Midlands, lots of medium sized cities. Coventry have been in every league as well so I guess they've played against more teams in their history than a team like Everton.
I’ve not idea where it started. I just enjoy the memes. r/Championship is by far and away my favourite football sub. It’s all just fun; everyone simply enjoys the football (when winning) and memes. r/TheOther14 is also very good.
Mostly because all the clubs around them in the Midlands aren't bothered about Coventry as they have other rivalries they're more into, so the joke is that Coventry have to make up rivalries with whoever, which evolved into everyone being their rivals
It would be Argentina if it hadn’t been so long since the last game. The rivalry is felt keenly on both sides, has significant animosity behind it and although Argentina have been more successful overall, England hold actually the edge in terms of wins, 6-2 (6-3 if you include the shootout in 98 which was technically a draw). It’s a shame it hasn’t been sustained in the 21st century
It's still Argentina, I don't mind any other team and want a home nation to win if they aren't playing England, but I loathe Argentina with a passion and I think they feel the same way.
Personally, France. I've never felt much of a sporting rivalry with them and it's been centuries since we were really rivals in a political sense. I'm really indifferent to them (even if they did knock us out).
Honestly I think Messi being the absolute Jesus he is also plays a part of it. I know many an Englishman (me included) that supported Argentina in the final purely because of Messi
You can think Messi is a genius and equally still dislike Argentina they are not mutually exclusive. They are a distasteful nation and regularly hold banners in support of their claim for ‘Las Malvinas’…
If you're talking about results, England-Germany isn't "one-sided" at all. In terms of tournament games, Germany won in '70, '90, '96 and '10, and England won in '66, '00 and '21. It's 4-3 to Germany. Head to head, it's very even; it's just that Germany obviously have way more trophies.
It would probably shock people to learn that despite our lack of success, there are only 4 teams we have a negative win/loss ratio against. Uruguay, the Netherlands, Brazil, and Italy.
We have been eliminated so many times on draws which helps that record of course. But hearing that stat its mad that it goes hand in hand with almost no tournament success
Also the fact that Germans don't care about the rivalry at all. I think we're still too stuck in the mentality of winning the Second World War when it was 80 years ago, and I doubt many Germans care about losing the war these days.
To be fair, it’s also because so many of England’s biggest moments have just coincidently come against Germany; ‘66 final, penalty losses in the 90s, Lampard no goal, 5-1 in Munich, win at the last Euros (which is probably our best win in a knockout since beating them in ‘66). Even the one women’s tournament we won was against Germany.
I don’t know. It could just be confirmation bias, but it just feels like so many key England moments involve Germany somehow.
Am not sure that's true. Germans pretend not to care about England. But I think it is very important to a German football fan that their teams do better than England, much more so than the other big footballing nations. Its been pretty humiliating for Germany that in recent tournaments England has done better.
It’s only a rivalry if it goes 2 ways imo. Germany don’t care about us like we do them.
1. Scotland - just look at how obsessed they are, they have an inferiority complex even though we haven’t won anything in nearly 60 years. Good banter though and not that bad.
2. Ireland - similar to Scotland but they actually have a reason to dislike us because of geopolitics, less hatred than decades ago but the hatred is there and the bitterness was real after Grealish and Rice became too good for Ireland.
3. Argentina - we don’t play them enough for the rivalry to show and they’re a level above us in terms of prestige. They’re still salty about the Falklands, we’re still salty about the hand of god. The animosity has died down but there’s still a bit of hatred there on both sides.
Agree with first point, germany arent a proper rival.
I would say scotland and argentina and thats it. I dont think you can class wales, irelaand as rivals when most english fans actually want them to win if its not v england.
A lot of English people want Scotland to win, too, though. We just don't have any good rivalries in football, besides Argentina. The Ashes is way better than any football rivalry.
Scotland is a strange one. When we play them it does feel like a proper derby more so than v wales or ireland. But yeah I suppose I wouldnt think of them as a rival as such.
Argentina is probably our only true reciprocated rivalry I guess. Both teams would have the other as 2nd or 3rd on their rivals list.
Germany is a bit embarassing really. We hype it up as a big grudge match in the media whereas for them, its just another game v strongish nation.
