World's most intense football derbies

AS Roma vs Lazio

In Italy, it doesn’t really get any bigger than this. Hatred came to rise in 1927, when then dictator Benito Mussolini urged three clubs to come together and form a single club – AS Roma, so as to prove formidable opposition to the northern clubs of Italy. But Lazio refused point blank and since then, the Roman derby has witnessed riots, bloodshed and, unfortunately, on many occasions death. After the merger, Lazio found themselves as outsiders as their fan base was minuscule as compared to AS Roma’s. AS Roma supporters thereafter taunted their rivals as ‘peasants’ as Lazio were ousted to the outskirts of Rome. The epicenter of this epic rivalry, unlike most others, is territorial conflict, with Lazio fans believing that Roma has taken away what was rightfully theirs – Rome herself. On derby day, the Stadio Olimpico, shared by both teams, is no longer a picture of its usual self. It’s reminiscent of the Colosseum – the original battleground. It’s no longer football match. It’s a match between gladiators. It’s a duel to the death. It’s the Derby della Capitale.

Olympiakos vs Panathinaikos

Derby of the Eternal Enemies. The name speaks for itself. Greek fans have gained immense ill repute for the savage nature and ‘unprincipled behavior’ of theirs and this attitude is put on display during the contest between the greatest Greek teams of all time – Olympiakos & Panathinaikos. Panathinaikos, in the mid-1900s, represented the elite class of Athens while Olympiakos represented the working class of Piraeus, a port in Athens. Though Panathinaikos treated their rivals as scum from the very beginning, Olympiakos always had the larger fan base as they represented the class oppressed and exploited by the aristocrats of Greece. Although this cultural division has diminished over the years, the hatred the clubs have for each other has not decreased one bit. With both clubs adopting different political ideologies, undoubtedly sparks fly during derby day and the players too go all guns blazing. With flares, Molotov cocktails, rioting, pre-arranged fights a regularity on match day, it isn’t a surprise they call it ‘The Mother of All Battles’.