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While there have been famed “hard men” in the sport of football since the game began, these players have usually risen to the public conscience by their intimidating nature and use of harder tackles on the pitch rather than their use of actual violence. At its heart, football has no room for grappling or punches.
Unfortunately, though there have been instances of football games becoming violent and players acting more like UFC fighters when it comes to settling their differences. Sure, it’s a shameful part of the game, but in some ways, it’s almost fun to watch too.
Here are five of the worst fights to have broken out on a football pitch.
#1 Valencia vs. Inter Milan, 2007
The Champions League is always a heated tournament – it would be, as the stakes involved are so high – but things went way too far at the end of the round of 16 clash between Valencia and Inter Milan in the 2006/07 edition. The first leg of the tie had ended 2-2 at the San Siro, giving Valencia an advantage on away goals, and when the second leg at the Mestalla ended 0-0, the Spanish side moved onto the quarter-finals.
The game was marred badly however by a wild brawl following the final whistle. Things got so bad that both teams were charged with improper conduct by UEFA, while five individual players were charged with gross unsporting conduct. The flash paper was lit when a rough tackle occurred in the dying moments of the game, leaving Valencia’s Carlos Marchena flattened. Tempers flared and both sides got involved, but it seemed like the issue was over when the final whistle blew.
Instead, Marchena kicked out at Inter’s Nicolas Burdisso. Suddenly, all hell broke loose with players from both sides brawling and exchanging blows, and in a shameful moment, unused Valencia substitute David Navarro sneaked into the fracas and hit Burdisso with a punch that broke his nose. He then sprinted away while Inter players chased him, trying in vain to trip him up.
In the end, both sides issued apologies, but Navarro, Marchena and Burdisso – as well as Inter players Maicon and Ivan Cordoba – were all charged, with UEFA deciding to ban Navarro from European football for six months. The footage remains shocking eleven years on.
#2 Lee Bowyer vs. Kieron Dyer, 2005
Fights on the football pitch between opponents remain thankfully rare, but fights between teammates ought to be rarer still. Evidently, nobody gave that memo to Newcastle United midfielders Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer when they clashed violently on the pitch during a game with Aston Villa back in 2005.
The Magpies were already 3-0 down and had been reduced to 10 men when the incident occurred; evidently, frustrations simply became too much for the players to take. According to Dyer, Bowyer had already become angry with him for not passing him the ball, and after Dyer apparently told him “the reason I don’t pass to you is that you’re f*cking sh*t”, the former Leeds enforcer exploded.
Bowyer strode over to Dyer and suddenly both men were tussling, tearing at one another’s shirts and exchanging punches. Eventually, Villa’s Gareth Barry restrained a snarling Bowyer, and referee Barry Knight had little choice but to send both men off. Dyer was hit with a three-match ban for his actions while Bowyer took a four-match ban as he’d already been sent off once that season already, and the moment that both men called “madness” went down in infamy.
#3 Everton vs. Lyon, 2017
One of the worst football brawls in recent memory came this past October during a Europa League match between Everton and Lyon at Goodison Park. Lyon won the match 2-1, but both teams found themselves in hot water following a wild fracas between multiple players in the second half that even ended up involving a fan.
Everton captain Ashley Williams caused the whole mess when he roughly tackled Lyon goalkeeper Anthony Lopes, causing his teammate Bertrand Traore to square up to the Welshman. Suddenly multiple players became involved – even Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, who sprinted almost the length of the pitch – and suddenly punches were being thrown as the brawl spilled towards the advertising hoardings.
Eventually cooler heads prevailed, and somehow only Williams and Traore found themselves booked – probably because the referee couldn’t really figure out exactly who was exchanging blows. But it was Everton who were fined by UEFA – not because of the actions of their players, but because a fan – incredibly holding a small child – had come to the edge of the pitch to throw a punch at Lucas Tousart. Everton banned the fan but still had to pay up to the tune of £30,000 for the shameful scenes.
#4 David Batty vs. Graeme Le Saux, 1995
Back in the early 1990’s - just a handful of seasons after English clubs had been reinstated into European competition - the Premier League’s best would routinely struggle against even minnows from the continent, and no campaign was this truer than in Blackburn Rovers’ doomed stint in the Champions League in 1995/96.
They had already picked up just one point in their first four games – against Spartak Moscow, Rosenborg and Legia Warsaw – when they were faced with the return game against Spartak in Russia. Not long after the game had started, Blackburn’s Graeme Le Saux collided with teammate David Batty when both men went for a loose ball. An angry clash then followed – with Le Saux landing a clean left hook to Batty before captain Tim Sherwood broke them up.
Neither man was reprimanded for the incident, but they continued to hurl abuse at one another throughout the game, which ended in a 3-0 defeat for Blackburn. Le Saux went on to deny that Batty had aimed a homophobic slur at him – stating he’d simply seen red and thrown the punch as he felt Batty was about to swing for him. He also admitted to breaking his hand with the shot. It was the lowest point in a truly shameful European campaign for the Rovers.
#5 Manchester United vs. Arsenal, 1990
While they went on to become heated rivals during the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, hostilities really began between Manchester United and Arsenal during a game in November 1990 that descended into violence following a late tackle by Arsenal’s Nigel Winterburn on United’s Denis Irwin. Irwin and teammate Brian McClair decided to retaliate against Winterburn and his teammate Anders Limpar, and suddenly the situation exploded.
United midfielder Paul Ince rushed over and shoved Limpar into the advertising hoardings, and within seconds absolute chaos broke out, with all eleven of United’s players and ten of Arsenal’s involved in the fracas. Only Gunners goalkeeper David Seaman – renowned throughout his career for having a cool head – stayed uninvolved.
Somehow the brawl lasted just 20 seconds, after which referee Keith Hackett booked only Limpar and Winterburn for their actions, with all of United’s players getting off scot-free. After the match, however, the FA charged both sides with misconduct and bringing the game into disrepute, and eventually, both were fined and deducted points – Arsenal two and United one.
It would be the precursor for later incidents between the two sides – including the legendary ‘Battle of Old Trafford’ in 2003 that saw Arsenal players attack United’s Ruud van Nistelrooy and the ‘Battle of the Buffet’ that allegedly saw Arsenal’s Cesc Fabregas throw a pizza at United boss Alex Ferguson.
