What in your opinion do you believe to be the best derby in world football? Has anyone ever been to football derbies abroad? My friend from uni got a job working as part of a team covering football in the middle east. I visited him while he was still there and we went to the tel aviv derby, between Maccabi and Hapoel and it was absolutely unbelievable! Everyone was in the ground a good hour before the game and even though it's not a massive stadium, the atmosphere was incredible! Flares, smoke bombs, fireworks, chanting, jumping, flags, toilet roll things, pyrotechnics the lot, it was easily the best atmosphere I have ever experienced. My Father goes to a lot of the old firm derbies and even though they play each other at least 4 times a season he says the passion never fades. That derby is a lot more than football which is rare. Anyone got any good experiences at football derbies, apart from Saints/Pompey?
Spartak v Zenit [video=youtube;cf_80p83KWA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf_80p83KWA&feature=related[/video] Worth a watch. Football in Russia is mental. It really escalates like. Queues of Spetzsnaz pilling into the stadium
My most local derby of St Albans City v Bishop's Stortford is a feisty affair! Rather humiliatingly, Bishop's Stortford are now a division above St Albans due to the (other) Saints going into administration and subsequently being docked points and relegated last season.
Can't believe how many people are saying this. It's an awful excuse for a rivalry centred around religion and race, on passion purely based on hatred, and hosted in one of the world's most dreary cities. It also occurs far too often for it to even be considered a special occasion, and 99% of supporters of either side are morons. Take that pathetic excuse for a rivalry, remove the racial and religious connotations, put it in the beautiful city of Istanbul, play it twice a season instead of four or five times, in a far more thrilling and competitive league with a better quality of football and fans who actually care more about the sport than beating each other up, double the tension and double the average IQ of the fans, and you've got Galatasaray v Fenerbahce.
I've been to Newcastle v Sunderland. Inside the stadium the noise was incredible (was last seasons 5-1) but outside the stadium it was very well policed and the fans couldn't get near eachother so don't know how "passionate" it really is.
Trumpton vs Camberwick Green. Especially when Hugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grub have had a skinfull.
Two of the most fearce: America v Chivas - Mexico Panathinaikos v Olympiakos - Greece However: Real Madrid v Barcelona surely has to be the biggest and best football rivalry
I class that as a crap rivalry, Madrid and Barca are not particularly close and over the last few years has become more of a theatre production than a game. Old Firm derby or PAOK and Olympiakos (think that's the one).
You don't have be close to have a rivalry. Chivas and America aren't close, Guadalajara and Mexico City are more than 300 miles from each other, yet the clubs have one of the most fearce rivalries in world football. Check out this Wikipedia article on the Real Madrid / Barca rivalry : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Clásico You'll see that it is much much more than just football...
The rivalry has been blown out of proportion, it's rivalry is only big due to them two being the 2 richest clubs in Spanish football. You may bring up the Spanish Nationalism Vs the Catalans, but what makes that different to Athletico Madrid and Espanyol. Both clubs from the same cities but no so called rivalry because they aren't the richest nor been hyped up either. But hey, it's opinions. I just think there are better rivalry games about.
