History FandomRivalry / Sports

* Any NHL teams within relative proximity of each other get a lot of this. It's even worse [[CanadaEh in Canada]]. Particularly bad rivalries include:

** There was a major component of SlobsVersusSnobs to the rivalry. Skiing was seen as a sport for those rich enough to afford the equipment and travel to exotic mountain resorts, such that skiing in The80s was often stereotypically associated with {{yuppie}}s. Snowboarding, meanwhile, arose from surfing and skateboarding culture, and brought with it a similar [[SurferDude laid-back attitude]], countercultural energy, and love of loud music and [[TheStoner good weed]]. As such, for many skiers in the '80s, snowboarding was TheNewRockAndRoll, a sport embraced mostly by young punks with no sense of decorum or class, while the boarders in turn grew to associate skiing with [[UpperClassTwit elitist pricks]].

* Skiing versus snowboarding: Ski resorts, and dedicated skiers, were slower to accept snowboarding as a sport than the mainstream or the International Olympic Committee, and some ski resorts would ban snowboarders because they hate them so much. The practice of "poaching" snowboarding arose from this, where snowboarders would go to ski resorts where snowboarding is banned and snowboard there anyway as a form of protest.

** In Mexico, Club America is marked as the team with most rivalries in the country to the point that one of the mottos of the team is "Odiame Más" (lit. "Hate Me More").
*** In Mexico City, Club America share rivalry with Cruz Azul and Pumas, the first one called "El Clásico Joven" (due to Cruz Azul being founded several years later than America), has even has important final games between the two teams. But the most hardest one is against Pumas UNAM where, regularly, the barras of both teams tend to throw stones to the buses when the teams arrive to the rival stadium, also they have one of the most violent final games when some fans were suffocated to death in the Estadio Olimpico Mexico 68 in 1985.
*** However, the most important rivalry is against Club Deportivo Guadalajara, because of the team localization outside of Mexico City, their preference to only include Mexican born players and the fact that, for a long time, the "Chivas" were capable to win national tournaments with very few money compared to the big money Televisa provides to Club America. There was even a 60s movies, Tirando a Gol, where it shows that the fans were not able to talk to each other, as long as their sons play for the respective teams. In real life, is very normal to see families divided when the Clasico de Clasicos (The Derby of all Derbies) is on television.

** Before the Raiders' most recent move, the San Francisco 49ers and the Oakland Raiders, due to being very geographically close -- both representative cities are separated only by a bay and a bridge. Once again, the "Raider Nation" mentality comes into play. Games played between the two teams were referred to by some as the "Battle of the Bay Area". Whether this rivalry remains as a result of the Raiders' move to Las Vegas has yet to be determined.

* College-frickin'-football (American) and basketball, especially in the Midwest and South.

** The classic: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan-Ohio_State_rivalry The University of Michigan and The Ohio State University]], quite possibly the oldest rivalry among BCS teams (the UsefulNotes/IvyLeague's rivalries are older, but they're not in contention anymore). Not half as interesting as it used to be, since [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootballPower5Conferences U-M]] has been emphasizing academics so heavily, but wearing red and gray in Ann Arbor will get you catcalls in the daytime and could get you into a scrape during the drunken nights. On the other hand, wearing maize and blue in Columbus is a capital offense.

** The classic: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan-Ohio_State_rivalry The University of Michigan and The Ohio State University]], quite possibly the oldest rivalry among BCS teams (the Ivy League's rivalries are older, but they're not in contention anymore). Not half as interesting as it used to be, since [[UsefulNotes/UniversityOfMichigan U-M]] has been emphasizing academics so heavily, but wearing red and gray in Ann Arbor will get you catcalls in the daytime and could get you into a scrape during the drunken nights. On the other hand, wearing maize and blue in Columbus is a capital offense.

** Back in the AFC Central days. There was a huge division rivalry between the Jacksonville Jaguars and Pittsburgh Steelers. You can thank the Houston Texans for causing a division realignment that ruined the rivalry.

*** Or you could always [[[TakeAThirdOption support Texas Tech and the Red Raiders]], although Tech vs. UT is the main rivalry for Red Raider fans.
*** One other possibility is a new rivalry between Texas and TCU (Texas Christian University), which has replaced the Lone Star Showdown in Texas's Thanksgiving game day slot.

*** The Lone Star Showdown is also on hold indefinitely due to Texas A&M leaving the Big 12 Conference to join the SEC. Both fanbases would like to bring the annual game back, but there were no concrete plans to do so... until UT announced in 2021 that it would join A&M in the SEC in the near future.

*** Jeff Gordon vs. Dale Earnhardt (both [[UsefulNotes/DaleEarnhardt Sr.]] and Jr.)

*** Raiders vs. Steelers can get pretty nasty, too, mostly because of the Immaculate Reception, and John Madden's claim that that play should've been ruled an incomplete pass. A lot less so since the Raiders entered their current DorkAge, which roughly coincided with the Steelers putting their own 80's-90's Dork Age behind them.

