DARLINGTON FC

October 21st 2005, the harm that can be done by rich "saviours" was headline news on this day, when former owner of Darlington FC, George Reynolds, was imprisoned for 3 years for tax evasion. It was put before the court that he was virtually penniless which was a far cry from a time when the ex-safe breaker joined the football club and promised "Premier League" football and delivered a 25,000 capacity stadium. Actually, Darlo went out of the League and then out of business. The club reformed and played at the Darlington Rugby Club. Below "Darlington FC",  in 1887 with The Cleveland Challenge Cup.

Based in County Durham, the team competes in the National League North, the sixth tier of English football.

The club was founded in 1883 when a meeting was called at Darlngton Grammar School to address concerns that so few Darlington-based football clubs were entering the major competition in the region, the Durham Challenge Club. The meeting agreed with the view expressed by the local newspaper, that there was "no club, urban or rural, sufficiently powerful to worthily represent Darlington", decided to form a new club, and elected one Charles Samuel Craven, a local engineer, as secretary. Darlington Football Club duly entered the Durham Challenge Cup, reached the final in their first season, and won the trophy in 1885. It played its matches at Feethams, originally in regionally organised leagues. 

Darlington, along with Craven's inspiration, were one of the founder members of the Northern League in 1889, and went on to win the league title in 1896 and 1900; they reached the semi-final of the FA Amateur Cup in the same two seasons.

The following season Darlington entered the FA Cup for the first time, only to lose 8–0 to Grimsby Town. 

They were first admitted to the Football League when the Third Division North was formed in 1921, winning the title in 1925 and their 15th place in the Second Division in 1926 remains their highest ever league finish. After their admission to the League, they spent most of their history in the bottom tier. They won the Third Division North Cup in 1934, their first victory in nationally organised cup competition. They reached the last 16 of the FA Cup twice, and the quarter-final of the League Cup once, in 1968. In the early 1990s they won successive titles, in the Conference National in 1990 and the Fourth ivision in 1991. In 2011 they won the FA Trophy defeating Mansfield Town 1–0 at Wembley.

Above; Feethams derelict in 2005. Darlington moved from Feethams to the all-seater 25,000-capacity Darlington Arena in 2003. The cost of the stadium was a major factor in driving the club into administration in 2003, 2009, and 2012. As the fan owned club was unable to agree a Creditors Voluntary Agreement (CVA), it was expelled from the FA. A new club was immediately formed and moved to Blackwell Meadows stadium but the FA ruled that, as a new club, it must have a different playing name from the expelled club. The name chosen was Darlington 1883, owned by the Darlington Supporters Group and that club was placed in the Northern League North Division One, the ninth tier of English football, for the 2012–13 season. They won three promotions in four seasons before the FA approved their request to change to the traditional Darlington FC name.

The club has at times worn strips of black and white shirts, black shorts and black and white socks. The club's crest depicts Locomotion Number 1 referring to the town's railway history (railways had their foundation  in the north-east); as well as a stylised Quaker style hat, referring to the religious movement that had a historic influence on the town, and which was the source of the team's nickname, the Quakers. The club's main rival historically has been Hartlepool United.