George Reynolds (businessman)
British football chairman
George Reynolds (12 May 1936 – 13 April 2021) was a British businessman best known for his time as chairman of Darlington Football Club. He was found guilty of tax evasion in 2005.
Football
Reynolds became the chairman of Darlington Football Club in 1999 and built the team a new stadium costing £20 million, which he named after himself. Reynolds was originally very popular with fans but he then took the club into administration and left the club in January 2004, just months after the new 25,000-seat stadium (one of the largest stadiums outside the Premier League) was opened. The stadium was renamed shortly afterwards. Darlington goalkeeper David Preece said shortly after he was transferred to Aberdeen F.C., the day before his debut against Celtic F.C., Reynolds called him threatening to cancel the transfer unless Preece signed a waiver of his £45,000 signing-on fee.
He famously declared his ambition to take Darlington into the Premier League, and when he took the club over they had been in the Football League's basement division since 1992. The new stadium did nothing to improve their on-field fortunes, and they did not move out of the basement division of the Football League until 2010 - when they were relegated to the Conference. The club was later relegated four divisions to the Northern Football League Division One and forced to reform as a new club, Darlington 1883, owned by the fans.
Downfall
He was arrested on suspicion of money laundering in June 2004 after being stopped with £500,000 of cash in the boot of his car.
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