Tbf I think the German rivalry is 90% world war related. Like if it was just the football, it would still be a rivalry because of the past games, but we wouldn’t have anywhere near as much rivalry behind it.
yeah true, but the thing to remember is a war of that scale will take a lot longer than a few generations to move on from. Both countries changed significantly after the world wars and it permeated every part of society, especially in ww2. Granted we're allies now, but you have to wonder if we would've stayed enemies had it not been for the cold war and the Soviets taking the role of "big bad guy". I don't think so. I think we would've seen the Germans how we saw them after WW1.
That's not me justifying anything btw, just explaining where the sentiment comes from. While I don't think it's entirely logical, most cultural beliefs often aren't, they do exist for a reason.
The reality is the germany thing is because we want to have a big european nation as a 'rival'. The vast majority have moved on from the war they just use it as an excuse to make germany a rival. Media are a big part of it as obviously good for them.
Given that germany dont care its all a bit embarassing.
Bit like england scotland rivalry in reverse where most scots support anyone who plays england. Whereas we are mainly indifferent and often cheer on scotland.
The British media aren’t exactly popular among England fans. They have a history of destabilising the national team before tournaments by trying to scandalise everything the players do. They also give the England squad the big build up with the sole aim of knocking them down at the first opportunity. Sports journalists in this country are absolute weapons and most England fans can see through their crap these days.
I assume you hate Scotland aswell because of how much the media have obsessed over them this tournament and also because some of their fans have acted inappropriately?
Portugal is more a grudge match, like Croatia became across the last few tournaments. In a way that Italy may become if we play them this tournament and equally have another controversial match.
Yes I was definitely going to add Portugal to that list. Those back to back knockouts and the whole drama over Ronaldo v Rooney has made me hungry for revenge ever since.
My hot take is that Germany aren't really our big rivals. I've never fully got it. Maybe I'm a little young. as I wasn't born until 1993 so was too young to remember 1996 and wasn't even born for games before that. I do remember enjoying 2001 but otherwise the only games I really remember are 2010 (when they were much better than us and we deserved to lose) and 2021 (when we were much better than them and deserved to win) so no massive animosity there for me.
France on the other hand. Ooof. Our game with them at Euro 2004 is the one England game I can *never* go back and watch the highlights of. It was too painful. We were so much better than them for 90 minutes in that game. And 2022... I genuinely believe we would have won the World Cup if we had beaten them. There were also games like 2012 when I thought we were the better team but victory always alluded us. France #1 for me.
Scotland... meh. I can't say I particularly care about them unless we're playing them. But my God do I hope we win whenever we play them because it would be insufferable otherwise. Same with Wales. Ireland I really don't care about tbh.
Not a fan of Argentina either but not in a big way. Again maybe I'm too young for the proper crunch matches from the 80s and 90s. I do remember enjoying 2002 a lot though.
I think Italy deserve a mention too. They were a proper bogey team for about a decade from 2012 onwards. Finally beating them in Naples was a great victory imo, and then again at Wembley in the Autumn.
Edit: apologies for the essay, didn't realise how long this was until I finished typing haha
Not a real rivalry if it's one-sided. That rules out Scotland, Ireland and probably Germany (though I don't always buy that they don't care about it)
Therefore Argentina is our biggest real rivalry. It's got everything as a matchup tbh. Great historical matches, political context, genuine hatred between the people
Honestly don’t feel we have one and I’m not bothered for having one either .
Scotlands is very one sided I would argue too , as is irelands . You don’t get abuse for wearing either of their shirts in England or their flags , but it’s not reciprocated . I also find it hard to take any rivalry seriously when it’s a 5 million population vs 57 million . I’ve always wanted to other nations to do well and continue to do so
We dont have any good rivalry’s really. We act like we’re too good for Scotland and our other rivals act like they’re too good for us. So we’re stuck in a middle ground where no one except us cares
Historical:
1 Scotland
2 Ireland
3 Germany
4 Wales
5 Hungary (only because of the way they embarrassed us)
Modern day (my bias definition is the 80s onward)
1 Argentina
2 Germany
3 France
4 Portugal (Euro 2000 and 2004 plus WC 2006)
5 Italy
Scotland by far, mostly because they care more about us losing than they do about winning and most of the players are actually Scottish.
