Crystal Palace Makes History: Taking Home the FA Cup

Posted on 18th May 2025

Yesterday we saw history made with Crystal Palace taking home the FA Cup.

For some people it’s just another football match. For others, football is corporate bullshit – a huge game with multi-millions thrown into it that’s distracted from the grass roots working class origin of the game.

A friend commented on my emotional reaction to winning: Football is about “tribes and divisions and watching rich people play a game while they get rich off you.. 80’s football I get.. local lads going to other towns to win games.. now it’s soulless.”

I grew up in Croydon, South London. My grandparents moved there from East London, Brighton and Nottingham respectively, and my parents were born there. All of my family at some point visited Selhurst Park, watched the match, had friends and family who supported Palace. At our family parties “Glad All Over” was always played, people always jumped around. Everyone was a part of the fun even if you weren’t a Palace fan, even if you didn’t wear the red and blue.

Crystal Palace was our home team.

The last time I went to Selhurst was back in the 90s, and I enjoyed the family vibe, the community feeling of the club. Closer to my new home in Exeter, I found Exeter City football club very similar – where the football club still feels as though it’s ingrained in the community, that it belongs to us, that it hasn’t been bought out by billionaires, that it’s still a club for the people.

Last night I watched the match with my mum. We ate sweets, had crisps, we shouted at the TV, and at the end tears were shed. We talked about some of the people in our family who would’ve been amazed to have seen this. About how I remember Mum’s cousin picking me up and throwing me over his shoulder when I was a small child and singing Palace songs. We talked about the time that she ran across the pitch with her friend Dave Matthews (when you were allowed to do that, back in the day).

We watched the TV and we were proud, watching our people hugging, smiling, laughing, picking up litter in Covent Garden. We witnessed the connection of our community from all different backgrounds, cultures, religions united by football – the beautiful game.

Oliver Glasner said: “The biggest achievement is not the trophy, it’s giving our fans a moment for their life”

We’re all here for it.

Posted in Life