Crystal Palace F.C.

For the earlier football club of the same name, see Crystal Palace F.C. (founded 1861).

Crystal Palace F.C.

Crystal Palace's emblem
Full name	Crystal Palace Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Eagles (former Glaziers)
Founded	1905
Ground	Selhurst Park Whitehorse Lane South Norwood London England
Capacity	26,309
Owner	CPFC 2010
Chairman	Steve Parish Martin Long
Manager	George Burley
League	The Championship
2009–10	The Championship, 21st
Home colours Away colours

Crystal Palace Football Club (Template:Pron-en) are an English professional football club based in South Norwood, London. The team plays its home matches at Selhurst Park, where it has been based since 1924. The club was competing in the second tier of English Football, The Championship for the 2009-2010 season.

Crystal Palace was formed in 1905 by workers at The Crystal Palace. It reached the top division of English Football in 1969-70, and their first major final was in 1990. It was relegated from the top division in 1973 and once again in the following season. That left the club playing in the third tier of English football for the 1974-75 season, before being promoted back to the top level by 1979-80.

Crystal Palace's most recent successful period began in 1988-89, when the club finished third in the Second Division and was promoted to the First Division. It reached the 1990 FA Cup Final only to lose the replay against Manchester United, and finished 3rd in the First Division in 1990-91. Palace was a founding member of the FA Premier League (1992-93) but was relegated that season. Since then Palace has been relegated from and promoted to the FA Premier League on a number of occasions. Its most recent relegation from the top flight was in the 2004-05 season.

The club has twice gone into administration, first in 1998, which ended in 2000 with the purchase by Simon Jordan. His tenure also ended with administration in 2010, leading to a takeover by the CPFC 2010 consortium led by Steve Parish, owner of marketing agency Tag Worldwide.

History

Crystal Palace Football Club was formed on 10 September 1905 by the builders of the The Crystal Palace and initially played its home games at the cup final ground at The Crystal Palace. The club joined the Southern League Second Division in 1905-06 and in its inaugural season was promoted to the First Division, crowned as champions. It also joined the United Counties League, finishing runners-up to Watford. Henry Colclough became the club's first England representative when he played against Wales in Cardiff on 16 March, 1914

The outbreak of World War I led to the Admiralty requisitioning the Crystal Palace and the club was forced to move to the home of West Norwood FC, Herne Hill. Three years later the club moved again to The Nest due to the folding of Croydon Common FC. The club joined the Football League Third Division in its 1920-21 season, finishing as champions and gaining promotion to Football League Second Division. Palace moved to the purpose-built stadium Selhurst Park in 1924, the ground the club plays at today. The opening fixture at Selhurst Park was against Sheffield Wednesday and, in front of a crowd of 25,000, Palace lost 0-1. Palace finished 21st that season and was relegated to the Third Division South where it would stay until 1957-58 when it finished in the bottom half of the table and then joined the newly formed Fourth Division. This was alongside the other 11 bottom half clubs of Third Division South and 12 bottom half clubs of Third Division North. In 1960-61 Palace was promoted out of the lowest tier of English League Football and this proved a turning point in the club's history as promotions followed in 1963-64 and 1968-69, taking it back to Division 2 and then Division 1.

Despite surviving in the top flight from 1969 until 1972, the club once again experienced great disappointments when it was relegated in consecutive seasons, leaving it playing in the third tier for the 1974-75 season. This proved short-lived as it was promoted in 1976-77 and 1978-79 back up to Division 1. The 1980s began with relegation from Division 1 in the first season under new owner Ron Noades and this is where the club stayed until it achieved promotion via the play-offs in 1988-89. It also reached the 1990 FA Cup Final only to lose in a replay against Manchester United. The club built on the success of the previous season in 1990-91 by achieving its highest league finish of 3rd and returning to Wembley to win the Zenith Data Systems Cup. It beat Everton 4-1 in the final, its only cup win to date. The following season started promisingly with Palace lying in third place, with two games in hand on the clubs above them. However, following a programme on Channel Four called "Great Britain United", the then Chairman Ron Noades made disparaging comments about the work ethic of the club's black players, although he denies this and insists that his comments were taken out of context. The fall-out soon saw Ian Wright, the clubs talismanic striker, leaving to join Arsenal and the season fizzled out into an anti-climax with Palace finishing 10th. However this allowed it to become a founding member of the first season of the FA Premier League in 1992-93.

