Crystal Palace F.C.
Crystal Palace Football Club, often referred to simply as Palace, is a professional football club based in Selhurst, South London, England, which competes in the Premier League, the highest level of English football. The club was officially established as a professional outfit in 1905 at the Crystal Palace exhibition building, but has origins as far back as 1861. They used the FA Cup Final stadium inside the exhibition grounds for their home games between 1905 and 1915, when the club were forced to leave due to the outbreak of the First World War. In 1924, the club moved to their current home at Selhurst Park.
Palace spent their early years as a professional club playing in the Southern League, before being elected to the Football League in 1920, and have mainly competed in the top two tiers of English football during their league history following the 1960s. Since 1964, the club has only dropped below the second tier once, for just three seasons between 1974 and 1977. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, they enjoyed a successful period as a top-flight club. After reaching the 1990 FA Cup final, Palace then challenged Arsenal and Liverpool for the English league title in 1990–91, eventually ending the season in third place, their highest league finish to date. Palace missed out on UEFA Cup qualification because of the limited number of places available to English top-flight clubs after the Heysel Stadium disaster. The club were also founder members of the inaugural Premier League in 1992–93.
However, the club was soon to suffer a severe decline in fortunes after their relegation from the top-flight in 1998. This was due to financial problems which saw Palace go into administration twice, in 1999 and 2010. They steadily recovered and since their promotion back to the Premier League in 2013, Palace have achieved a club record-extending thirteenth consecutive top-flight season as of 2025–26, as well as reaching two more FA Cup finals in 2016 and 2025, with victory in the latter final resulting in the club's first major trophy in their history. The club followed up this success by winning their first FA Community Shield title that same year.
The club's kit colours were claret and blue until 1973, when they changed to the red and blue vertical stripes worn today. Palace have a long-standing and fierce rivalry with Brighton & Hove Albion that emerged in the 1970s for competitive reasons. Other strong rivalries exist with nearby Millwall and Charlton Athletic, against whom they contest the South London derbies.
History
The Exhibition Palace and FA Cup Final venue (1854–1905)
In 1854, the Crystal Palace exhibition building had been relocated from Hyde Park, London, and rebuilt in an area of South London next to Sydenham Hill. The surrounding area was renamed Crystal Palace and included the Crystal Palace Park, where various sports facilities were built. In 1857, the Crystal Palace Cricket Club was established here using the cricket ground inside the park. Its members later lobbied for a continuation of sporting activities during the winter months and set up an amateur Crystal Palace football team, who became founder members of the Football Association in 1863. They competed in the first FA Cup competition in 1871–72, reaching the semi-finalsand played in the FA Cup over the next four seasons, but disappeared from historical records around December 1875.In 1895, the Football Association found a new permanent venue for the FA Cup final to be played at the sports stadium situated inside the exhibition building grounds. Some years later, the Crystal Palace Company who owned the Palace and its grounds and were reliant on tourist activity for their income, sought fresh attractions for the venue and decided to form a new professional football club to play at the stadium. The owners wanted a club to play there and tap into the vast crowd potential of the area.
Birth of the professional club and the Southern League (1905–1920)
The professional Crystal Palace Football Club was formed on 10 September 1905 under the guidance of Aston Villa assistant secretary Edmund Goodman, who later became Palace's longest ever serving manager. The club applied for election to the Football League, but were rejected and instead found itself in the Southern League Second Division for the 1905–06 season. Palace were successful in their inaugural campaign, achieving promotion to the Southern League First Division, after being crowned as champions. They also played in the mid-week United League, finishing runners-up to Watford, and it was in this competition that the club played their first match, winning 3–0 away to New Brompton.In 1907, in a shock first round victory, Crystal Palace beat Newcastle United 1-0 in the FA Cup. An even greater upset occurred two years later, in 1909, when Palace defeated FA Cup holders Wolves in the first round of that year's competition, becoming the first non-league side to eliminate the cup holders. The club remained in the Southern League until 1914, when the outbreak of the First World War led to the Admiralty requisitioning the Crystal Palace and its grounds, which meant the club was forced to leave. They moved to the home of nearby West Norwood at the Herne Hill Velodrome. Three years later, they moved again to the Nest following the demise of Croydon Common F.C..
