Ninh explains the Top 5 Nastiest Rivalries in All of Sports
Everyone has witnessed some heated rivalries in their favourite sports.
But there are some that are more than just mutual disdain.
In some cases, these particular rivals go out of their way to hurt their opponents in
one form or another.
Here are the top 5 nastiest rivalries in all of sports.
#5 Most of the NHL.
In a sport where fighting is tolerated and vicious hits encouraged, it’s no surprise
that many teams have a problem with each other.
Whenever a rivalry happens, tensions are high and martial justice is doled literally every
few seconds.
So who hates each other in the NHL?
How about Ottawa/Toronto, Toronto/Montreal, Montreal/Boston, New York Rangers/Boston,
New York Islanders/Boston, EVERYBODY/Boston, Chicago/Detroit, Detroit/Colorado, Washington/Pittsburgh,
Pittsburgh/Philadelphia and most notably: all 32 teams and Gary Bettman.
Just turn the TV onto any NHL game and you’ll most likely find a team playing someone they
absolutely hate.
#4 The State of Origin It’s state vs state.
Mate vs Mate.
The State of Origin is a series of annual exhibition rugby league games played between
players from NSW and Queensland in Australia.
This results in the unique scenario of teammates of a professional team going up against each
other in the State of Origin.
What’s so bad about the State of Origin?
Well apart from the two areas of Australia vying for rugby supremacy – it’s basically
a brawl disguised as a rugby game.
The whole MO is to basically hurt your opponents as much as possible and pretend that you’re
actually playing by the rules.
Vicious tackles, punches thrown and pummeling anyone that’s wearing a different coloured
jersey, is basically the bread and butter skill of these games.
And this results in … well, it results in something like this.
And it’s fantastic.
#3 Galatasaray vs Fenerbace What happens when most of Turkey supports
one of two football teams?
And then what happens when both teams are the most successful in the country, mostly
winning their titles and cups against their direct rival?
You get this fixture.
What makes this nasty isn’t necessarily the play on the field, but the fans off it.
The Turkish people are masters of intimidating opposing players and fans.
Whether it’s through fireworks, fancy displays, chanting mercilessly at opposing players in
their hotel rooms or just trying to murder you in the street.
Crowd violence and fans being stabbed or killed for wearing the wrong shirt is quite normal
and this has unfortunately resulted in opposing fans not being able to enter their rivals
stadium.
They call Galatasaray’s stadium ‘hell’ for a reason.
#2 India vs Pakistan Cricket is usually seen as a gentlemen’s
game.
But not when these two are concerned.
It’s no secret that India and Pakistan absolutely hate each other, and the political tensions
of the two countries are certainly well documented.
Rather than go at war with each other (again), they fight each other on the cricket pitch
instead.
There’s a political agenda every time these two teams meet, and should they experience
defeat, the player’s lives are at risk from extremists threatening to kill them if they
lose.
It’s gotten so bad, that the Indian Government has prohibited their own players from going
into Pakistan for fear of their cricketers being murdered.
Lots of intimidation between players, dirty behavior, questionable tactics and plenty
of sweet chin music, all to get an edge to win the game.
And the pressure to win this particular fixture is biblical.
Ticket requests for this fixture far surpass any other, and when they faced each other
during the 2011 World Cup in India, a 1/5th of the world’s population tuned in to watch.
Should they ever meet in an actual World Cup final, I guarantee you that all hell will
break loose.
#1 Boca Juniors vs River Plate.
The nastiest rivalry by far is between Argentina’s two most popular and successful football teams.
Boca Juniors & River Plate.
They’re both based in the same city, and similar to the Galatasary vs Fenerbace rivalry,
most of the country supports either one or the other.
Players fear for their lives and take their own safety into their own hands, because the
fans, are complete animals that are seriously out of control.
These fans routinely throw flares and objects at opposing players (including sometimes human
excrement) and in a couple of famous cases, they use pepper spray and tear gas to try
and injure the players as they’re walking out onto the field.
That’s just the fans, who by the way, also have a penchant of stabbing each other in
the street.
And I’ve not even started about the foul play on the field.
It’s pretty nasty to watch.
The fixture is so dangerous for both players and spectators, that matches are heavily enforced
by police and in the famous case of the 2018 Copa Libertadores, they had to abandon the
match and play it 6,500 miles away in Spain because it became too dangerous to play the
game in Argentina.
Honorable mention goes to the Red Sox vs Yankees rivalry, the two cities generally don’t
like each other and neither do their baseball teams.
Rangers vs Celtic – the Glasgow rivalry that’s started with a difference of religion
and now they hate each other just because it’s fun.
And the Ohio State Buckeyes vs the Michgan State Wolverines, though it’s been pretty
one sided recently.
These are what I believe to be the nastiest rivalries in sports.
And I could have mentioned more, but what do you think?
Do you think there are any that are nastier?
Have you experienced more hatred than this?
Let me know in the comments section below and remember to like share and subscribe.
Obviously.
Ninh Ly - www.ninh.co.uk - @NinhLyUK