Crystal Palace Football Club

Crystal Palace Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Palace, is a professional football club based in Selhurst, South London, England, which competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Although formally created as a professional outfit in 1905 at the Crystal Palace Exhibition building, the club's origins can be traced as far back as 1861. The club used the FA Cup final stadium situated inside the grounds of the Palace for their home games between 1905 and 1915, when they were forced to leave due to the outbreak of the First World War. In 1924, they moved to their current home at Selhurst Park.

Palace spent their early years as a professional club playing in the Southern League, winning various regional titles. They were elected to the Football League in 1920, and have overall mainly competed in the top two tiers of English football during their league history. Since 1964, Palace have only dropped below the second tier once for three seasons between 1974 and 1977. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Palace became a force in the top flight and challenged Arsenal and Liverpool for the English league title in 1990–91, but eventually ended the season in third place, the club's highest league finish to date. They only missed out on qualification for the UEFA Cup at the end of that season due to the limited number of European places available to English clubs after the lifting of the UEFA ban caused by the Heysel Stadium disaster. Palace also reached the FA Cup final in 1990, narrowly losing to Manchester United after a replay, and were founder members of the Premier League.

However, Palace went into decline after their relegation from the Premier League in 1998, suffering financial problems which resulted in the club going into administration twice in 1999 and 2010. They eventually recovered and were promoted back to the Premier League in 2013, where the club have remained ever since and reached another FA Cup final in 2016, again finishing runners-up to Manchester United. The club are currently on their longest continuous run in the top flight, achieving twelve consecutive seasons at the start of the 2024–25 campaign.

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, and also share strong rivalries with local clubs Millwall and Charlton Athletic.