The lesser known derbies of world football

Hope the title makes sense to you all! You may remember our podcast question this week was:

What are the most passionate/hate-filled/historic lesser known derbies?

We had a great response to this, and it inspired me to write about all the derbies mentioned on the podcast, and educate you lovely people about these derbies! I might even stay neutral about the St.Mirren-Greenock Morton derby, a task that I miserably failed during the podcast.

Al-Ahly VS Zamalek

The game known as the Cairo Derby or the Egyptian Clasico has been the main rivalry in Egyptian football since the creation of the national league in 1948. They usually meet twice a season, which is just as well as past derbies have seen numerous fights and riots betwen the opposing fans, and regrettably even deaths. Things have been said to calm down between the fans in recent years although it is not unexpected for the riots still to take place.

I could only find the stats as of Spetember 2008, but Al-Ahly held the upper hand in 141 games played between the clubs, with 57 wins. Zamalek have 36 wins and there have been 48 draws.

The game is so hostile that foreign referees have been called in on more than one occasion to control the tempers between the players and for national referee’s safety! Hugh Dallas took control of the game twice during his career, said the following:

“The most volatile set of fans? Cairo… The first time was unbelievable. There were 100,000 people in the stadium and from the start they were out of control. That was one of the few times when I thought we might have been seriously hurt. I had to stop the game because of the number of rocks being hurled on to the pitch. I gave a corner and the next thing I saw was my assistant referee Gordon McBride running towards me. His exact words were, `F*** this, I’m out of here’. “

Bear in mind Hugh Dallas regularly took charge of Old Firm games and refereed in some extremely volatile atmospheres, and you should get a taste of how crazy that game really is.

Burnley VS Blackburn

The East Lancashire Derby, AKA ‘The Cotton Mills Derby’ is one of the oldest in world football, dating back to November 1888 when Blackburn rattled Burnley 7-1 at Turf Moor in the first competitive game between the teams. The hosility is said to have truly started in the 1890s when Blackburn complained to the Football League about the amount of Scottish players Burnley were using at the time.

The teams have met 90 times, with Blackburn leading the way with 40 wins, although Burnley are close behind with 35 wins.

The last game between the teams shows the hatred involved with the rivalry. Ewood Park was the venue for a 1pm kick off, but Burnley fans were only allowed to buy a ticket if they also bought a coach ticket to the game, as this was the only way they were allowed to travel the 15 miles to the stadium. These buses set off at 9am in order to minimise trouble. The police presence was staggering, and it led Sky Sports to quip they had never seen security like it at a football game.

However, despite all these arrangements there was a violent outbreak at a pub not far from the ground after the game had finished which led to 55 arrests.

St.Mirren VS Morton

The Renfrewshire Derby is possibly the most vicious rivalry in Scotland apart from the Old Firm Derby. I won’t comment too much on this as quite frankly, it’ll turn personal and turn into a ramble about we continually Bounce On The Morton etc…

The game has been played since 1885 and it traditionally covers the Renfrewshire area of Scotland. The two clubs haven’t played in the league in a long time but did play earlier this season in the Scottish League Cup, where St.Mirren defeated Morton 4-3 in a thrilling game at Cappielow, Morton’s home ground. The travel arrangements for these games are extremely similar to the East Lancashire Derby.

The games are guaranteed to play at least once a season due to the Renfrewshire Cup, a pre season ‘friendly’ tournament. They haven’t beaten St.Mirren in a long time. Yes!

Brighton VS Crystal Palace

This rivalry started in 1976 when Terry Venables took over at Crystal Palace and Alan Mullery took over at Brighton. These two had an extremely fierce yet friendly rivalry with each other and during the course of the 1976-77 season, this escalated onto the field. The clubs met five times that season and the emotions between the managers carried over into the stands as well.

Mullery seemed to be the cause of most of the friction with comments made in the press after previous games, and it led to him being covered in hot coffee by a Palace fan after confronting the referee after one of these games due to a percieved poor performance. Alan Mullery isn’t the shy retiring type, and proceeded to goad the fans with some…we’ll call them ‘hand gestures’.

The rivalry grew from there, and although both men are long gone from the clubs, the rivalry hasn’t gone.

Red Star Belgrade VS Partizan Belgrade

The Serbians call this the ‘Eternal Derby’ and it is a rivalry which covers numerous sports but football is the main game in Belgrade, and both the teams are said to cover 87% of all football support in Serbia.

The rivalry began in 1945 with the formation of both clubs, and this particular derby is made by the fans. The Grobari (Partizan fans) and Delije (Red Star) spend days preparing for the game, designing special signs for the occasion and making special chants for that game. The main reason for the rivalry was due to who the clubs represented when they were formed. Like most Eastern Bloc clubs of the time, the clubs were formed to represent a particular faction of the establishment. Partizan were a club of the Yugoslavian Army, and Red Star were a Communist club when born.

The early games were extremely intense affairs to begin with, but with the standard of the league slipping and fans leaving in droves in recent times, large amounts of violence and hooliganism have crept into the derby.

The clubs have met on 141 occasions in the league, with 57 wins to Red Star, 41 Partizan victories and 43 draws.

Blackpool VS Preston

The West Lancashire Derby, sometimes called the M55 Derby due to the towns being at opposite ends of the motorway. The first game took place in November 1901 at Bloomfield Road, where Preston won 4-1. The derby was said to be fairly friendly until the 1950s, when fans of both clubs started arguing about whether Stanley Matthews was better than Tom Finney.

The rivalry took a tragic turn on 6 May 1978 when a Preston fan was stabbed to death during a clash between Preston and Blackpool fans at a concert.

In 1996 there were 70 arrests when serious disorder broke out when the clubs met at Deepdale and pubs were trashed in Preston, and since then, there is usually a fair bit of trouble when the teams meet.

In fairness, both sets of fans have came together on more than one occasion to raise money for local charities, so it can’t be all bad!!!

The clubs have played 97 times, with Preston out in front with 45 wins, Blackpool with 33 wins with the remainder being draws.

Mohun Bagan VS East Bengal

The event known as the Kolkata Derby is one of the most passionate games in India and Asia. The two met for the first time in 1925 and have played each other 299 times. The fans of Mohun Bagan are known as the Ghotis while supporters of East Bengal are called as Bangals and the derby is said to be based on a broad based socio-cultural platform.

The Calcutta bhadraloks (gentlemen) who ran Mohun Bagan often discriminated against athletes from the eastern parts of Bengal (now Bangladesh), whose culinary tastes, accents and modes of dressing were ridiculed by the more ‘civilised’ city elite, and East Bengal were formed in 1920 when a group from Mohun Bagan broke away from the club.

It’s been said the derby is extremely similar to the Old Firm derby due to the way the game divides the city, and the city have taken the derby to it’s heart. The attendance record for this game was set in 1997, with a staggering 131000 fans watching the game!

Like most of these derbies mentioned in this, violence is a part of the fixture. Usually when these teams meet, the ENTIRE Kolkata police force needs to be on duty that day.

So there we have it. Did I miss anyone?

Let me know. If I get enough mentions, I might even be able to do another one of these.