Sukhraj 'Raj' Singh is an India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n businessman based in the Tees Valley

Tees Valley

The Tees Valley is an area in the North East of England. It can be described as "greater Teesside" and consists of the four unitary authorities created by the breakup of the County of Cleveland in 1996: Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar & Cleveland, and Stockton-On-Tees along with the borough of...

 and 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...

.

Care homes

Indian-born Singh is owner of the Stockton

Stockton-on-Tees

Stockton-on-Tees is a market town in north east England. It is the major settlement in the unitary authority and borough of Stockton-on-Tees. For ceremonial purposes, the borough is split between County Durham and North Yorkshire as it also incorporates a number of smaller towns including...

-based Prestige Group. His business interests include a number of residential care homes and investment properties across the Tees Valley

Tees Valley

The Tees Valley is an area in the North East of England. It can be described as "greater Teesside" and consists of the four unitary authorities created by the breakup of the County of Cleveland in 1996: Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar & Cleveland, and Stockton-On-Tees along with the borough of...

.

Football

Singh became vice-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...

 in December 2008, appointed by then chairman of the club George Houghton

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...

 until the club went into administration in February 2009. On 28 May, it was announced that he was taking over the club as chairman. On 7 August, Darlington came out of administration and were given permission by the Football League for Singh to take over as new owner and chairman of the club. Singh's consortium, together with previous owner Houghton, were confident enough to appoint manager 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...

 in the interim period, as well as sanctioning contracts for a new playing squad. Shortly after Todd was handed a permanent deal Singh sacked Todd after he failed to win any of his first nine games and appointed Steve Staunton

Steve Staunton

Stephen "Steve" Staunton is an Irish association football manager and former professional footballer, who was most recently manager of Darlington...

as his second permanent appointment.