Crystal Palace fans protest - and await anxiously for news - outside the Lloyds HQ in London on 1 June 2010.

The damage from the previous season had been done as with few replacements coming into the squad, Palace went from being a mid-table team to one battling against relegation. Despite an opening day six goal thriller against Blackburn Rovers which ended in a 3-3 draw, The players who had served the club so well wanted to move on, such as 1989-90 club player of the year Mark Bright. The club's battled through the season and despite having a purple patch in December, looked to have done enough as a 3-1 victory over Ipswich Town left Palace comfortably on 49 points and the only club that could catch them was Oldham Athletic, who had three games remaining and were 9 points adrift. Oldham Athletic then beat Liverpool and Aston Villa to set up a final day showdown with Southampton while Palace went to Highbury to face Arsenal. Former player Ian Wright scored the opening goal in a 3-0 win while Oldham beat Southampton to condemn The Eagles to relegation. It immediately returned to the FA Premier League in the following season after the resignation of manager Steve Coppell. Alan Smith, Coppell's assistant at the club, took over but he was unable to keep the club up and it was relegated once again. In a interesting turn of events, Steve Coppell returned as manager following the sacking of Alan Smith. Yet Coppell was unable to take the club back to the FA Premier League at the first time of asking, losing in extra time to Leicester City the play-off final. The following season Coppell was successful in taking the club back to the Premier League. However in true yo-yo club fashion the club was relegated back to the First Division for the 1998-99 season. This began worrying times for the club as it was plunged into administration when owner Mark Goldberg was unable to sustain his financial backing of the club..

The next owner was entrepreneur Simon Jordan, who had made his money as an owner of Pocket Phone Shop. The club spent much of its time in the Football League Championship over the next 10 years with a brief spell in the FA Premier League, but the club went straight back down on the last day of the season. Jordan was unable to put the club on a sound financial footing after 2008, trasnfer embargoes were put on and off the club a few times. Crystal Palace had to sell players like Victor Moses for 2.5m and José Fonte for 1.2m, but the club still went into administration again in January 2010, owing Jordan himself around £20m. The Football League's regulations saw the Eagles deducted ten points, and survival was only secured on the final day of the season after a memorable 2-2 draw at Sheffield Wednesday. During the close season a consortium, consisting of several wealthy fans, titled as CPFC 2010, successfully negotiated the purchase of the club stadium and subsequently completed their takeover of the club afterwards. Led by Steve Parish (the man to who would be the vocal representative for the consortium during their negations and to later become the new club chairman), the consortium swiftly installed George Burley as the Eagles' new manager.

Records

Club Records

Role	Name
Highest League Finish	3rd in the Old First Division (now Premier League) (1990-91 season)
Highest League Position	1st in the Old First Division (now Premier League), 29 September 1979 - 6 October 1979
Record League Victory	9-0 v Barrow, Fourth Division, 10 October 1959
Record League Defeat	0-9 v Liverpool, First Division, 12 September 1989
Record FA Cup Victory	7-0 v Luton,FA Cup Thrid Round replay, January 16 1929
Record FA Cup Defeat	0-9 v Burnley, FA Cup Second Round replay, 10 February 1909
Record League Cup Victory	8-0 v Southend United, League Cup Second Round, 25 September 1990
Record League Cup Defeat	0-5 v Liverpool, League Cup Semi-Final Second Leg, 24 January 2001
Record Attendance	51,482 v Burnley, Second Division, 11 May 1979
Record Transfer Fee Received	£8,600,000 from Everton for Andrew Johnson, May 2006
Record Transfer Fee Paid	£2,750,000 to Strasbourg for Valerien Ismael, January 1998
Longest Unbeaten	18 Games, 22 February 1969 - 13 August 1969*
Longest FA Cup Runs	Final (replay), 1990, Semi-Finals 1976, 1995
Longest League Cup Run	Semi-finals, 1993, 1995, 2001
Longest Full Members Cup Run	Winners, 1991

