About Crystal Palace
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.
Club History
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.
Current Situation
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.
