Crystal Palace F.C. (1861)
| Full name | Crystal Palace Football Club |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1861 |
| Dissolved | 1876 |
| Ground | Crystal Palace Park |
Crystal Palace F.C. was a short-lived amateur association football club who were formed in 1861 and became founder-members of the Football Association in 1863. Along with Wanderers F.C., Barnes F.C. and the N.N. Club, they were described by Charles W. Alcock as being the four clubs who formed ‘the backbone of the Association game’ in its early years. The club disbanded and disappeared from historical records around 1876.
The club was formed in 1861 by the Crystal Palace Company which owned the Crystal Palace Exhibition building. It had been lobbied by existing members of their Cricket Club to provide a continuation of sporting activities during the winter months. All of the football club’s management-committee and most of its original players were previously members of the Crystal Palace Cricket Club, which had been founded in 1857 by the Crystal Palace Company and played on the same pitch within Crystal Palace Park.
Although both the Crystal Palace Cricket Club and Crystal Palace Football Club were amateur, they formed part of the Crystal Palace Company’s commercial enterprise, intended to generate revenue for the Company. 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.
The football club’s players were not company-employees; typical membership was formed from wealthy upper-middle-class businessmen, men who could afford the subscription and who had the leisure-time to participate in sport.
Crystal Palace F.C. committee-member and goalkeeper, Croydon-born wine merchant James Turner (1839-1922) became the first treasurer-proper 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 was commenced in 1870 and 1872, Crystal Palace footballers featured in both the official and the ‘unofficial’ versions of the first-ever international games.
Four players from the club appeared for England:
Delegates of Crystal Palace F.C. 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 (1844-1915) which prevented the adoption of two major Sheffield Rules laws. Proposals to adopt rouges (secondary goals either side of the main goal) and the virtual abolition of offside were defeated by a single vote.
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