* the run was split over two seasons where Palace achieved promotion

Player records

Role	Name
Most Appearances	Jim Cannon, 660, 1973–1988
Most Goals	Peter Simpson, 153, 1930–1936
Most Hat-Tricks	Peter Simpson, 19, 1929–1933
Most Capped Player*	Aki Riihilahti, 35 (69), Finland
Oldest Player	Jack Little, 41 years, v Gillingham, 3 April 1926
Youngest Player	John Bostock, 15 years and 287 days, v Watford, at Selhurst Park (Championship, 29 October 2007)
Highest League Scorer in Season	Peter Simpson, 46, Third Division South, 1930/31
Quickest Hat-Trick (League)	Dougie Freedman, 11 minutes v Grimsby Town, at Selhurst Park (Football League First Division, 5 March 1996)
Quickest Hat-Trick (Cup)	Danny Butterfield, 6 minutes, 48 seconds v Wolverhampton Wanderers, at Selhurst Park (FA Cup Fourth Round Replay, 2 February 2010)
First Player to Appear in a World Cup Match	Gregg Berhalter, 2002, United States

* Most international caps while at club

Honours

Honour		Year(s)
Old Division Two / Division One	Champions	1978–79, 1993–94
	Runners-up	1968–69
	Play-off Winners	1988–89, 1996–97, 2003–04
Football League Third Division South	Champions	1920–21
	Runners-up	1928–29, 1930–31, 1938–39
Old Division Three	Runners-up	1963–64
	Third Promotion Place	1976–77
Old Division Four	Runners-up	1960–61
FA Cup	Runners-up	1990
	Semi-Finalists	1976, 1995
Football League Cup	Semi Finalists	1993, 1995, 2001
Full Members Cup	Winners	1991

Players

Current squad

As of 21 August 2010

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
1	GK	ARG	Julián Speroni
2	DF	ENG	Nathaniel Clyne
3	DF	ENG	David Wright
4	DF	JAM	Claude Davis
5	DF	IRL	Paddy McCarthy (captain)
6	DF	ENG	Adam Barrett
7	MF	ENG	Darren Ambrose
8	MF	ENG	Neil Danns
9	FW	IRL	Alan Lee
10	MF	IRL	Owen Garvan
11	MF	WAL	Andy Dorman
12	FW	ENG	Calvin Andrew
13	GK	WAL	Lewis Price
14	FW	IRL	Sean Scannell
15	MF	ENG	Kieron Cadogan
16	FW	CIV	Wilfred Zaha

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
17	DF	ENG	Jack Holland
18	DF	ENG	Lee Hills
19	DF	ENG	Julian Bennett (on loan from Nottingham Forest)
20	MF	NED	Edgar Davids
21	MF	ENG	Kieran Djilali
22	MF	ENG	Jerry Nnamani
23	FW	ENG	Nathaniel Pinney
24	DF	ENG	Charlie Holness
25	MF	FRA	Alassane N'Diaye
26	DF	ENG	Matthew Parsons
28	MF	ENG	Stuart O'Keefe
30	MF	ENG	Alex Marrow (on loan from Blackburn Rovers)
—	FW	ESP	Pablo Couñago (on loan from Ipswich Town)
—	GK	ENG	Wes Foderingham
—	FW	ENG	Jonathan Obika (on loan from Tottenham Hotspur)

Academy

Crystal Palace F.C. Academy

Notable former players

Further information: List of Crystal Palace F.C. players

Crystal Palace "Centenary XI"

Manager - Steve Coppell Martyn Sansom Coleman Cannon Hinshelwood Salako Thomas Gray Lombardo Johnson Wright

To celebrate Crystal Palace's centenary in 2005, the club asked Palace fans to vote for a "Centenary XI". The Centenary XI consists of players whom the Palace supporters have decided were their favourites over the history of the club.

• Nigel Martyn (1989–96)
• Kenny Sansom (1975–80)
• Chris Coleman (1991–95)
• Jim Cannon (1972-88)

• Paul Hinshelwood (1974-83)
• John Salako (1986–95)
• Geoff Thomas (1987–93)
• Andy Gray (1984–87,1989–92)

• Attilio Lombardo (1997–99)
• Andrew Johnson (2002–06)
• Ian Wright (1985–91)

Although many great players were included, there were some notable exclusions such as Peter Simpson, John Jackson, Don Rogers, Peter Taylor and Johnny Byrne.

Many felt the Centenary XI only represented the latter years of the clubs history, with the oldest player represented being Jim Cannon, who made his debut in the 1972-1973 season.