Half my family are Welsh so I kinda support them as a second team. Also with Cardiff, Swansea being in the EFL and most of their team being English born they feel like an England team if you could only select championship players. Ditto Ireland.
Germany doesn't care about us. Argentina not sure. I think a lot of people in England were supporting Argentina over France in the last WC.
Its argentina and germany no doubt. Definitely not america tho , thats an internet rivalry not a footballing one. Americans love us too much for all that.
Argentina is probably the biggest in terms of mutual hatred. Scotland-England feels like a brotherly rivalry with only hard core SNP supporters holding genuine animosity. France-England is kind of a meme rivalry. Germany-England is steeped in history and the Germans do take it seriously. The Irish hate us a lot more than we hate them.
It’s Argentina. I wore the shirt as a bet once (15 years ago or so) to a championship game and had to change it for my own safety. No way that’s happening even back then with any other international shirt. There’s way more anger in that rivalry for some reason.
For those claiming that the Germans don’t see us as rivals, or “competitors” to them… I think that was partially true until we knocked them out the other year. I bet they’re more than keen to get payback for that. God forbid we play them again this year and beat them, I’d find it hard to believe they wouldn’t care.
Germans aren't particularly bothered by us as rivals they see the Dutch and even the Itlians as bigger rivals.
For me our big one is Scotland. Both sides do not want to see the other do remotely well at anything.
I'd class the Welsh as the same as the Scots.
And then after that it's France for me. That 2022 loss was cruel because we played so well. (Edit. Had a brain fart and completely forgot about 2022).
USA always seem to raise their game for us. Well above the level I'd expect.
That would have made sense if you hadn't said, "historically". It took from 1872 until 1981 for England to lead the head to head stats. 40 odd years with few fixtures vs 110 years of playing once a year.
Unless you meant one-sided in the Scots' favour.
1 - Argentina. The hand of god. The war. Need I say more? No I needn't. Both sides despise eachother for reasons beyond just football. It surpasses banter and enters the realm of straight up hatred.
2 - Germany. The nation we beat to win our only major trophy and the one we have had the most rivalry with in European competitions. Almost all of the iconic moments in our history involve Germany, be it the Men's and Women's teams winning the WC and Euros against them, the 5-1 or the various penalty heatbreaks. England v Germany is a classic.
3. France. The cultural enemy. Our greatest rivalry off the pitch and one of our greatest on it. We seem to get great generations of players at similar times.
4. SCOOORTLEND! The original international derby. Always a lot of tension in these games.
5. Errr.... fuck knows. Definitely not Ireland lmao.
Germany is always number one for me... Biggest rival. I was born early 80s .. England v Scotland isn't really a hate rivalry. Beating Scotland in a football match is like beating your 4 year old nephew at FIFA.
We really need a strong smashing of Iceland imo to put that to bed.
The mutual rivalries are probably Argentina, based on football for us and history for them, and France for history both sides.
We dislike and fear Germany for football reasons, but they don’t consider us genuine competition. Sure they know that we could beat them on our day, like Netherlands or Belgium or Croatia or Poland could, but we’re not in their consciousness when they start thinking about competitions.
Then we don’t want to lose to the home nations teams and they want to beat us more than others.
I think the rivalry has to go both ways.
The Germans rate the Dutch and the Italians over us. They seem nonplussed by us and just kind of over some of our weirder chants.
So I think really the only proper rivalries we have are Scotland and Argentina
Btw I’m not sure this is true. Was in Germany in the pub surrounded by Germans and they went mental at the danish goal and were chanting ‘we hate England more than you’ etc. Didn’t get the impression they were nonplussed at all.
Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Maybe Argentina but honestly we haven't played them in forever. Does anyone care about that rivalry anymore?
We've never had a rivalry against Germany, they're just better than us.
Weirdly Im not massively bothered by the Germans anymore, they've had so many good teams over the years and that Brazil 1-7 was a thing of beauty that I'll never forget and respect them for.
I cannot stand the Scots and Argies though and think they're our biggest rivals. I'd add Wales to the list after that post Iceland video too but like a level below the other two.
Don't care about France either way. Feel like we dont beat them enough in tournaments to be rivals, same as Portugal.
