There are some brilliant rivalries in football and the very best ones tend to be between teams located near each other. But out of these derby games, what is the best one?
What is the biggest football derby in the world? It is very difficult to pick the biggest derby in the world, with people often debating between the North London derby, Milan derby and the North West derby.
It is incredibly difficult to choose which is the biggest derby in the entire world. There are quite a few different options to choose from. One study over the past few years said that the Manchester derby was the most watched derby match in the world and the history between the two often brings exciting games.
What is the Manchester Derby?
The Manchester Derby is any football match between Manchester City and Manchester United. It is one of the most historical derbies in football history, with the two sides having first played against each other in November of 1881 with Newton Heath winning, who went on to become Manchester United.
The two teams are located only four miles away and it means that one of the biggest cities in the country is split into red or blue. The derby was not particularly interesting for most of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century. Manchester United were one of the dominant teams in England, but have fallen off in recent years.
What has made the derby more interesting is that Manchester United have declined over the last ten years, while Manchester City have risen to the top of English football ever since they were taken over by Sheikh Mansour in September 2008. City have become the better team in Manchester, making the rivalry much more exciting.
One of the exciting parts of the rivalry is that there is that form often goes out of the window. Manchester City were on their way to another dominant title victory in 2018 and still managed to let a two-goal lead slip to United in 2018. Despite this, Manchester City have been the better team over the last few years, with United only winning once at home in the derby in the last seven years.
What is the biggest derby in England?
While the Manchester and North London derbies are some of the biggest in the country, the North-West derby is likely the biggest in England due to the two teams’ fans absolutely hating each other. While other derbies include fans who hate each other, the North West derby is between the two most successful teams in the history of English football.
Liverpool and Manchester United are the two most successful teams in English football and this has helped add to a thrilling rivalry. Both teams have had spells where they were the dominant team. Liverpool were by far the dominant side of the 1970s and 1980s before Manchester United ended this dominance in the 1990s.
The two sides are so close in terms of success that Liverpool leads all English teams in trophies on 67, with Manchester United only just behind on 66. Both teams really go at each other’s throats during this game and it has produced some incredibly controversial moments including Steven Gerrard’s 38-second red card, Vidic’s red card and Luis Suarez refusing to shake Patrice Evra’s hand.
The derby has again become interesting mainly due to Liverpool once again reaching the top of English football in 2020. Form seems to go out of the window with the fixture and things can still get feisty even if the teams are not always competing for the same things.
What is the fiercest derby in football?
While there is a lot of fierce rivalry in South American derbies, I think that the Old Firm derby has to take it. There are few rivalries that have such complicated and political roots like the Old Firm derby.
The derby is partly incredible because Rangers and Celtic are both located in Glasgow, with the Ibrox and Celtic Park only being located miles apart from each other. But this rivalry is about much more than just proximity.
When the two teams were formed, they were completely separate because the two fan bases are very different. Celtic have a largely Irish-Scottish fan base and the Rangers fan base is mainly native Scots and Ulster Scots. This also means that the Rangers fan base is largely protestant and the Celtic fan base is largely Catholic.
While this is not really the case as much today, the rivalry still remains. It is partly because Celtic and Rangers have been by far the most successful teams in Scottish football, with 1983 being the last time that neither Rangers nor Celtic won the top flight of Scottish football.
The dividing line between the two teams still remains the same today. One of the fierce parts of the rivalry was the disorder in the stadium. The Old Firm derby always requires hundreds of police to separate Rangers and Celtic fans. The disorder is so bad that Old Firm matches are usually played in the early afternoon and never near the end of the season.
They do this to avoid fans getting drunk and then creating disorder as they did in May 1999 when Rangers could clinch the league title with a victory. Objects were thrown onto the pitch with one of them striking the referee.
While there have always been incidents between fans, the action on the pitch is always exciting. There are always cards in this game, with guys like Scott Brown, Nir Bitton and Alfredo Morelos being some of the players sent off in the old firm derby.
If you weren’t sure whether the Old Firm derby is the fiercest, ex-players have said the same thing. Former Rangers player Brian Laudrup said the Old Firm topped rivalries like the Milan derby, having played in both. Henrik Larsson said the Old Firm derby was more exciting than El Classico.