EXCLUSIVE: Croydon’s chief exec has issued a plea to the borough’s councillors seeking their help to media manage adverse publicity over Crystal Palace’s truncated FA Cup victory parade. By STEVEN DOWNES
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Not coming to a Town Hall near you: Palace manager Oliver Glasner with the FA Cup
Katherine Kerswell, Croydon Council’s chief executive, yesterday issued an urgent appeal to the borough’s 70 councillors for “support in correcting any misunderstanding in your communities” over Crystal Palace’s FA Cup-winners’ victory parade to be staged on Monday.
In her email, Kerswell was at great pains to stress that the local authority did not impose “a £200k charge on the club for the celebrations”.
In the week since last Saturday’s historic 1-0 win over Manchester City at Wembley, Crystal Palace have found themselves caught in a vice between two local authorities.
As Inside Croydon reported exclusively yesterday, the club had snubbed the approach from Croydon to have a parade to the Town Hall, preferring a route that would have taken them to Crystal Palace Park – something which was ultimately blocked by Bromley Council.
The end result, a short parade down Whitehorse Lane and around Selhurst Park, finally confirmed yesterday, led to many fans grumbling about the Nimby-ism of Bromley and questioning cash-strapped Croydon Council’s motivations.
Croydon Mayor Jason Perry took to social media to protest his innocence. “I would have loved a longer parade,” the Tory Mayor said, after once again failing to deliver for Croydon.
“I personally did everything I could to support them.”
The council issued a formal statement, too, in a desperate effort to claim some part of Palace’s reflected glory, while stressing that the choice of route was the football club’s, and not the Town Hall’s.
Panicked: Croydon’s £204,000 per year CEO rushed this email out to councillors yesterday " data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/insidecroydon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Kerswells-panic-attack-over-cup-parade.jpg?fit=300%2C281&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/insidecroydon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Kerswells-panic-attack-over-cup-parade.jpg?fit=640%2C600&ssl=1" class="size-medium wp-image-203524" src="https://i0.wp.com/insidecroydon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Kerswells-panic-attack-over-cup-parade.jpg?resize=300%2C281&ssl=1" alt width="300" height="281" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/insidecroydon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Kerswells-panic-attack-over-cup-parade.jpg?resize=300%2C281&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/insidecroydon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Kerswells-panic-attack-over-cup-parade.jpg?resize=150%2C141&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/insidecroydon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Kerswells-panic-attack-over-cup-parade.jpg?resize=768%2C721&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/insidecroydon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Kerswells-panic-attack-over-cup-parade.jpg?w=857&ssl=1 857w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px">
Panicked: Croydon’s £204,000 per year CEO rushed this email out to councillors yesterday
“Croydon Council has been supporting the football club on the plans, to give local fans the chance to see the winning team lift the FA Cup in their hometown of Croydon.
“The club has designed the parade route and winners’ party.
“The council has met every request from the club and, in line with Croydon’s policy on major community festivals, the council is waiving the costs of the street closures and street cleaning for the parade.”
But this failed to convince many Palace fans and Croydon residents, some of whom pointed to yesterday’s victory parade through Tottenham, following Spurs’ Europa League final win on Wednesday night. The Tottenham trophy parade went almost two miles, with an estimated 250,000 lining the route.
“It took Tottenham 48 hours to organise a parade,” Labour councillor Sean Fitzsimons tweeted. “In Croydon we’ve ended up with a ridiculously short parade for CPFC after five days of negotiations.
“Jason Perry, the Croydon elected Mayor, the Met Police and CPFC should have done better.”
Inside Croydon reported yesterday that officials from Croydon Council had approached the club ahead of the Wembley final to ask about the traditional cup-winners’ parade.
The council overtures received a firm “No thanks” from the club over the possibility of routing their parade into the centre of Croydon.
Rather than parade the two miles or so from Selhurst Park to Croydon Town Hall, the football club wanted to take the players and staff to Crystal Palace Park, which comes under the local authority control of Bromley. Bromley Council was also doing some media crisis management yesterday, issuing a public statement saying that they “engaged positively with the club and did not block celebrations in the borough”.
Given the contradictory nature of the local authorities’ public statements, and the club’s clearly signalled desire to parade into Crystal Palace Park, it is a reasonable deduction to suggest that not all organisations involved can be telling the truth.
And behind the scenes in Fisher’s Folly, with Mayor Perry blubbing over his failure to secure his photo op on the Town Hall steps with the FA Cup, senior management was spooked into issuing an internal message to councillors denying that a longer parade through Croydon had been scuppered because the cash-strapped council wanted £200,000 from the football club to cover the costs of the parade.
The internal memo has been leaked to Inside Croydon.
From her desk in the council offices at Fisher’s Folly, Kerswell, the £204,000 per year council bureaucrat, wrote that she wanted “to correct some misinformation you may have seen circulating on social media in relation to the Crystal Palace FA Cup celebrations”.
Short ride: the route of Crystal Palace’s victory parade, which is being staged on Bank Holiday Monday " data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/insidecroydon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-23-at-12-29-01-Party-on-the-pitch-Our-FA-Cup-Winners-celebration-at-Selhurst-Park-News-Crystal-Palace-F.C.png?fit=300%2C201&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/insidecroydon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-23-at-12-29-01-Party-on-the-pitch-Our-FA-Cup-Winners-celebration-at-Selhurst-Park-News-Crystal-Palace-F.C.png?fit=640%2C429&ssl=1" class=" wp-image-203460" src="https://i0.wp.com/insidecroydon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-23-at-12-29-01-Party-on-the-pitch-Our-FA-Cup-Winners-celebration-at-Selhurst-Park-News-Crystal-Palace-F.C.png?resize=584%2C392&ssl=1" alt width="584" height="392" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/insidecroydon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-23-at-12-29-01-Party-on-the-pitch-Our-FA-Cup-Winners-celebration-at-Selhurst-Park-News-Crystal-Palace-F.C.png?resize=1024%2C687&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/insidecroydon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-23-at-12-29-01-Party-on-the-pitch-Our-FA-Cup-Winners-celebration-at-Selhurst-Park-News-Crystal-Palace-F.C.png?resize=300%2C201&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/insidecroydon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-23-at-12-29-01-Party-on-the-pitch-Our-FA-Cup-Winners-celebration-at-Selhurst-Park-News-Crystal-Palace-F.C.png?resize=150%2C101&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/insidecroydon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-23-at-12-29-01-Party-on-the-pitch-Our-FA-Cup-Winners-celebration-at-Selhurst-Park-News-Crystal-Palace-F.C.png?resize=768%2C515&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/insidecroydon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-23-at-12-29-01-Party-on-the-pitch-Our-FA-Cup-Winners-celebration-at-Selhurst-Park-News-Crystal-Palace-F.C.png?w=1062&ssl=1 1062w" sizes="(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px">
Short ride: the route of Crystal Palace’s victory parade, which is being staged on Monday
Kerswell wrote: “We are aware that some fans have expressed disappointment about the length of the parade and there have been rumours that the route has been limited by the council; and rumours that we have imposed a £200k charge on the club for the celebrations…
“I would like to reassure you that the council has supported every request from the club and that there has been no charge made by the council.”
And to her audience of 70 councillors, Kerswell added a touch of self-pity and pathos: “Can I ask for your support in correcting any misunderstanding in your communities, and I hope that we all enjoy celebrating such a special event in our team’s history.”
Read more:Cup-winners Palace snub Perry over Town Hall victory parade
Read our match report from Wembley:A dream becomes reality: Wembley shook and it was beautiful
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