Crystal Palace F.C. was an amateur football club formed in 1861 who contributed a major role in the development of association football during its formative years. They went on to become founder members of the Football Association in 1863, and competed in the first ever FA Cup competition in 1871–72. The amateur club was thought to have disbanded around 1876, but historians have made claims that the professional Crystal Palace football club that exists today is directly linked and have provided supporting evidence that they should be recognised as the same club, the theory being that the original club was re-formed as opposed to a completely new club being created, as they were both owned by the same Crystal Palace Company. This would give the current professional club the title of being the oldest professional football club in the world, and although the claims have not been officially ratified, the current professional club has accepted the amateur club as part of its own history.
Formation
The Crystal Palace Company who owned the Crystal Palace Exhibition building founded the Crystal Palace Club in 1857 to play cricket before turning their attention to football. It had been lobbied by existing members of the cricket club to provide a continuation of sporting activities during the winter months. The company formed the football club in 1861. All of the football club’s management-committee and most of its original players were previously members of the cricket club, and they shared the same pitch within the Crystal Palace Park.
Commercial Structure
Although both the cricket and football clubs were amateur, they formed part of the Crystal Palace Company’s commercial enterprise, which was intended to generate revenue. Membership of the club was by subscription only, at a price of one guinea per season, and spectators who wished to watch the games had to pay the one-shilling entrance fee into Crystal Palace Park.
Players
The football club’s players were not company employees; typical membership was formed from wealthy upper-middle-class businessmen who could afford the subscription and who had the leisure time to participate in sport. Walter Cutbill and A. Cutbill were prominent members, and both former pupils at Forest School, which was a leading school in the early development of the game. Committee member and goalkeeper, Croydon-born wine merchant James Turner became the first proper treasurer of the Football Association after its formation, and numerous Palace players were influential committee-members of the F.A. during its formative decade. When international football commenced in 1870 and 1872, players from Crystal Palace featured in both the official and the ‘unofficial’ versions of the first-ever international games. Four players from the club appeared for the England national team:
The club became founder members of the Football Association in 1863, and along with Wanderers F.C., Barnes F.C. and the N.N. Club were described by Charles W. Alcock as being the four clubs who formed ‘the backbone of the Association game’ in its early years. Delegates of the club attended every AGM of the Football Association for its first crucial decade, during which time the laws of the game were evolved. In 1867 when only five delegates turned up at the AGM, it was only the vote of Crystal Palace’s representative Walter Cutbill which prevented the adoption of two major Sheffield Rules laws. Proposals to adopt rouges and the virtual abolition of the offside rule were defeated by a single vote.
At the Football Association Committee meeting held on 16 October 1871 to discuss the creation of the FA Cup competition, the Crystal Palace captain and share-registrar Denison Allport proposed the formation of a committee to draw up the rules for the competition. He was also part of the delegation which selected the trophy. Palace competed in the first ever FA Cup competition in 1871–72, reaching the semi-final stage where they lost to the Royal Engineers after a replay. The club also played in the FA Cup in the next four seasons, their last recorded match was a 0–3 defeat to eventual winners Wanderers in the second round of the 1875–76 FA Cup.
Demise of the club
The Crystal Palace Company experienced a financial crisis in 1875 as a result of being sued by its refreshment contractor. As a consequence it was forced into a number of cost-cutting measures among the attractions being offered in its park, one of those was the football club which is thought to have disbanded the following year. At this time the football club were still very active: they included current England international players in their team, and were also still on the management committee of the Football Association.
Aftermath
The Crystal Palace Company began hosting the FA Cup Final on a regular basis in 1895, which was played at the sports stadium in Crystal Palace Park. The company then decided in 1905 to form a new football club to play at the stadium. The current Crystal Palace F.C. was formed as a professional outfit and played at the Cup Final venue until 1915.
