FFC Results: Football Rivalries Report

Football Rivalries, they underpin the game. Even when we're not playing each other, many of us take great pleasure in seeing our rivals take a tumble. Bragging rights secured - or lost - on derby day can make or break a season. But where does rivalry come from and which are the biggest rivalries in English football?

We hooked up with the stats folk at The New Football Pools to take a look at football rivalries, is it simply because clubs are near-neighbours, is it jealousy at another club's success? Are there social or economic reasons that are simply mirrored by the football clubs?

6,000 FFC members across all 92 League clubs took part in the study to identify who they thought were their biggest footballing rivals.

Having found out who those rivals were, we then asked why they were their biggest adversaries, to understand whether it was because:

• they are neighbours
• they have always been rivals, for whatever reason
• they're jealous, because their rivals have been more successful
• they meet regularly in the league
• or because the rivalry goes much deeper than football

Armed with those answers, statisticians at The New Football Pools then put together a league table of the top rivalries using a complex formula based on:

• the survey responses of both sets of fans
• the respective league and cup records of the two clubs
• the regularity of league and cup meetings between the rivals
• the two clubs' records when playing each other
• the impact on attendances when they meet
• transfers between the clubs, and fans' reactions to those transfers
• off-the-field factors, such as media coverage of the rivalry
  

Some of the results may surprise you, but we hope you enjoy debating it.

Click here to download the report.