Behind the scenes – update no 2

Here’s the latest of the behind the scenes updates of events at Darlington FC.

The Boards of Darlington FC and DFCSG met for the second time during the enforced break on Friday evening via video conference call, to discuss various ongoing relevant matters.

The current league season: As you are no doubt aware, there are still ongoing discussions between the National League, EFL and FA about what will happen to the current season and Chief Executive Officer David Johnston is scheduled to participate in an EGM conference call with all 68 National League club chairmen and officials from the above footballing authorities this Tuesday. We’ll update you further when we have more information.

Club finances: In order to protect the club financially in the short and medium term, the players have been furloughed in line with the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), which will pay 80 per cent of their salaries over the coming months. The club will pay the other 20 per cent and manager Alun Armstrong said; “It’s great that the club is supporting the players with 100 per cent payments when other clubs are only paying 50 per cent or less. That is partly down to the great contributions our supporters continue to make.” The players have all been written to and are fully backing these arrangements. They are extremely grateful.

Community engagement: At this very difficult and unprecedented time, we are actively looking at ways of increasing the club’s engagement with our supporters and friends across the local community. These are very stressful and difficult circumstances for everyone, particularly those who are elderly or lonely and self-isolating. We already have several ideas we’re working on, and these will be discussed further at a video conference call with all of the Club’s Operations Managers this week. We’ll then put together a structured community engagement plan and put it into action as soon as possible.

Thank you for your continued support, it is very much appreciated.

Stay safe and keep healthy and we’re looking forward to seeing you all in the future.

Remember, stay at home, and help the NHS