World Soccer: World's Greatest Derbies

To be honest I think there is (or should be) a distinction between the terms "derby" and "local derby".

I suppose it's also down to translation. The Spanish speaking world seems to use the word "clásico" to refer to matches between traditional rivals whatever the geography.
And for me it would be very strange to have a list that didn't include Real Madrid v Barcelona just because they are geographically separate. For the English games I would consider Liverpool v Manchester United a "local rivalry" even if it isn't as local as the City derbies the clubs also play.

As for the rest of the list. I found the inclusion of a couple near the bottom (Tenerife v Las Palmas & Mohun Bagan v East Bengal) a bit strange. I'm also not entirely happy with Basle v Zurich and even less convinced by Beitar Jerusalem v Hapoel Tel Aviv or Juventus v Fiorentina.

Is Tenerife v Las Palmas (as an Island derby) really "bigger" than say the Sicilian Derby?

Is football in India really big enough to rate even their top teams a mention in the top 50 world derbies?

Don't Basle & Zurich just happen to be the top two teams in Swiss football at the moment (just the past couple of seasons) rather than there being any great historic rivalry that warrants inclusion on the list? I'd have been happier with Grasshoppers v Zurich as a proper local Swiss rivalry.

Beitar might have always been a pretty "big club" in Israeli football but they've only recently become one of the richest. I'd have thought Hapoel & Maccabi Tel Aviv would have been a far greater local rivalry for the fans.

And if Juventus v Torino wasn't big enough for inclusion I'd have thought that the Derby D'Italia (Juve v Inter) would have been a far more appropriate inclusion than Juve v Fiorentina. And yes I know Inter were already included once but Corinthians got two mentions.

Other games I might have considered including:

Dinamo Kiev v Shakhtar Donetsk from Ukraine. Not a local one but far more convincing to me as an example of two dominant teams going at each other than Basle v Zurich.

Esperance v Club Africain. I would imagine this is the biggest African game not included on the list.

Hearts of Oak v Asante Kotoko. Again not a "local" rivalry but Ghana's two heavyweight teams.

Sporting v Benfica. Although Benfica v Porto was already included I'd have thought that the Lisbon Derby on it's own was still pretty huge (at worst worthy of a mention in the Benfica-Porto piece).

Actually one idea for what WS should do to replace it's "Non-FIFA Footballing countries" pieces - which must surely be reaching a natural end soon - is "Lesser known Football Derbies". So you might do a two-page spread on a whole country - picking four or five of the "best of the rest" or you might do more detail on just one particular rivalry.

So if you did England you might do a whole piece on the "Second City Derby" - including some stats (overall record, attendance figures etc) but mostly talking about the biggest games between the two & what created the rivalry & keeps it burning. Or you might do this on a smaller scale but with similar info. on the Tyne-Wear Derby, Steel City Derby & one other. I assume non-UK readers would know a lot less about such rivalries.

Going further afield you might look at somewhere like Bulgaria & consider rivalries with & between the lesser Sofia teams (Slavia & Lokomotiv) plus games like the Plovdiv, Varna & Bourgas Derbies. I know these rivalries exist but I have no idea how big they are (or have been historically).

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