[Phoenix Arrow]

Been looking around the internet and I came across this pdf. The long short of it is some people went to football fans and asked them what makes a rivalry. With those answers, some answers about the rivalries themselves, somes stats and a formula, they've done a league of the 20 fiercest rivalries. The fomula included things like fans responses to games both emotionally and how they changes attendance and ticket demand, off the field events and the fact that all Palace fans are arseholes.

1. West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers
2. Ipswich Town and Norwich City
3. Liverpool and Manchester United
4. Portsmouth and Southampton
5. Cardiff City and Swansea City
6. Aston Villa and Birmingham City
7. Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday
8. Bristol City and Bristol Rovers
9. Newcastle United and Sunderland
10. Brighton and Crystal Palace
11. Derby County and Nottingham Forest
12. Blackpool and Preston North End
13. Darlington and Hartlepool United
14. Luton Town and Watford
15. Blackburn Rovers and Burnley
16. Port Vale and Stoke City
17. Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur
18. Grimsby Town and Scunthorpe United
19. Everton and Liverpool
20. Leeds United and Manchester United

What I like about it is that it ignored press hype, the league the teams are in and stuff like that and just focused on fans reactions. Everton and Liverpool being so low down and Man Utd and City not even placing shows how the big temas opinions have changed. Like United fans don't really give a sh*t about City anymore but City fans still rave about how much they hate each other. Then compare that to Brighton and Palace. We passionately hate each other but noone knows or cares outside of ourselves.

Anyway, what are your thoughts on this?

[One Night In Grimsby]

18. Grimsby and Scunny.

Too fricking right aswell!

[Maccy]

Take it this is based just in England ?.

Cause if your talking about fan reactions, don't get much more aggressive and venomous than OF fans .

[Soulbs.]

marinerhuw, on 04 February 2010 - 06:11 PM, said:

18. Grimsby and Scunny.

Too fricking right aswell!

I'll second that!

[Nezzyyy]

Maccy, on 04 February 2010 - 06:18 PM, said:

Take it this is based just in England ?.

Cause if your talking about fan reactions, don't get much more aggressive and venomous than OF fans .

I was wondering why the OF wasn't there.

[Ad.]

I don't think you can really judge how big a rivalry is. The hatred differs from one person to the next. I was one of few Barnsley fans when I was at school, but there were quite a lot of Wednesday fans so I grew to hate them the most. Now I've been out of school a fair few years, I've begun to dislike the Blunts more, mainly due to the Hume incident.

Also, I think it's fair to say success can bring on hatred. Like you say United don't hate City, but if City were to continue to grow, no doubt the United fans would start to take note and dislike them a lot more.

[Daniel Faraday]

Right, so this is the top 20, and West Ham - Millwall doesn't appear.

Yeah i'm gonna pass.

[Shola]

Bullsh*t tbh. Because Newcastle will have had 52,000 regardles of opposistion in 2008 so therefore there wont be a dramatic change in tickets.

And also losing to the Mackems hurt a lot more than relegation

[Deano]

Absolutely sh*t list

[Neil Lennon.]

England. Not football, England.

[Phoenix Arrow]

Daniel Faraday, on 04 February 2010 - 06:44 PM, said:

Right, so this is the top 20, and West Ham - Millwall doesn't appear.

Yeah i'm gonna pass.

Yeah. Because noone really cares anymore. They're two divisions apart and pretty much have been for as long as I can remember, random promotions and relegations aside. I know a few West Ham fans and more of them are bothered about Chelsea than Millwall and Millwalls rivalries are hardly focussed.

I knew it would happen when I posted it though. It's impossible for people to look at these things from an objective view because whenever I think or rivalries, I think of us losing 5 f*cking 0 against Palarse or of the one time Pompey actually beat Saints and then set about destroying their own city. I would say Everton and Liverpool has been undersold though.

Stan Petrov, on 04 February 2010 - 08:05 PM, said:

England. Not football, England.

Sorry. I didn't know they played football abroad.

This post has been edited by Phoenix Arrow: 04 February 2010 - 08:07 PM

[Jack.]

Burnley/Blackburn not 1st, this list is a shambles.

[.Jay]

But a rivalry that encourages millions to be react with moderate passion, say Liverpool vs Man Utd will mean much more than a passionate rivalry between two clubs that have small, localised fan population, surely? If Celtic and Rangers were two fiery Scottish clubs in the third division, no-one would give a sh*t what their small-sized fan clubs got up to- half of the strength in a quality derby is the size of the occasion, the history behind it, the grandeur of the spectacle etc.

That's why games like the Old Firm, Panathinaikos vs Olympiakos and River vs Boca are so awesome.

[Poe]

I don't care about 19 of those rivalries.

Stupid poll.

[Aaron Sinclair]

For years and years Partick Thistle v Airdrie was the only Category 'A' police game outside the SPL. Category 'A' is usually given to Old Firm derbies btw

[Uncle Sam]

Well, it's not the biggest rivalry, but USA-Mexico is one of those rivalries that goes beyond what just happens on the pitch. There are many political and social issues that fuel the disdain on both sides.

I can't speak of any of the English rivalries, but in North America, it doesn't get any more heated than those two national teams.

[Jonas]

Biggest club derby: Fenerbache Vs. Galatasaray
Biggest national side derby: Egypt Vs. Algeria

sh*t list btw.

[Ad.]

Phoenix Arrow, on 04 February 2010 - 08:06 PM, said:

Yeah. Because noone really cares anymore. They're two divisions apart and pretty much have been for as long as I can remember, random promotions and relegations aside. I know a few West Ham fans and more of them are bothered about Chelsea than Millwall and Millwalls rivalries are hardly focussed.

This comes from the dude who hasn't seen his side play their 'rivals' for at least five seasons. Also, on that list is Luton - Watford & Stoke - Port Vale.

Like I said earlier, there is no way you can judge how big a rivalry is, it's just b*llocks.

[BR]

Jack., on 04 February 2010 - 10:25 PM, said:

Burnley/Blackburn not 1st, this list is a shambles.

I was waiting for the first to say this. Well done

[Phoenix Arrow]

Ad., on 05 February 2010 - 09:54 AM, said:

'rivals'

Like I said earlier, there is no way you can judge how big a rivalry is, it's just b*llocks.

Quite.