Player of the Year (1972–2010)

Year Winner 1972 John McCormick 1973 Tony Taylor 1974 Peter Taylor 1975 Derek Jeffries 1976 Peter Taylor 1977 Kenny Sansom 1978 Jim Cannon 1979 Kenny Sansom 1980 Paul Hinshelwood 1981 Paul Hinshelwood 1982 Paul Barron 1983 Jerry Murphy 1984 Billy Gilbert 1985 Jim Cannon 1986 George Wood

Year Winner 1987 Jim Cannon 1988 Geoff Thomas 1989 Ian Wright 1990 Mark Bright 1991 Geoff Thomas 1992 Eddie McGoldrick 1993 Andy Thorn 1994 Chris Coleman 1995 Richard Shaw 1996 Andy Roberts 1997 David Hopkin 1998 Marc Edworthy 1999 Hayden Mullins 2000 Andy Linighan 2001 Fan Zhiyi

Year Winner 2002 Dougie Freedman 2003 Hayden Mullins 2004 Andrew Johnson 2005 Andrew Johnson 2006 Emmerson Boyce 2007 Leon Cort 2008 Julián Speroni 2009 Julián Speroni 2010 Julián Speroni

PFA Team of the Year

The following have been included in the PFA Team of the Year whilst playing for Crystal Palace:

• Dougie Freedman (First Division 2002)

• Andrew Johnson (First Division 2004)

• Andrew Johnson (Premier League 2005)

Staff

Current Members of Staff

Position	Name	Nationality
Co-Chairman:	Steve Parish	English
Co-Chairman:	Martin Long	English
Chief Executive:	Phil Alexander	English
Manager:	George Burley	Scottish
Assistant Manager:	Dougie Freedman	Scottish
Reserve Team Manager:	Dean Austin	English
Goalkeeping Coach:	Malcolm Webster	English
Fitness Coach:	Chris Short	English
Doctor:	Bill Jasper	English
Head Physiotherapist:	Alex Manos	English
Physiotherapist:	John Stannard	English
Academy Manager	David Moss	English
Under 18 Coach/Assistant Academy Manager:	Gary Issott	English
Academy Physiotherapist:	Vacant
Communications Manager:	Terry Byfield	English

Notable former managers

Further information: List of Crystal Palace F.C. managers

The following managers have all at least one honour when in charge of Crystal Palace.

Name	Nationality	Period		Played	Win	Draw	Lose	Win ratio	Honours
		From	To
Edmund Goodman	England	1907	1925	613	242	166	205	039.48	Football League Third Division South champions
Fred Mavin	England	1927	1930	132	63	33	36	047.73	Football League Third Division South runners-up
Jack Tresadern	England	1930	1935		98	44	71	056.65	Football League Third Division South runners-up
Tom Bromilow	England	1935	1938	162	71	40	51	043.83	Football League Third Division South runners-up
Arthur Rowe	England	1960	1962	132	52	32	48	039.39	Football League Fourth Division runners-up
		1966	1966	7	2	2	3	028.57
Dick Graham	England	1963	1964	150	68	41	41	045.33	Football League Third Division runners-up
Bert Head	England	1963	1964	328	101	96	131	030.79	Football League Second Division runners-up
Terry Venables	England	1976	1980	189	69	68	52	036.51	Football League Second Division champions, Football League Third Division third place promotion
		1998	1999	31	11	8	12	035.48
Steve Coppell	England	1984	1993	442	179	113	150	040.50	Football League First Division play-off winners, Football League Second Division play-off winners, FA Cup runners-up, Full Members Cup winners
		1995	1996	32	9	14	9	028.13
		1997	1998	51	16	13	22	031.37
		1999	2000	40	17	6	17	042.50
Alan Smith	England	1993	1995	108	48	25	35	044.44	Football League First Division champions
		2000	2001	55	14	18	23	025.45
Iain Dowie	Northern Ireland	2003	2006	123	50	29	44	040.65	Football League First Division play-off winners

Grounds

Selhurst Park

Full name	Selhurst Park Stadium
Location	South Norwood, London
Coordinates	51°23′54″N 0°5′8″W
Owner	CPFC 2010
Capacity	26,309
Field size	110 x 74 yards
Construction
Built	1924
Construction cost	£30,000
Architect	Archibald Leitch

Main articles: Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, Herne Hill Velodrome, The Nest (london football ground), and Selhurst Park

Selhurst Park is the current home ground of Crystal Palace Football Club. Its present capacity is 26,309 and is located in the London suburb of South Norwood in the Borough of Croydon.