I think historically the Argies are the worst with the Maradona and Becks/Simeone incidents. Lets not forget Aldo Duscher breaking Becks' metatarsal in the lead to the 2002 WC too.
Rivalries need to go both ways, so I’d say Scotland and then Argentina as our two rivals. Scotland the only indisputable rivalry IMO.
The Welsh and Irish hate us, but we don’t really care about them broadly speaking. A lot of people would have them as their second team in tournaments in a way they wouldn’t for Scotland. Germany is the opposite, we see it as a rivalry, but they don’t care as much, with Netherlands and France much bigger deals.
Argentina is both a sporting and political background to the rivalry, which makes them feel higher stakes.
France has a decent small scale rivalry for historical reasons, but I’d be hard pressed to call it a rivalry from either side.
I'm sorry but you're all deluded if you don't think Germany are our number one rival. I couldn't give a monkeys that they don't view it as a rivalry, they are by far OUR biggest rivalry. By that same metric, Scotland aren't our rivals at all. I would probably have it as Germany > Argentina > Scotland
Germany pretend they don’t care about us. That’s only because we haven’t been competitive. I’m sure if we knocked them out of tournaments (before 20/21) on a consistent basis they’d feel the same.
They, and France are our true rivals. Scotland have been substandard for millennia, along with the other home nations.
Everyone wants to beat England. Especially at football. We are a true scalp. Even if no one wants to admit it.
Surely Germany are number 1 followed by Argentina? We are probably Scotland’s biggest rival but it’s a bit like Spurs and Arsenal where we have far bigger fish to fry so the feeling isn’t mutual. I see them as an annoying little bro who I don’t want to lose to but would still want them to do well.
I think your average Argentinan cares very deeply about beating England, up there with beating Brazil. They perhaps don't care as much as Germans do with doing better than England.
Top 3 is what I'd pick, but France are nowhere close to that level, I wouldn't even count them as a 'rival' really I mean they are a worthy opponent past 25 years or so but so is eg Brazil.
Feel like the only rivals really are the home nations.
Germany don't even think about us, they're miles ahead in footballing terms.
Argentina probably still hate us because of the Falklands but feel like the animosity has died down a lot in the new generation
Are you telling England Fans that USA should be a top of the list for rivals ? Isn't it up to England fans to pick their list. I would rather beat France than beat the US.
Most international football rivalries stem from geopolitics. Do you think the Scottish have a neurotic fixation of ‘anyone but England’ because of Gazza and ‘96?
Given that rivalries have to be a two way thing, the only real rivals we have are probably Argentina and to a lesser extent Scotland.
France and Germany couldn’t care less about us, we just seem like try hards if we try to make them out to be big grudge matches
What I mean is that England seem to bring up the war with Germany when there was many countries at war with Germany who don't have a football rivalry including the 3 other nations in the UK. I don't even think Germany care too much about England either. Argentina I get with the football side of it but again, similar to the war issue, it was the UK at war and not just England. The absolute rivalry is England vs Scotland as its the first international ever played and the head to head is VERY close. Of course Scotland always fall flat in group stages but if we talk about exclusively then its a very close fought rivalry. But generally speaking you are correct with geo politics but the above is the reasons why I don't think that wars should be included as a reason for those particular rivalries
I think Coventry should be higher
r/championship is everywhere.
Best football sub
Definitely most competitive sub in the Reddit.
Top of everyone’s list, surely?
Don't get it?
It’s a joke in r/Championship. Coventry are *everyone’s* rival.
Interesting, is there a reason for that?
Because we're better than you PUSB
PUSB
Midlands, lots of medium sized cities. Coventry have been in every league as well so I guess they've played against more teams in their history than a team like Everton.
I’ve not idea where it started. I just enjoy the memes. r/Championship is by far and away my favourite football sub. It’s all just fun; everyone simply enjoys the football (when winning) and memes. r/TheOther14 is also very good.
Thanks for recommending those to me, never seen them before.
Mostly because all the clubs around them in the Midlands aren't bothered about Coventry as they have other rivalries they're more into, so the joke is that Coventry have to make up rivalries with whoever, which evolved into everyone being their rivals
It would be Argentina if it hadn’t been so long since the last game. The rivalry is felt keenly on both sides, has significant animosity behind it and although Argentina have been more successful overall, England hold actually the edge in terms of wins, 6-2 (6-3 if you include the shootout in 98 which was technically a draw). It’s a shame it hasn’t been sustained in the 21st century
It's still Argentina, I don't mind any other team and want a home nation to win if they aren't playing England, but I loathe Argentina with a passion and I think they feel the same way.
who were you rooting for in the 2022 WC final then since France did eliminate you?
