George Houghton

George Houghton is a former property tycoon who was the chairman of Darlington Football Club. He became chairman in March 2006 following Stewart Davies. Houghton had apparently been reported to have given now former Darlington manager David Hodgson £2 million to spend in the summer transfer market window, but that was apparently reported to have been cut down to just £1 million. Houghton has also stated his intentions before he reportedly wants to sell the club and step down as chairman in two years time in 2010. Houghton has travelled to America, Poland and an unnamed Premier League club to establish feeder clubs over there and here. While in America he also travelled to Florida to talk to an unnamed man who he said almost runs football over there and he has also been talking to former Middlesbrough and England now FC Twente manager Steve McClaren as well to set up links with David Beckham to try to get him to become an ambassador for the club.^[1] Houghton appointed the first ever vice chairman at the club on 2 December 2008, Raj Singh.^[2] On 25 February 2009, Darlington went into administration and said "If we had more fans coming to the matches we probably wouldn't be in this crisis."^[3] It has also been known that Houghton has made 11 businesses go into liqudation previously, not known to Darlington fans and he put the club in administration in February 2009 after the Rochdale match. On 20 May, it was announced that he was returning to Darlington as chairman and has appointed former Middlesbrough boss Colin Todd as manager.^[4] On 1 June, it was announced that former vice president Raj Singh was taking over the club as chairman.^[5]

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