Local derbies in France

In many countries the term local derby, or simply just derby (pronounced 'dar-bee' after the English town) means a sporting fixture between two (generally local) rivals, particularly in Association Football. In North America, crosstown rivalry is a more common term.

Although there are no strict rules, derby games in France are commonly divided into three categories - derbies, local derbies and classicos (originally a Spanish expression).

A derby is a game involving two teams from the same city, a local derby would involve two teams from two neighbouring cities and a classico involves two teams from two cities quite far apart geographically which have developed a great rivalry along the years - such as PSG and Marseille in football for example.

Local derbies are extremely rare in France, especially in football. There are two main reasons for this.

Before WW2 derbies were quite common but they disappeared when new national leagues were artificially created - by the Vichy regime - involving only one team from each region. This fateful decision caused a lot of clubs to merge or temporarily disappear and even though some clubs were relaunched after the war the damage had already been done.

The other reason is purely financial. Because clubs in France rely heavily on public subsidies from local and regional councils, they have to share these monies with other clubs from the same region or town. As a result of this, it is usually more economically sensible for two clubs from the same area to merge rather than to compete against each other in the same league.

The last derby proper in French top-flight football, Paris derby took place during the Ligue 1 1989-90 season between Paris Saint-Germain and Racing Paris

Prior to this, derby games were more common, particularly in the 1930s. For example, Lille was the home of SC Fives and Olympique Lillois (both merged in 1944 and became Lille OSC). Another example was Roubaix, home of Excelsior and RC Roubaix who even met in the 1933 final of the Coupe de France, Excelsior being the winner (both merged with Tourcoing in 1945, RCR unmerged in 1963 and Excelsior in 1970).

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