History of Crystal Palace F.C.

Crystal Palace Football Club is an English professional association football club based in Selhurst, South London, England. Although formally created as a professional outfit in 1905 at the site of the famous Crystal Palace Exhibition building, the club's origins can be traced as far back as 1861.^[1][2] In recognition of this, the club changed the date of its official crest to 1861.^[3] The club played their home games inside the grounds of the Palace at the FA Cup Final stadium from 1905 until 1915, when they were forced to leave due to the outbreak of the First World War. They moved to their current home at Selhurst Park in 1924.

Shortly after the professional club was created in 1905, Crystal Palace applied for election to the Football League, but were rejected and forced to settle for a place in the Southern League Second Division. The club were finally admitted to the Football League in 1920, and have overall mainly competed in the top two tiers of English football. Their best ever top flight season came in 1990–91, when they challenged for the English league title, but fell just short, finishing in third place behind champions Arsenal and runners-up Liverpool to achieve the club's highest league finish to date. Palace were unfortunate to be denied a place in Europe because although the ban on English clubs following the Heysel Stadium disaster had now been lifted, it resulted in England being unranked in European competitions which meant there was only one place available in the UEFA Cup, and this went to Liverpool rather than Palace. The club became founder members of the Premier League in 1992–93, but were relegated the same season despite achieving 49 points which is a Premier League record for the highest points total for a relegated club. Palace have also reached two FA Cup finals in 1990 and 2016, finishing runners-up on both occasions to Manchester United.