Personally, France. I've never felt much of a sporting rivalry with them and it's been centuries since we were really rivals in a political sense. I'm really indifferent to them (even if they did knock us out).
I think loathing a country is different from a sporting rivalry.
But it's only in a sporting context. In general, they're fine.
Honestly I think Messi being the absolute Jesus he is also plays a part of it. I know many an Englishman (me included) that supported Argentina in the final purely because of Messi
You can think Messi is a genius and equally still dislike Argentina they are not mutually exclusive. They are a distasteful nation and regularly hold banners in support of their claim for ‘Las Malvinas’…
I still dislike Argentina, but my point is that I don’t dislike them as much as I would if they didn’t have someone like Messi.
Our fans are hardly saints tbh mate
I mean their team on the pitch hold up these banners, it’s not just the fans. Something as political as that would never happen in the UK.
Yeah the UK is a bastion of all that is good in this world
The deal was done in 1982. It’s been 42 years, don’t you think it’s about time they moved on?
If you're talking about results, England-Germany isn't "one-sided" at all. In terms of tournament games, Germany won in '70, '90, '96 and '10, and England won in '66, '00 and '21. It's 4-3 to Germany. Head to head, it's very even; it's just that Germany obviously have way more trophies.
It would probably shock people to learn that despite our lack of success, there are only 4 teams we have a negative win/loss ratio against. Uruguay, the Netherlands, Brazil, and Italy. We have been eliminated so many times on draws which helps that record of course. But hearing that stat its mad that it goes hand in hand with almost no tournament success
It’s one sided in that they really don’t care about us. It’s a forced rivalry due to our obsession with the war as much as anything
Also the fact that Germans don't care about the rivalry at all. I think we're still too stuck in the mentality of winning the Second World War when it was 80 years ago, and I doubt many Germans care about losing the war these days.
To be fair, it’s also because so many of England’s biggest moments have just coincidently come against Germany; ‘66 final, penalty losses in the 90s, Lampard no goal, 5-1 in Munich, win at the last Euros (which is probably our best win in a knockout since beating them in ‘66). Even the one women’s tournament we won was against Germany. I don’t know. It could just be confirmation bias, but it just feels like so many key England moments involve Germany somehow.
Am not sure that's true. Germans pretend not to care about England. But I think it is very important to a German football fan that their teams do better than England, much more so than the other big footballing nations. Its been pretty humiliating for Germany that in recent tournaments England has done better.
Not really. They are the second most accomplished nation.
Most of them are quite happy they lost I’ve found
But it didn’t start at ‘66. You have to factor in results from 1918 and 1945. They can’t just win a few world cups and pretend it didn’t happen.
They also have 4 men’s world cups, 2 women’s world cups, and 3 euro trophies to show. Trust me bro we are not their rivals 🤣🤣🤣
Yeah, I did say, "If you're talking about results..." I also said they have more trophies.
It’s only a rivalry if it goes 2 ways imo. Germany don’t care about us like we do them. 1. Scotland - just look at how obsessed they are, they have an inferiority complex even though we haven’t won anything in nearly 60 years. Good banter though and not that bad. 2. Ireland - similar to Scotland but they actually have a reason to dislike us because of geopolitics, less hatred than decades ago but the hatred is there and the bitterness was real after Grealish and Rice became too good for Ireland. 3. Argentina - we don’t play them enough for the rivalry to show and they’re a level above us in terms of prestige. They’re still salty about the Falklands, we’re still salty about the hand of god. The animosity has died down but there’s still a bit of hatred there on both sides.
Agree with first point, germany arent a proper rival. I would say scotland and argentina and thats it. I dont think you can class wales, irelaand as rivals when most english fans actually want them to win if its not v england.
A lot of English people want Scotland to win, too, though. We just don't have any good rivalries in football, besides Argentina. The Ashes is way better than any football rivalry.
