Stewart Davies was chairman of

Darlington Football Club Darlington Football Club is an association football club based in Darlington, County Durham, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League North, at the sixth tier of English football. The club was founded in ...

from 2004 to 2006. Davies is an accountant with many years experience as senior partner in an insolvency practice. He, Melvyn Laughton and Sean Verity made up the Sterling Consortium, who offered high-interest loans to

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

clubs after the collapse of

ITV Digital ITV Digital was a British digital terrestrial television broadcaster which launched a pay-TV service on the world's first digital terrestrial television network. Its main shareholders were Carlton Communications plc and Granada plc, owners o ...

left many in financial difficulties and unable to obtain finance elsewhere. Recipients included

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

, and

Cambridge United Cambridge United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Cambridge, England. They compete in EFL League one , the 3rd tier of the English football league system. The club is based at the Abbey Stadium on N ...

. In 2002,

Darlington F.C. Darlington Football Club is an association football club based in Darlington, County Durham, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League North, at the sixth tier of English football. The club was founded in 1 ...

chairman George Reynolds borrowed from the consortium and from Davies personally in order to complete construction of the club's new stadium,

the Darlington Arena The Darlington Arena is a rugby union stadium, located in Darlington, County Durham. The arena was opened in the summer of 2003, as the new home ground of Darlington F.C., following the decision to leave their previous ground, Feethams, after ...

. When Reynolds put the club into

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative assistant, Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an admini ...

, Sterling took control of the club and Davies became chairman. He and his staff stabilized the club, both financially and in terms of its relationship with supporters before in March 2006 selling it to property tycoon

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. In 2006, Houghton traveled to Poland for talks to establish feeder clubs. In 2010, Houghton s ...

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people English football chairmen and investors Darlington F.C. chairmen {{UK-business-bio-stub