Darlington have been knocked out of next season's FA Cup before the competition has even started.

They suffered another blow last night when it was confirmed they will not be allowed to compete in the either the FA Cup or FA Vase.

Registration for involvement in both competitions had to be made by April 1 in order to take part during 2012-13.

The Darlington football club, which competed in the Blue Square Bet Premier in the season just finished, did apply for Cup and Vase entry.

However, the Football Association believes that the current club is a separate entity and, as they did not register before April 1, are unable to play in the knockout competitions next season.

An FA spokesman said: "The deadline was April 1 and, of course, the new club wasn't running then. We'd like to have accommodated them but we can't.

"They've only just affiliated to Durham FA. As it stands they can't take part in those competitions.

"It's not unusual actually. For example, when Chester came back as a new club they didn't take part in the Cup or the Vase or either."

Darlington will be able to return to the competitions in 2013.

The FA added: "As long as Darlington get their application in for the following season they'll be back in."

Craig McKenna, DFC 1883 project manager, said: "If the FA class us as a new club then they've got no choice but to not let us in the cup competitions.

"We applied to be in, as the old club and we paid the entrance fee and were accepted, but now they're saying it doesn't matter, that club doesn't exist anymore and we can't get a refund because there's no club to refund it to."

Missing out on the Cup is a blow as there is significant prize money available for progressing through the early rounds while there would have been hopes of success in the Vase.

Northern League clubs have enjoyed success in the competition in recent seasons with Whitley Bay winning at Wembley three years in succession while West Auckland and Dunston UTS contested the final earlier this month.

The news came only four days after the FA declared that Darlington will compete in the Northern League next season, a decision subject to a possible appeal, and must change their name.

Part of the appeal will be the licence, known as a football share, that will enable Darlington to play next season.

The club are awaiting a response from former chairman Raj Singh, who retains possession of the licence.

McKenna explained: "We have emailed him to say 'we know from your comments in the Echo that you signed over the football share, we haven't seen it, can you confirm when it was sent and that you're still willing to do so'.

"If we can get hold of the share then we will attach it to any appeal that we make, but we still haven't decided that we're going to make an appeal.

"We're trying to get hold of it and if Raj is saying he will give it to us then great."

On Monday, a representative of Singh contacted The Northern Echo to make it clear he will not comment further on the matter.

The 1883 board are working on their appeal to the FA and McKenna said: "We're talking about it constantly. Colin Galloway [club secretary] and Laura Drew [board member] are looking at the logistics of it.

"But until we've had an appeal we can't do any upgrades to Shildon. The challenge we've got is that the FA are saying Shildon is not Evo-Stik standard, so even if they were going to put us in the Evo-Stik it wouldn't give us enough time to upgrade it.

"There's many different factors that are relying on other factors."

Changing Darlington's name would bring to an end 129 years of history, but supporters and the club's board are clearly opposed.

"The FA are saying we're a new club - but we're not," said McKenna.

"We are the old club on a new playing licence as the FA would not allow us to accept the conditions which would have allowed us to take the playing licence.

"1883 didn't have the old playing licence as the FA would not allow us to accept Raj's conditions.

"Therefore, the old club, which 1883 bought in good faith, had to apply for a new playing licence - but we are not a new club, we are the old club on a new licence."

On the name change, he added: "It hasn't been discussed at all at any level. A few ideas have been mentioned on forums by fans with their ideas. My suggestion is to call it Darlington Fans Club…

"They say it's a recommendation, it's not a request or an instruction, it's a recommendation. The whole thing is just bizarre."

Should a name change prove necessary, a poll on supporters' website, Darlo Uncovered, is so far in favour of Darlington 1883 becoming the club's new title.

Meanwhile, the Durham County FA yesterday confirmed that Darlington's affiliation took place on Friday, contrary to a statement made by the FA on Monday.

John Topping, secretary of the Durham FA, said: "The affiliation was done sometime on Friday. They can change their name whenever they want, we're just waiting to see if they want to do that."