🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Crystal Palace (1861) (England)

Crystal Palace (1861) (England)

This next club has a bit of controversy surrounding its history and its lineage. Over the years, some football historians have claimed this club is the oldest football club still in existence today. The club in question Is Crystal Palace FC, a club founded in 1861 but folded fifteen years later in 1876. Of course, another Crystal Palace FC were founded in 1905, and they continue to play in the English football league pyramid until this day. But what about the club that came before them? Well as I said, some say they are a completely different club, while others have said they are the start of the club that we know of today. I’m going to tell you their story and maybe you can make the decision yourself as to whether I am talking about the oldest club in the world to still be playing the game of football today.

Crystal Palace FC were founded in 1861, and were like most clubs at the time, an amateur run club. The were one of the pioneer clubs in association football in it’s early years, whilst also being one of the founding members of the Football Association in 1863. The club wore blue and white hoops and played their home matches at the Crystal Palace Park Cricket Ground and the Crooked Billet Penge.

The club formed from the Crystal Palace Cricket Club, but with many of its layers taking an interest in association soccer, the sports club expanded into other sports. The first match the club played on record was against Forest Football Club (Wanderers FC), which was played on Paril 5^th, 1862. Indeed, the club were in trouble I it’s early days when they became homeless for a year, and were only recorded to have played three game in the 1866-67 years, however they somehow got themselves together and continued on playing.

The club took part in the first ever edition of the FA Cup in 1871-72. Their first-round opponents were Hitchin. The game was drawn 0-0, however both sides were given a pass into the second round due to withdrawals from other clubs and so a replay was never played. On December 16^th, 1871, they beat Maidenhead to advance to the third round. There they met Wanderers FC and drew the game 0-0. Once again, however, Crystal Palace were permitted to progress to the next round without playing a replay. In fact, so were Wanderers, who went onto to win the first FA Cup. Crystal Palace were knocked out in the semi-final stage by the Royal Engineers, after drawing the first game 0-0. The replay, which was played on March 8^th, 1872, saw The Engineers beat Palace, 3-0. The club competed in the next four FA Cup competitions but never reached as far as the semi-finals again. They were knocked out in the first round of the 1872-73 cup by Oxford University, 3-2, while they were knocked out of the first round a year later by Swifts FC. For a third time, the club were eliminated in the first round, this time by Cambridge University, After the initial 0-0 in the first game, Cambridge beat Palace, 2-1, in the replay.

The 1875-76 FA Cup went a little better for palace, when they beat the 105^th regiment after drawing the first game 0-0. The second game was won by Crystal Palace, 3-0. But the second round was as far they got when they lost to Wanderers, 3-0. It was the last time the club, its original identity, would compete in the FA Cup.

The year 1875 was the year the club went into decline. Their last recorded home game came on January 9^th, 1875, when they beat Reigate Priory FC, 5-0. They reportedly played 16 away games in a row after this, however, it all came to a head when they failed to turn up against Westminster School on March 4^th, 1876, citing the inability to field a team. In the end, their final recorded match came in December 18^th, 1875, when they played Barnes FC.

Key players started to leave for other clubs, an example being club captain Charles Eastlake Smith who went to play for Wanderers FC. The fact that the club had lost it’s home ground for a second time, was a huge contributing factor to the eventual dissolving of the club.

It wouldn’t be until 1905, when another Crystal Palace FC would be founded, however there are some doubts as to whether there is any connection to the 1861 Crystal Palace. While many of those affiliated to Crystal Palace will say both clubs are the same, meaning Crystal Palace are the oldest football club in the world still playing, others point out that the two were totally different clubs, with their name being the only link between the to clubs. It has already been declared by the FA that they are two separate clubs and therefore the title of oldest football club still in existence goes to Sheffield FC, who have even been given the title by FIFA themselves.