** In Italy itself, the big rivalries are usually locked within city or regional limits: AC Milan vs FC Internazionale,[[note]]Which historically had class associations (Inter was middle-class and Milan was working-class), though this is mostly gone now. More recently it had political implications; it was bought in 1986 by one Silvio Berlusconi, a Milan-based entrepreneur who later became a highly controversial right-populist Prime Minister of Italy. During the period he dominated first the Italian Right and then Italian politics in general (from the mid-1990s to his ignominious fall in the early 2010s), support for AC Milan was associated with support for Berlusconi. Now that Berlusconi has been forced to let go of his club ownership (part of the aforesaid ignominious fall), these associations are also gone.[[/note]] AS Roma vs SS Lazio,[[note]]Which has some political connotations, in that a small but significant minority of Lazio supporters are notorious right-wingers (neofascists even) and racists, while the Roma fanbase doesn't really. So in media, "Lazio supporter" can be (though isn't necessarily) code for "Nazi".[[/note]] Genoa vs Sampdoria, Chievoverona vs Hellas Verona, Napoli vs Avellino vs Salernitana[[note]]Though it has dramatically whittled down in intensity in the last few years due to Napoli fighting for the national title in multiple occasions and Avellino and Salernitana languishing in the lower tiers[[/note]], Palermo vs Catania, and Juventus vs Torino are the most important of the lot, although in recent years there have also been major trans-regional scuffles such as Juventus vs Napoli, Hellas Verona vs Napoli, and Juventus vs pretty much everyone else - due to their dominance in recent years, leading to a similar case as detailed above with Manchester United, not helped by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Italian_football_scandal the Calciopoli scandal]] which saw Juventus stripped of their 2004-05 title. Recently, a rivalry has also sparked between Frosinone and Palermo, after a rather controversial Serie B play-off final.

** In Italy itself, the big rivalries are usually locked within city or regional limits: AC Milan vs FC Internazionale,[[note]]Which historically had class associations (Inter was middle-class and Milan was working-class), though this is mostly gone now. More recently it had political implications; it was bought in 1986 by one Silvio Berlusconi, a Milan-based entrepreneur who later became a highly controversial right-populist Prime Minister of Italy. During the period he dominated first the Italian Right and then Italian politics in general (from the mid-1990s to his ignominious fall in the early 2010s), support for AC Milan was associated with support for Berlusconi.[[/note]] AS Roma vs SS Lazio,[[note]]Which has some political connotations, in that a small but significant minority of Lazio supporters are notorious right-wingers (neofascists even) and racists, while the Roma fanbase doesn't really. So in media, "Lazio supporter" can be (though isn't necessarily) code for "Nazi".[[/note]] Genoa vs Sampdoria, Chievoverona vs Hellas Verona, Napoli vs Avellino vs Salernitana[[note]]Though it has dramatically whittled down in intensity in the last few years due to Napoli fighting for the national title in multiple occasions and Avellino and Salernitana languishing in the lower tiers[[/note]], Palermo vs Catania, and Juventus vs Torino are the most important of the lot, although in recent years there have also been major trans-regional scuffles such as Juventus vs Napoli, Hellas Verona vs Napoli, and Juventus vs pretty much everyone else - due to their dominance in recent years, leading to a similar case as detailed above with Manchester United, not helped by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Italian_football_scandal the Calciopoli scandal]] which saw Juventus stripped of their 2004-05 title. Recently, a rivalry has also sparked between Frosinone and Palermo, after a rather controversial Serie B play-off final.

** Michigan/Michigan State isn't as big a rivalry as Michigan/Ohio State, but you'd never know that as a kid growing up in the Detroit area. It's been known to split families in two on the day of the game. It's even gotten to the point where guards are posted around Sparty (a bronze Art Deco statue of a Spartan warrior that serves as the basis for Michigan State's mascot) whenever Michigan comes to play, since Michigan fans will sometimes paint a little golden M (the Michigan logo) on his bottom, and Ann Arbor (where Michigan is located) will have blue and gold street signs (everywhere else in the area has green and white street signs, but green and white are Michigan State's official colors while Michigan's are maize and blue).

** In Italy itself, the big rivalries are usually locked within city or regional limits: AC Milan vs FC Internazionale, AS Roma vs SS Lazio, Genoa vs Sampdoria, Chievoverona vs Hellas Verona, Napoli vs Avellino vs Salernitana[[note]]Though it has dramatically whittled down in intensity in the last few years due to Napoli fighting for the national title in multiple occasions and Avellino and Salernitana languishing in the lower tiers[[/note]], Palermo vs Catania, and Juventus vs Torino are the most important of the lot, although in recent years there have also been major trans-regional scuffles such as Juventus vs Napoli, Hellas Verona vs Napoli, and Juventus vs pretty much everyone else - due to their dominance in recent years, leading to a similar case as detailed above with Manchester United, not helped by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Italian_football_scandal the Calciopoli scandal]] which saw Juventus stripped of their 2004-05 title. Recently, a rivalry has also sparked between Frosinone and Palermo, after a rather controversial Serie B play-off final.

