The top 12 biggest football rivalries in Britain (Ranked) | OneFootball

Rivalries between clubs are part of the lifeblood of global football, so here are the twelve biggest in the British game, ranked.

Rivalries between clubs are part of the lifeblood of the game around the world, so here are the twelve biggest in Britain, all ranked.

Since association football was first codified in 1863 and clubs started to proliferate, rivalries between them have become a core component of the global game. This brings benefits as well as significant drawbacks. That passion is part of what gives the game its unique spirit, but it can also bubble over into genuine mutual loathing and violence.

The history of violence surrounding matches can be traced back as far as the very origins of the game. There are reports of players and rival supporters being attacked going back as far as the 1880s. In the 21st century, sophisticated security operations are carried out in order to ensure that high-risk matches are played in as safe an environment as possible, but these often become a game of cat and mouse between those responsible for preventing trouble and those determined to cause it.

But even though such matches carry a heightened risk of disorder, they remain the first that many will look for when fixtures are released every summer. Matches against rivals retain their appeal as those in which something is at stake beyond three points and a couple of positions in a league table.

Taking all of this into account, Football League World have ranked the twelve biggest rivalries in British football.

12 ? ? Nottingham Forest vs Derby County

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The East Midlands rivalry between Nottingham Forest and Derby County was described in 2009 by The Times journalist Duncan Hamilton as "A jealous squabble ... over which end of the A52 - the Brian Clough Way - Brian’s heart truly lies." The two clubs met for the first time in October 1892, when Forest were admitted into the Football League, and have met 109 times in major competitions in total, with Derby having won 37 of them and Forest having won 43.

The rivalry between the two clubs simmered until the 1970s, but it was the involvement of Clough at both clubs which lit its touchpaper. Clough managed Derby from 1967 to 1973, making the Rams the champions of England in 1972, but in 1975 he was appointed thirty miles up the road at Forest, made them the Champions in 1978, and then European champions in each of the following two seasons.

11 ? ? Blackburn Rovers vs Burnley

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The East Lancashire Derby is the oldest on this list. The two clubs first met in a friendly match in September 1884, with Burnley winning 4-2, but it was perhaps their first Football League meeting that truly lit the touchpaper of the rivalry between them. Meeting on the 3rd November 1888 in the League's first season, Blackburn won 7-1 at Turf Moor.

Since then, this rivalry has become well-known for pranks. When Burnley were beaten by Torquay United in a Fourth Division play-off match in 1991, a plane flew over Turf Moor reading, "Staying down forever luv Rovers Ha Ha Ha." In 2012, amid fan protests at Ewood Park against the Blackburn owners, Burnley fans paid for a plane to fly over Ewood Park with the message "In Venky's we trust" trailing behind it.

With no love lost between these two clubs over more than 140 years, the East Lancashire Derby will pick up again in the Championship in 2026-27 following Burnley's relegation from the Premier League.

10 ? ? Portsmouth vs Southampton

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With twenty miles between them and a long history of rivalry between the two cities as rival ports which spreads far beyond football alone, Portsmouth and Southampton are two clubs whose rivalry is as strong as anybody's.

Matters came to a head over a managerial appointment. The arrival of Harry Redknapp as the Southampton manager in December 2004, just days after he had resigned as manager of Portsmouth, and less than a month after the Saints had beaten Portsmouth at St Mary's, infuriated the Fratton Park club.

The following month, the teams were drawn against each other in the FA Cup Fourth Round, with former Portsmouth striker Peter Crouch scoring a last-minute winner to win the match for Southampton.

9 ? ? West Ham United vs Millwall

Some of these rivalries are only inflamed by how irregularly they're played. These two East London rivals, West Ham and Millwall, haven't played each other since the 2011-12 season, when they played out a goalless draw at The Den, with West Ham winning the return match 2-1 despite having Kevin Nolan sent off after just nine minutes. West Ham's relegation from the Premier League means that 2026-27 will see the two sides face each other at The London Stadium for the first time.

Although only three miles apart, the deep rivalry between these two clubs is steeped in the history of East London, and it's all the more accentuated because of the River Thames that separates them. Both sets of supporters were predominantly dockworkers at shipyards on the river, meaning that both sets of fans originally worked for rival businesses who were competing in the same market. The game has become closely associated with disorder more recently, and the Metropolitan Police may have a busy day when the two sides meet at The Den on the 19th September.

8 ? ? Sheffield United vs Sheffield Wednesday

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Of all the indignities heaped upon Sheffield Wednesday during the 2025-26 season, arguably the biggest was having their relegation from the Championship - the earliest relegation in the history of English League football - mathematically confirmed by a 2-1 defeat to Sheffield United at Bramall Lane in February.

But this rivalry also stretches back to the founding years of the professional game, to 1889, when Sheffield Wednesday left Bramall Lane cricket ground over a rent dispute, which resulted in the cricket club deciding to form Sheffield United Football Club to compensate for the loss in revenue.

