They are tense affairs, stirring passionate emotions from deep within, turning even the most mild mannered individual giddy with a sense of tribal allegiance. Bragging rights are at stake and families are often split vehemently in their loyalties.
Typical examples include derbies in Manchester, Merseyside, North London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Milan, between Real Madrid and Barcelona, Boca Juniors and River Plate.
So how on earth, many ask, is Crystal Palace against Brighton and Hove Albion classed a derby?
They are not geographically local rivals and there are no historical industrial links between the two. But the A23/M23 derby, so named after the main roads that connect the two venues, certainly deserves mention and its place at the table of bitter football rivalries.
It all started over a coffee….
The unusual hostility can be traced back to an FA Cup game in the 1970s when Alan Mullery and Terry Venables were the managers at Brighton and Palace, respectively.
In the 1976-77 season they met five times, with Palace going undefeated by winning twice and drawing three.
In one game, a cup of boiling hot coffee was thrown at Mullery by a Palace fan, prompting him to dump a handful of small change coins from his pocket to the floor while exclaiming “you’re not worth that, Palace,” before being dragged away by police.
Under Mullery, having changed their nickname to ‘seagulls,’ Brighton’s fans adopted the terrace chant of ‘Eagles’ which was very much associated as Palace’s own, irking them no end.
Behind enemy lines
In the summer of 1982 Crystal Palace made the peculiar decision to appoint Mullery as manager, angering the fans to such an extent that many boycotted the club under his tenure sending attendances plummeting.
The fact Brighton then beat them in both leagues only further stoked the fire.
There was a similar scenario, and further animosity, during the 1980’s when Steve Coppell yo-yoed between the clubs as manager with contrasting fortunes on each occasion although always seemingly upsetting the rival fanbase.
Dirty tactics
More recently Palace, led by talisman Wilfried Zaha, knocked Brighton out of the 2013/14 Championship play-offs on their way to sealing promotion to the Premier League.
Before the game, the Palace players were greeted with an unsavoury gift in their dressing room.
Former Palace defender Danny Gabbidon told The Times: “One of the first things players do when they get to a stadium is go to the toilet in the dressing room and on this occasion, in May 2013, I heard a bit of shouting.
“I got up to see what the commotion was about and saw excrement all over the toilet floor. It was unpleasant.
“Ian Holloway, our manager, was not happy and he hardly had to say much as the incident gave us all the motivation. We were fired up. I don’t recall anyone cleaning it up. We got on with the game.”
Palace, courtesy of two late Zaha goals, sunk their rivals to progress to Wembley and gain promotion, remaining in the Premier League ever since.
Asked recently to place his hatred for Brighton on a scale of 1-10, Zaha responded: "11."
The bitter, if somewhat unusual, rivalry continues with the 104th game between the clubs scheduled to take place on Monday evening UK time (Tuesday Dec 12 at 2.45am Thai time).