It's a **** list, poorly compiled with a clearly small and unrepresentative sample group. No matchgoing Leeds fan sees Sheff United and Millwall as more of a rival than Chelsea, even us young 'uns. I dare say the same is true of the Chelsea and Man U fans who said the other were one of their rivals. If they think that constitutes a real football rivalry, they need to revise their definition.
The same is true of younger Chelsea fans re: Leeds. Spurs and Leeds in the 60s and 70s were our biggest rivals, years of history and tradition and unfortunately unsavoury sides it all. In the 80s it was probably more West Ham, 90s Spurs and Arsenal and 00s probably the same + Liverpool. As Flyer said earlier you can hate a team without them being rivals. I hate United but they are not a team I'd consider a rival, on the other hand I quite like City but would consider them more of a rival due to league position and competition for players etc If you walked around Stamford Bridge on matchday you'd struggle to find many Chelsea fans that view United as more of a rival than Liverpool. I think with research as this we have to be careful we don't confuse hatred with rivalry because there is a difference
They are although it has faded slightly due to the near decade of separation. True rivalries never fade though. There are many United fans that still view Leeds as fierce rivals. The local United fans always viewed City as rivals even when in the 3rd tier. As you've rightly said earlier Flyer, i think rivalry can often be misinterpreted
Rivals change depending on circumstances. Chelsea/Arsenal were never rivals with Man U and this has only happened since the 'Roman' era. With ManU it has always been Liverpool/City and in London Arsenal/Spurs West Ham/millwall For me Chelsea used to cling on to London rivals like Spurs/west Ham/Arsenal but were not really ever seen as the main rival, (a bit like us). Now some Chelsea fans don't look at us as rivals because they have always tried to be 'above their station' and because we have been c##p and away for 15 years. If we went out and became a major force they would be get new rivals, sadly thats how it works now.
That's irrelevant. I'd guess four times, or something like that? Divisional gaps don't stop fans of two clubs wanting the other to fail and suffer for whatever reason. When you were in the Championship, I'd still have called yours and Chelsea's a rivalry.
Thats hatred. Dictionary definition of a rival a : one of two or more striving to reach or obtain something that only one can possess b : one striving for competitive advantage You have to be playing each other to be a rival.
Yes, we both strive for a competitive advantage over the other. Moreso than we would when talking to a fan of a non-entity club like West Brom. Any brainless ****tard can look at a football table, see which teams are next to each other and go 'HEY LOOK, Villa are 12th, QPR are 13th, THEY'RE EACH OTHER'S BIGGEST RIVALS!!!' Football rivalry clearly has something more to it than that. Factor in some context.
Flyer you have defined the word rival but in football it is used in a bit of a different way. ? in that case many teams don't have rivals?
Youre example is pretty idiotic to say the least. You have to be at least playing each other regularly to be rivals. Any brainless ****tard would know thats not the case. However that might change if we beat them in 2 finals and then sent them down on the last day of the season. Thats why Burnley/Blackburn/Bolton have each other as rivals and not the Manchester clubs. Cardiff became our rivals purely on that as we were going for the same goal of promotion for 5-7 years running.
Look at the list, it looks like 90%+ of the 1st rivals played each other last season or will play this season.
I think you point out the trend correctly, that sides which play each other regularly are more likely to be rivals, but there are always going to be anomalies. If one of those regular-playing sides gets relegated and neither fanbase forgets the rivalry, and still uphold the spirit of schadenfreude, then it still constitutes a rivalry in my eyes. Call it what you want, but you can't deny it still exists.
What tends to happen is the relegated side keeps the rivalry while the side that stays up forget about the other team. The obvious exception is Fulham who always had some kind of weird obsession with QPR. The true exceptions are 2 city teams or 2 teams close to each other but no one else. Saints/Pompey Norwich/Ipswich Bristol C/R. I dont think they will ever change too much.
