The 1861 nonsense

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The Five Oldest Clubs Still in Existence

There has been much debate as to who is the oldest club still in existence. We take a look at the top five.
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In history, what matters is not 'who won the battle' so much as 'who is believed to have won the battle'.
Not 'who has the best claim to the throne' so much as 'who will park their @r$e on the throne and defend themselves the strongest'.
 
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I love reading about the 1861 club and learning about the milestone events it played a part in, but it is not the same club as the one I watch today.

The club we support today was started completely afresh in the 20th century.
 
Unless my memory has failed me, Im sure I read that at the time the old Crystal Palace was formed in the 1860's there was also an amateur club in South Norwood. Geographically South Norwood is closer to our present stadium at Selhurst Park vs Crystal Palace.

The question is which of those two amateur clubs were we alligned with? I know the club used to play opposite Selhurst Station, which again is closer to South Norwood than Crystal Palace.

We needed a Rev Nigel Sands as club chaplain in 1905 in order to clarify the connections in our history over 100 years later. Crystal Palace as a name has a much better ring to it though, its one of the best club names in world football, and I'm not being biased at all.

I have the commemorative shirt when the club celebrated its 100 year anniversary in 2005 and own an 1861 club sweatshirt so I guess my opinion is split on the subject.
 
If you read Nigel Sands' contribution to the 'Complete Record' book published in 1989 then you would believe that the current club was formed by workers at the Crystal Palace Exhibition.

With the benefit of greater research, we now know that the CPFC that we enjoy watching each week was however formed in 1905 afresh for a specific commercial purpose.

Edmund Goodman's minute book chronicles the whole formation, selling of shares to set it up, the players we signed from the north of England etc etc.

That there was a club of the same name in the 1860's and 1870's is nice to read about, but it was a separate effort in a different era altogether.

Putting 1861 on the current club crest is a history grab purely to try and sell merchandise (primarily the book that made the misguided connection)
 
Penge Eagle said:
What do you mean?

I guess you think the earth is flat too.
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Surely, the connection is the name itself and the building that it is named after. If people want to claim it on that basis, then it's a personal choice.
Commercially it looks good to be the oldest club albeit in name only. Most with a casual interest in the history won't question it. Those who do, will discover that there is no direct continuity between the two.
 
same glass building, same South London geography, same accents........we are either 1861 (who played in the very earliest FA cups) or we are the legal entity born last week when Steve Parish bailed us out of bankruptsy.

so its a) one of the oldest clubs in the World, or b) one of the newest.
 
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Penge Eagle said:
In a new social media post, The National Football Museum has stated that the current CPFC has nothing to do with the 1861 club.
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the current Pope has nothing to do with jesus.

the current King has nothing to do with Alfred the Great

the current English language has nothing to do with Beowulf

your current wife has nothing to do with the girl you first met

the current high street of Damascus has nothing to do with the shops of eleven thousand years ago.
 
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