1883 BUY DARLO
Originally published: 3rd May 2012
It has been a long and windy road, and the journey ahead is going to be full of peaks and troughs, but today Darlington 1883 managed to purchase the assets of Darlington Football Club.
It is fair to say that the period of uncertainty has probably been the most worrying in our history. Recent spells of administration have ended in good news when businessmen have come in to rescue us. But this time has been different and it has come down to the fans to try and save what is left of our crippled club, regroup and rebuild.
Unfortunately we have found ourselves homeless and will be starting again possibly in the Evostick Premier or League 1, our assets are not much, but what can we do?
Yesterday discussions took place between Uncovered and 1883 whereby the plans at that time, because they have been changing on an hourly basis, were discussed in detail. We discussed the fact that all investments made within Crowdcube were to be returned as the pitch had changed significantly and it was deemed unfair and possibly illegal to move forward using peoples money.
For a deal to go through today 1883 had to secure funding and without using the funds within crowdcube as they were to be returned. We were asked whether we would invest the DUFF fund into the new model, we agreed.
Since its inception back in January, DUFF (Darlo Uncovered Fighting Fund) has raised over £22k for the club. £13220 was given to the players pre Barrow and Fleetwood. Other small payments have been made to various parties including a solicitors fee for 1883 which came out of the Uncovered FC fundraiser.
We have £8000 invested through Crowdcube and we made the decision to back the new 1883 project, thus helping them secure the funding they needed to push through todays purchase. We believe that is what people who donated to the fund woulod have wanted.
That money was donated by fans to save Darlington Football Club, we needed to act fast and make an instant decision. We hope that for the majority of people who donated to DUFF you see we made the correct decision. If we got our investment returned, it would be impossible to return the money. Our main thought though was that all of you donated to save Darlington Football Club, and that is what it has done. OK the form of Darlington Football Club is way off what we first thought, but it is still there.
Hard work and long hours lay ahead and thank you to all who have stepped up and chipped in. Heres hoping that in 5 years time we can look back on today and all be proud of the achievements that have been made and be at home back in Darlo in a ground we can support and in charge of our destiny.