** In Egypt, the rivalry is between Al-Ahly vs. Zamalek. This one had class connotations--Al-Ahly (literally, "the National" Club) was founded by Egyptians, for Egyptians, while Zamalek was founded by a group of expatriates and some wealthier locals (the eponymous Nile island of Zamalek being one of Cairo's posher neighborhoods--"she has a flat in Zamalek" is roughly equivalent to "she has a flat in Hammersmith/an apartment on the Upper West Side"). However, this element has subsided over time. Nevertheless, games between the two -- called the "Cairo Derby" as both teams are based in the capital -- can lead to some serious rioting/crazy street-celebration, particularly since the Ultras Ahlawy (Arabic for "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultras Ultras]] of al-Ahly") group got started in 2007; their antics forced the CAF to have the game against Wydad Casablanca in the 2011 African Champions League to be played in an empty stadium. Later, a 2012 stadium riot involving Ahlawys led to the adoption of empty stadiums for ''all'' Egyptian Premier League matches until ''2018''.

** In Egypt, the rivalry is between Al-Ahly vs. Zamalek. This one had class connotations--Al-Ahly (literally, "the National" Club) was founded by Egyptians, for Egyptians, while Zamalek was founded by a group of expatriates and some wealthier locals (the eponymous Nile island of Zamalek being one of Cairo's posher neighborhoods). However, this element has subsided over time. Nevertheless, games between the two -- called the "Cairo Derby" as both teams are based in the capital -- can lead to some serious rioting/crazy street-celebration, particularly since the Ultras Ahlawy (Arabic for "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultras Ultras]] of al-Ahly") group got started in 2007; their antics forced the CAF to have the game against Wydad Casablanca in the 2011 African Champions League to be played in an empty stadium. Later, a 2012 stadium riot involving Ahlawys led to the adoption of empty stadiums for ''all'' Egyptian Premier League matches until ''2018''.

** In Egypt, the rivalry is between Al-Ahly vs. Zamalek. This one had class connotations--Al-Ahly (literally, "the National" Club) was founded by Egyptians, for Egyptians, while Zamalek was founded by a group of expatriates and some wealthier locals -- but this element has subsided over time. Nevertheless, games between the two -- called the "Cairo Derby" as both teams are based in the capital -- can lead to some serious rioting/crazy street-celebration, particularly since the Ultras Ahlawy (Arabic for "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultras Ultras]] of al-Ahly") group got started in 2007; their antics forced the CAF to have the game against Wydad Casablanca in the 2011 African Champions League to be played in an empty stadium. Later, a 2012 stadium riot involving Ahlawys led to the adoption of empty stadiums for ''all'' Egyptian Premier League matches until ''2018''.

** This is probably because of an accident of scheduling: their seasons overlap pretty much perfectly (October-June), and they often play in the same venues (a hockey rink is a bit bigger than a basketball court, but only a bit): in 10 of the 14 metropolitan areas that have both NHL and NBA teams,[[note]]The 10 cities are Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, Dallas, Denver and Los Angeles. The metro areas of Minneapolis/St. Paul, Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Area, and South Florida all have separate venues for basketball and hockey.[[/note]] they have to share an arena. This naturally makes scheduling a pain in the ass and causes all manner of other problems, as well. The rivalry also can have some nasty racial undertones; for reasons that nobody can adequately explain, ice hockey fandom in the US (but not in Canada, as hockey is so quintessentially Canadian) is almost exclusively White--to the point where the difference between interest in hockey in any given Northern US city and any given Canadian city can be almost entirely attributed to lack of interest among non-Whites[[note]]To detail: Estimates based on the number of NHL-related Google searches originating from a given metropolitan area show that, on average, about 30-60% of people in any given Canadian metro area are regular hockey fans, while only about 15-30% of people are fans in any given metro in the traditional US hockey regions in the North. However, when you discount a Northern US metro's non-White population, the proportion of searches jumps to the 30-60% range.[[/note]]--while basketball is more racially mixed, both on the court (where players of color and especially Black players predominate) and off (where fans of color tend to be slightly more numerous than their proportions of the metropolitan area's population).

** Purefoods/Star vs Ginebra games have long been referred to as Manila Clasico, a reference to "El Clasico," or games between Spanish football teams Real Madrid and FC Barcelona (see above). Traditionally, Purefoods fans often belong to higher economic classes or the middle class, while Ginebra has been the "team of the masses" since PBA legend Robert Jaworski moved to Ginebra following Toyota's disbandment in 1984. In a country where rich vs poor is a common theme in ''teleseryes'' (soap operas), it's no surprise that this colors the Purefoods vs Ginebra rivalry.

* UsefulNotes/{{Tennis}}: UsefulNotes/RogerFederer fans vs. UsefulNotes/RafaelNadal fans vs. UsefulNotes/NovakDjokovic fans on which player is superior to the other two, which player faced the weakest/strongest competition, which player is the best on any court surface, which player will end their career with the most majors won, etc, etc.

** [[FriendlyRivalry Refreshingly averted]] between Italy and Spain; despite frequent international bouts between the ''Azzurri'' and the ''Furia Roja'', there is no animosity between the two sides. Motorcycle racing, on the other hand...