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, the club's origins can be traced as far back as 1861, when an amateur Crystal Palace football team was established at the site of the Crystal Palace Exhibition building. This has led to claims by the club that Crystal Palace should be recognised as the oldest professional football club in the world, after historians discovered a direct lineage through their ownership under the same Crystal Palace Company. The amateur and professional clubs both played their home games inside the grounds of the Palace. The amateur club shared the cricket pitch in the Crystal Palace Park with the Crystal Palace Cricket Club, an