George Houghton is a former property tycoon who was the chairman of Darlington Football Club

Darlington F.C.

Darlington Football Club is a professional association football club based in Darlington, County Durham, currently playing in the Conference National. The club was founded in 1883, and originally played its games at Feethams, before moving to the Darlington Arena in 2003...

. He became chairman in March 2006 following Stewart Davies

Stewart Davies

Stewart Davies was chairman of Darlington Football Club from 2004 to 2006.Davies is an accountant with many years experience as senior partner in an insolvency practice...

. Houghton had apparently been reported to have given now former Darlington manager David Hodgson

David Hodgson (footballer)

David James Hodgson , is an English former footballer who played for Middlesbrough, Liverpool, Norwich City, Sunderland and Sheffield Wednesday, as well as lower division clubs and teams in France, Japan, and Spain....

 £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

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 and an unnamed Premier League club to establish feeder clubs over there and here. While in America he also travelled to Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

 to talk to an unnamed man who he said almost runs football over there and he has also been talking to former Middlesbrough

Middlesbrough F.C.

Middlesbrough Football Club , also known as Boro, are an English football club based in Middlesbrough, who play in the Football League Championship. Formed in 1876, they have played at the Riverside Stadium since August 1995, their third ground since turning professional in 1889...

 and England

England national football team

The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...

 now FC Twente

FC Twente

FC Twente is a Dutch professional football club from the city of Enschede, playing in the Eredivisie. The club was formed in 1965 by the merger of 1926 Eredivisie Champions, Sportclub Enschede and Enschedese Boys...

 manager Steve McClaren

Steve McClaren

Stephen "Steve" McClaren is an English football manager and former player.McClaren was previously manager of VfL Wolfsburg in Germany between May 2010 and February 2011, having left his post at Dutch side FC Twente, with whom he won the club's first Eredivisie championship in the 2009–10 season...

 as well to set up links with David Beckham

David Beckham

David Robert Joseph Beckham, OBE is an English footballer who plays midfield for Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer, having previously played for Manchester United, Preston North End, Real Madrid, and A.C...

 to try to get him to become an ambassador for the club. Houghton appointed the first ever vice chairman at the club on 2 December 2008, Raj Singh

Raj Singh (business)

Sukhraj 'Raj' Singh is an Indian businessman based in the Tees Valley and chairman of Darlington Football Club.-Care homes:Indian-born Singh is owner of the Stockton-based Prestige Group...

. 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." 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

Colin Todd

Colin Todd is an English football manager and former player. As a player, he made more than 600 appearances in the Football League, playing for Sunderland, Derby County, Everton, Birmingham City, Nottingham Forest, Oxford United and Luton Town, and also played in the North American Soccer League...

as manager. On 1 June, it was announced that former vice president Raj Singh was taking over the club as chairman.