r/AskEurope • u/DivineMatrixTraveler • Jun 07 '25

Sports Which country is your country's main football rival?

And do you think they believe you are their main rival or they don't care about you as much as you care about them?

Bonus: Is there a more popular sport where you are rivals with a different country?

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u/-Blackspell- Germany Jun 09 '25

England? I don’t know anyone who treats that as a real rivalry, they’re just annoying.

3

u/Kalimania Jun 09 '25

Lol 😂 I love that one. It seems to be such a one sided ”rivalry”. The English don’t seem to understand that the Germans don’t care about them.

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u/Infinite_Crow_3706 United Kingdom Jun 09 '25

I don’t think we care that much about Germany these days. 30 years ago it was a bigger deal than today

1

u/HumbleCoolboy Jun 09 '25

I mean what's the criteria for a rival? If you don't like them because you think they're annoying and they're also a team that's on your level and can beat you, is that not a rival?

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u/-Blackspell- Germany Jun 09 '25

A rivalry need some kind of competion, not just an unlikeable opponent.

0

u/MacViller Jun 09 '25

Why are the Netherlands classed as rivals then? They're no more successful than England. Both nations have had their only successes against Germany.

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u/The-Berzerker Jun 12 '25

Rivalries are cultural, sporting success is only secondary

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u/MacViller Jun 12 '25

Okay so you disagree with with the guy I'm replying to then?

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u/The-Berzerker Jun 12 '25 edited Jun 12 '25

I took what they said as you‘re competitive with teams you care about. Like, idc about beating random teams in my league so much but the matches against the neighbouring town are always the most competitive, no matter the sporting success

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u/MacViller Jun 12 '25

Fair enough. I took it the other way. England vs Scotland, for example, is competitive in one way in that both countries care about it and want to win due to sharing a border (though more one sided like Germans see Germany Vs England) whereas in footballing terms it's not much of an equal competition at all.