Both United and Wednesday can claim significant wins over their rivalries. One of the most famous came on Boxing Day 1979, when a third-tier record attendance of 49,309 packed into Hillsborough to see Wednesday win 4-0, a match which became known as "The Boxing Day Massacre." But it was United who had the last laugh during the 2025-26 season.

7 ? ? Everton vs Liverpool

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Although occasionally known as "The Friendly Derby" because of a relative lack of crowd trouble at matches, the Merseyside derby is still keenly fought every season, despite the two clubs having had differing fortunes in recent years.

Again, this is a rivalry with a history that has its origins in a rent dispute. Everton were the original occupiers of Anfield, but left the ground over a rent dispute with its owner, Sir John Houlding, which led to the formation of Liverpool FC in order to fill the stadium, with Everton building Goodison Park instead.

These two clubs have played against each other at the very highest level, with its peak coming in the 1980s as both teams competed for honours. The 1984 League Cup final, the 1986 FA Cup Final and the 1989 FA Cup Final were all played between the two clubs, the last of these being played in the shadow of the Hillsborough disaster, which really brought the city together in an act of solidarity which rendered football rivalry something of an irrelevance.

6 ? ? Aston Villa vs Birmingham City

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The Second City Derby is another which stretches back to before the formation of the Football League, with these two clubs having played each other for the first time in 1879, and it's one, the intensity of which has only grown in recent years.

Some of the most notorious meetings between these two sides have come in the 21st century. When they met at St Andrew's in September 2002, the Villa goalkeeper Peter Enckleman was recorded as having scored a calamitous own goal when an Olof Mellburg throw-in rolled under his foot and in as part of a 3-0 Blues win, though subsequent study of video evidence seemed to indicate that the ball hadn't touched his foot and shouldn't have been given. Birmingham fans later jokingly voted Enckleman as runner-up in their Player of the Year awards.

And this is a fixture which has overspilled into violence. On the 10th March 2019, during a Championship match between the two sides at St Andrew's, a Birmingham City fan invaded the pitch and assaulted Aston Villa captain Jack Grealish on the pitch by punching him from behind in the head. A man was later jailed for 14 weeks over the incident.

5 ? ? Cardiff City vs Swansea City

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Writing for Vice in 2014, journalist Clive Martin wrote that, "the Cardiff-Swansea derby has flavours of both a civil war and an anti-imperialist revolution." There may be a little journalistic licence at play here, but there has certainly been an undercurrent of violence to meetings between these two South Wales clubs over the years.

One of the most notorious meetings between the two sides came three days before Christmas in 1993, when the two teams met at Ninian Park. The match was delayed for 40 minutes due to fighting between rival supporters on the pitch. Cardiff won the match 1-0, and such was the extent of the trouble that attendances for the match fell off over the next couple of years.

It's also a match which may be about more than just football. Speaking to The Guardian in 2013, former player Alan Curtis, who played for both clubs, said, "It is two cities that choose not to get on with each other from a sporting point of view, and a political and cultural aspect as well." The two will resume their rivalry in the Championship in 2026-27 following Cardiff's promotion.

4 ? ? Newcastle United vs Sunderland

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Another inter-city rivalry with roots going back to the 19th century, the Tyne-Wear rivalry was at least the home of one of the funniest outbreaks of hooliganism ever seen, when a Newcastle fan was photographed apparently trying to start a fight with a mounted police officer.

But the biggest meeting of all came in 1990, when they played each other in the Second Division play-off semi-finals. The two sides played a goalless draw in the first leg at Roker Park, but when Sunderland raced into a 2-0 lead at St James' Park in the return match, some Newcastle supporters invaded the pitch in the hope of getting it abandoned. It wasn't, and Sunderland were controversially promoted despite losing the final to Swindon Town after Swindon were refused promotion over financial irregularities at the club.

This is also, in terms of aggregate scores, one of the closest rivalries. From 159 meetings, Sunderland have 55 wins to Newcastle's 54, and both teams have completed a league double over the other side on nine occasions.

3 ? ? Arsenal vs Tottenham Hotspur

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The ferocity of the North London Derby can be traced back to two matters that took place more than 100 years ago. The first came in 1913, when Arsenal decamped from their previous home south of the River Thames in Plumstead to a new home in Highbury, which Spurs considered to be their territory.

The second was more controversial still. At the end of World War I, a decision was made to expand the First Division by two clubs, with the identity of the two to be decided by a vote. 19th-placed Chelsea, who would otherwise have been relegated, were reprieved.

The second spot could have been awarded to 20th-placed Tottenham, or Barnsley, who'd finished third in the Second Division, but Arsenal were surprisingly handed it, despite having only finishing sixth in Division Two in the last season before play stopped for the war. It's never been proven, but Spurs fans have long suspected that palms may have been greased in order to facilitate this.