5 worst fights to have broken out on a football pitch

#4 David Batty vs. Graeme Le Saux, 1995

Back in the early 1990’s - just a handful of seasons after English clubs had been reinstated into European competition - the Premier League’s best would routinely struggle against even minnows from the continent, and no campaign was this truer than in Blackburn Rovers’ doomed stint in the Champions League in 1995/96.

They had already picked up just one point in their first four games – against Spartak Moscow, Rosenborg and Legia Warsaw – when they were faced with the return game against Spartak in Russia. Not long after the game had started, Blackburn’s Graeme Le Saux collided with teammate David Batty when both men went for a loose ball. An angry clash then followed – with Le Saux landing a clean left hook to Batty before captain Tim Sherwood broke them up.

Neither man was reprimanded for the incident, but they continued to hurl abuse at one another throughout the game, which ended in a 3-0 defeat for Blackburn. Le Saux went on to deny that Batty had aimed a homophobic slur at him – stating he’d simply seen red and thrown the punch as he felt Batty was about to swing for him. He also admitted to breaking his hand with the shot. It was the lowest point in a truly shameful European campaign for the Rovers.