, like all his players a part-time employee, tells i. “On a matchday everyone, from the hospitality guys to stewards, they are all there for the same reason – they want to be. They always have the club’s best interests at heart – which is so rare.
“I don’t know of other clubs doing anything like the fundraising we do. I suppose every football club, when people pay on the gate, that’s what funds them. But we don’t own our own ground and cannot make as much as other clubs, so rely on generosity from supporters. We are so privileged to have fans and owners like these.
“What really blew me away is that they did another Boost the Budget in January as soon as I got the job. Without that where would we be now?”
A Football League, return, however, remains light years away. A new ground, or at least one that is theirs, is a must.
Watson has started well and is confident the club is capable of better this season. Plans are afoot to help them grow organically, all while ensuring George Reynolds-type overlords remain a stain on their past, rather than detrimental to their present.
How much control the DFCSG will relinquish is uncertain. To be in this position, looking up, is a start, and a hard-earned one.
“We need to find investors, it is not easy, and will take a long time,” Watson adds.
“I know that the chairman works really hard at trying to get people interested in doing something along those lines. All in his spare time.
“This National League is full of big teams who have fallen on hard times. I remember playing against Oldham on Monday Night Football. Scunthorpe have always been a Football League club. Darlo were always a league club when I was growing up in the North East. All these clubs are full of passionate fans desperate to get their team back where they belong.
“Darlo fans are actively taking it upon themselves to do that, which is extraordinary. And if we do starting heading back up the right end of the table and beyond, they will deserve almost all of the credit.”
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