Crystal Palace National Sports Centre was the first home of Crystal Palace. In 1905, the owners wanted a professional club to play at the venue, so a new Crystal Palace FC, was formed. It was previously the home of the original Crystal Palace football club from 1861. It also hosted the FA Cup final from 1895 to 1914 as well as other sports.

They were forced to leave the National Sports Centre by the military in 1914 as it was to be used for WW1 purposes. Palace, then move to the Velodrome which was temporarily the home of Crystal Palace F.C. from 1914 until 1918. In 1918, the club then moved to The Nest opposite Selhurst Station.

In 1924 the club built a new state-of-the-art ground, Selhurst Park which is still their home today. The record attendance in Selhurst Park was achieved in 1979, when 51,801 people saw Crystal Palace defeat Burnley F.C. 2-0 to clinch the Football League Second Division championship.

Rivalry

Crystal Palace have a number of rivalries. The most prominent rivalries are with Brighton & Hove Albion and Millwall.

In an extensive census on FootballFansCensus.com in December 2003, the surveyed fans placed Brighton & Hove Albion as the main rival of Crystal Palace, followed by Millwall and then Charlton Athletic.

Brighton rivalry

Palace and Brighton are over 40 miles apart and their rivalry did not develop until Palace's relegation to the Third Division in 1974. The clubs had two of the division's biggest followings, communications between Croydon and Brighton were good and many fans were keen to travel to an away fixture. The rivalry reached a climax when the two teams were drawn together in the First Round of the FA Cup in 1976. The first game took place on November 20 at the Goldstone Ground, and Rachid Harkouk came off the bench to score a stunning equaliser and take the match to a replay after a 2-2 draw. Back at Selhurst Park the replay ended up 1-1, with Rachid Harkouk scoring the goal. This meant a second replay being held at Stamford Bridge. The second and final replay ended 1-0 to Palace, with Phil Holder grabbing the only goal but only after a disputed Brian Horton penalty miss. Horton had scored with his first attempt, but the referee ordered the kick to be retaken, which he missed. Brighton supporters and Brighton manager Alan Mullery were understandably outraged, with Palace fans not surprisingly jubilant. Alan Mullery disparaged Palace fans, an act that would never be forgotten by fans of that time, and made his appointment as manager a few years later all the more surprising. However, the two did not play in a league encounter between 1988 and 2002, leading to a lull in the rivalry, and Palace fans turning their attentions to neighbours Millwall during the 1990s. However, the return of Brighton to the second tier saw Brighton lose to Palace 5-0 in a memorable game with club idol Andy Johnson scoring a hat-trick.

Millwall rivalry

Being the nearest professional club to Palace (6 miles away), Millwall have also been a long standing rival since the 1950s. Being in close proximity a lot of players have also moved between the clubs, for example Derek Possee, Anton Otulakowski, Chris Armstrong, Andy Roberts, Phil Barber, Jamie Moralee, Bobby Bowry, Darren Ward, Tony Craig, Carl Veart, David Martin, Lewis Grabban, Ricky Newman and Matthew Lawrence.

Charlton Athletic rivalry

Being the next nearest professional club to Palace (10 miles away), Charlton Athletic have developed a rivalry with Palace due to ground sharing at Selhurst Park and the close proximity of the clubs.

Shirt sponsors

Year	Kit Manufacturer	Shirt Sponsor
1975–77	Umbro	None
1977–80	Admiral
1980–83	Adidas
1983–84		Red Rose
1984–85	Hummel	None
1985–86		Top Score
1986–87		AVR
1987–88	Admiral	Andrew Copeland
1988–91	Bukta	Fly Virgin
1991–92		Tulip Computers
1992–93	Ribero
1993–94		TDK
1994–96	Nutmeg
1996–99	Adidas
1999–00	TFG Sports	Various sponsors*
2000–01		Churchill Insurance
2001–03	Le Coq Sportif
2003–04	Admiral
2004–07	Diadora
2007–2009	Erreà	GAC Logistics
2009–Present	Nike

* There was no permanent sponsor due to the club being in administration.

See also

• Crystal Palace L.F.C.
• Crystal Palace Baltimore
• Palace Echo
• History of Crystal Palace F.C.

External links

Official Website

• www.cpfc.co.uk

Match Day Radio Station

• Palace Radio 1278am