Crystal Palace Football Club Women, formerly known as Crystal Palace Ladies Football Club, is a

women's association football Women's association football, more commonly known simply as women's football or women's soccer, is a team sport of association football when played by women only. It is played at the professional level in multiple countries and 176 national te ...

club based in south-east

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

which competes in the

FA Women's Championship The Women's Championship (formerly The FA Women's Championship) is the second-highest division of women's football in England. The division was established in 2014 as the FA Women's Super League 2 (WSL 2). WSL 2 replaced the previous level 2 d ...

. The club, known as the "Eagles", is affiliated to

Crystal Palace F.C. Crystal Palace Football Club is a professional football club based in Selhurst in the Borough of Croydon, South London, England, who compete in the Premier League, the highest level of English football. Although formally created as a profes ...

, the men's equivalent. The women's section encompasses the under-9 age group through to senior level, including an academy at The Priory School in

Orpington Orpington is a town and area in south east London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is 13.4 miles (21.6 km) south east of Charing Cross. On the south-eastern edge of the Greater London Built-up Area, it is south of St Mary ...

. The club plays their home matches at

Hayes Lane Hayes Lane is a football stadium in Bromley, Greater London, England. Located between Bromley town centre and Hayes, it is the home of Bromley F.C., and also used by Cray Wanderers and Crystal Palace Women. The current capacity of the gro ...

, after forming a partnership with Bromley F.C. in 2014.

History

The club was formed in 1992 as Crystal Palace Ladies F.C.. Since 2003, the club has risen up England's football pyramid, winning the

South East Combination Women's Football League The South East Combination Women's Football League, also known simply as the South East Combination, was a women's football league in England from 1998 to 2014. Until the creation of the FA Women's Super League in 2011, they sat at the third level ...

in 2003–04, and later achieved their first cup success beating

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament const ...

in the Surrey FA County Cup Final in 2011. Palace reached the FA Women's Premier League in 2013–14. The club won the Division One title in 2015–16 after going the whole season undefeated and also won the Surrey FA County Cup that same season beating

AFC Wimbledon AFC Wimbledon is an English professional football club, based in Merton, London, that plays in the EFL League Two, after being relegated from the EFL League One following the 2021–22 season. The club's home stadium is Plough Lane. The cl ...

in the final. In 2018, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' newspaper claimed that the Crystal Palace Ladies

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

players were told "they face not being able to represent the club any longer if they cannot each raise £250 in sponsorship, or put up the money themselves", though the club reported this as "inaccurate." The Crystal Palace F.C. men's star first team player

Wilfried Zaha Dazet Wilfried Armel Zaha (born 10 November 1992) is a professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Crystal Palace and the Ivory Coast national team. Zaha advanced into the Crystal Palace first team from their academy, in 2010. I ...

, who had just signed a new contract made "a substantial financial contribution" to help subsidise the club's female section. The club issued a statement: "Everyone knows what Crystal Palace means to Wilf and he wants to give the same opportunities to the next generation of aspiring players at Palace Ladies that he enjoyed when coming up through junior teams." In 2019, the women's team was featured in '' Harry's Heroes: The Full English'', a television documentary shown on ITV. They lost 1–0 to a team of male former professional footballers. On 10 June 2019, the club announced it would play as "Crystal Palace FC" instead of "Crystal Palace Ladies F.C." following the growing trend within the women's game to move away from the term "Ladies".

Players

Current squad

Former players

Club staff

Honours

Leagues

* FA Women's Premier League Division One Champions (1): 2015–16 *

Champions (1): 2003–04

Cups

* Surrey County Cup Winners (2): 2011, 2016

References

External links

Official siteCrystal Palace Ladies newsfacebook page
{{FA Women's Super League Association football clubs established in 1992

Ladies The word ''lady'' is a term for a girl or woman, with various connotations. Once used to describe only women of a high social class or status, the equivalent of lord, now it may refer to any adult woman, as gentleman can be used for men. Inform ...

Women's football clubs in England Women's football clubs in London 1992 establishments in England FA Women's National League teams