1913 FA Cup final bombing
The Palace stadium was almost destroyed in an attempted terrorist bombing of the 1913 FA Cup final, when the suffragettes of the Women's Social and Political Union, plotted to blow up the stands. This was part of the suffragette bombing and arson campaign, in which the suffragettes carried out a series of politically motivated bombing and arson attacks nationwide, as part of their campaign for women's suffrage.Into the Football League (1920–1958)
The club became founder members of the new Football League Third Division in the 1920–21 season, finishing as champions and gaining promotion to the Second Division. This achievement meant they joined Preston North End, Small Heath, Liverpool, and Bury as the only clubs at that time to have won a championship in their first season as a league club. Palace then moved to a new stadium Selhurst Park in 1924, where the club still play their home games today.The opening fixture at Selhurst Park was against The Wednesday, with Palace losing 0–1 in front of a crowd of 25,000. Finishing in twenty-first position, the club were relegated to the Third Division South. Before the Second World War, Palace made good efforts at promotion, mostly finishing in the top half of the table and were runners-up on three occasions. During the war years, the Football League was suspended, and the club won two Wartime Leagues. After the war, Palace were less successful in the league, their highest position being seventh, and conversely on three occasions the club had to apply for re-election.
Historic Real Madrid visit and promotion to the top-flight (1958–1973)
The club remained in the Third Division South up until the end of the 1957–58 season, after which the Football League was restructured with clubs in the bottom half of the Third Division South merging with those in the bottom half of the Third Division North to form a new Fourth Division. Palace had finished fourteenth – just below the cut – and were consigned to the basement of English football. Their stay was only brief. Palace chairman Arthur Wait appointed the ex-Tottenham manager Arthur Rowe towards the end of the 1959–60 season, and his exciting style of football was a joy to watch for the Palace fans. The following season saw Palace gain promotion and they also achieved distinction in April 1962, when they played the great Real Madrid team of that era in an historic friendly match. This was the first time that the Spanish giants had ever played a match in London and was only two weeks before they were due to play Benfica in the European Cup final. A full strength Madrid team beat Palace 4–3. Although Rowe resigned for health reasons towards the end of 1962, the club continued its momentum. Dick Graham and then Bert Head guided Palace to successive promotions in 1963–64 and 1968–69, taking the club through the Second Division and into the heights of the First Division.Palace's first ever spell in the top-flight of English football lasted from 1969 until 1973, and they achieved some memorable results, arguably the best was a 5–0 home win against Manchester United in the 1972–73 season. Arthur Wait stepped down as chairman during that season and was replaced by Raymond Bloye who appointed Malcolm Allison as manager in March 1973, with Bert Head moving upstairs to become general manager. Unfortunately, the managerial change came too late to save the club from relegation back to the Second Division.
Bouncing between the divisions (1973–1984)
After the disappointment of demotion from the top-flight, the next season was to prove even worse for the club. Under the management of Allison, Palace suffered a second consecutive relegation, and found itself back in Division Three for the 1974–75 season. It was also under Allison that the club changed its nickname from "The Glaziers" to "The Eagles", and ended its association with claret and blue kit colours by changing to the red and blue vertical stripes worn today. Palace enjoyed a run to the semi-finals of the 1975–76 FA Cup, beating Leeds and Chelsea along the way, but lost 0–2 in the semi-final at Stamford Bridge to the eventual winners, Southampton. Allison resigned at the end of the 1975–76 season after failing to get the club out of the third tier, and it was under Terry Venables' management that Palace moved back up to the top-flight with promotions in 1976–77 and 1978–79; the latter saw the club crowned as Division Two champions.That team from 1979 was dubbed the "Team of the Eighties" by the media, because it included a number of very talented young players who had emerged from the youth team which won the FA Youth Cup in 1976–77 and 1977–78, and they were briefly top of the whole Football League in the early part of the 1979–80 season. However, financial difficulties suffered by the club caused the break-up of that group of players, and this ultimately led to Palace being unable to maintain its position in the top-flight. Palace were relegated from the First Division in 1980–81, coinciding with Ron Noades' takeover of the club. They struggled back in the second tier and Noades even appointed the ex-Brighton manager Alan Mullery, which was very unpopular with the Palace fans.