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Crystal Palace Supporters’ Trust was founded by fans in 2000, when the Club first went into administration, with a view to raising sufficient funds to purchase a stake in the Club on behalf of fans. It successfully raised in excess of £1 million from individual fans through a loan notes scheme in 2000. Unfortunately, the new owner of the Club did not want to include the Trust in the ownership of the Club, and all monies were returned to loan note holders.
When the club fell into administration once gain in 2010 the Trust held several meetings with the administrators in order to ascertain the latest situation at the club and to assist in raising money, including sponsoring players’ shirts. Happily the club is now in excellent hands under the ownership of CPFC2010, and at an early stage a meeting was held between the Club’s co-chairman Steve Parish and the Trust to see how the club and Trust could work more closely together.
A key project for fans to become involved in was to obtain a state of the art training facility for the club – a facility that would meet the requirements of both the senior squad and the academy, and contribute to the long-term success of the club. It was agreed that the Trust would explore the possibility of acquiring some suitable land and build a new training facility that would be on a par with any ambitious football club. After two years of searching, the Trust was able to locate a site and secure a purchase price, but with the club promoted that May and the Copers Cope training ground coming up for auction, CPFC were able to purchase that site instead to secure that asset.
With that project put on ice, the Trust is now able to focus on other projects, ranging from looking to launch a bursary scheme for local coaches to help fund their FA coaching badges and deliver higher coaching standards in the local community, through to helping to fund Radio Mayday, meet with the club and police on a regular basis to discuss fans’ issues, as well as be a vocal member of the wider FSF / Trust / Supporters’ Direct community.
By joining the Trust you will be helping with all of this work, and ensuring that you have a voice on issues concerning Palace fans both with the club and the wider football family. Just click here to join us.