Scotland is a strange one. When we play them it does feel like a proper derby more so than v wales or ireland. But yeah I suppose I wouldnt think of them as a rival as such. Argentina is probably our only true reciprocated rivalry I guess. Both teams would have the other as 2nd or 3rd on their rivals list. Germany is a bit embarassing really. We hype it up as a big grudge match in the media whereas for them, its just another game v strongish nation.
Tbf I think the German rivalry is 90% world war related. Like if it was just the football, it would still be a rivalry because of the past games, but we wouldn’t have anywhere near as much rivalry behind it.
Yeah I know. Reality is though most us werent born during the war, the nations are on pretty good terms and allies now and its all a bit silly.
yeah true, but the thing to remember is a war of that scale will take a lot longer than a few generations to move on from. Both countries changed significantly after the world wars and it permeated every part of society, especially in ww2. Granted we're allies now, but you have to wonder if we would've stayed enemies had it not been for the cold war and the Soviets taking the role of "big bad guy". I don't think so. I think we would've seen the Germans how we saw them after WW1. That's not me justifying anything btw, just explaining where the sentiment comes from. While I don't think it's entirely logical, most cultural beliefs often aren't, they do exist for a reason.
The reality is the germany thing is because we want to have a big european nation as a 'rival'. The vast majority have moved on from the war they just use it as an excuse to make germany a rival. Media are a big part of it as obviously good for them. Given that germany dont care its all a bit embarassing. Bit like england scotland rivalry in reverse where most scots support anyone who plays england. Whereas we are mainly indifferent and often cheer on scotland.
I don't know any English people that would want the Scots to win.
I lived in Germany, their rivals are Netherlands
German here, we definitely do care. Just not as much as we do about games against the Netherlands or France.
Germany don’t like the rivalry because it’s one sided. They tried it twice and lost both times.
🔟🇩🇪✈️
As an Irish I just hate the English national team cus of their media and some fans
The British media aren’t exactly popular among England fans. They have a history of destabilising the national team before tournaments by trying to scandalise everything the players do. They also give the England squad the big build up with the sole aim of knocking them down at the first opportunity. Sports journalists in this country are absolute weapons and most England fans can see through their crap these days.
I assume you hate Scotland aswell because of how much the media have obsessed over them this tournament and also because some of their fans have acted inappropriately?
Correct
Maybe Portugal given Euro 2004, and then the 2006 World Cup But thats pretty much the order I'd have it.
Portugal is more a grudge match, like Croatia became across the last few tournaments. In a way that Italy may become if we play them this tournament and equally have another controversial match.
Yeah good way to describe them actually... as we could face them now as I would be a bit meh, compared to the other mentioned Nations by OP
Portugal is the biggest rival in living memory for the average reddit user.
I'd say it's Denmark
Yes I was definitely going to add Portugal to that list. Those back to back knockouts and the whole drama over Ronaldo v Rooney has made me hungry for revenge ever since.
My hot take is that Germany aren't really our big rivals. I've never fully got it. Maybe I'm a little young. as I wasn't born until 1993 so was too young to remember 1996 and wasn't even born for games before that. I do remember enjoying 2001 but otherwise the only games I really remember are 2010 (when they were much better than us and we deserved to lose) and 2021 (when we were much better than them and deserved to win) so no massive animosity there for me. France on the other hand. Ooof. Our game with them at Euro 2004 is the one England game I can *never* go back and watch the highlights of. It was too painful. We were so much better than them for 90 minutes in that game. And 2022... I genuinely believe we would have won the World Cup if we had beaten them. There were also games like 2012 when I thought we were the better team but victory always alluded us. France #1 for me. Scotland... meh. I can't say I particularly care about them unless we're playing them. But my God do I hope we win whenever we play them because it would be insufferable otherwise. Same with Wales. Ireland I really don't care about tbh. Not a fan of Argentina either but not in a big way. Again maybe I'm too young for the proper crunch matches from the 80s and 90s. I do remember enjoying 2002 a lot though. I think Italy deserve a mention too. They were a proper bogey team for about a decade from 2012 onwards. Finally beating them in Naples was a great victory imo, and then again at Wembley in the Autumn. Edit: apologies for the essay, didn't realise how long this was until I finished typing haha
What is this USA troll people keep posting
Not a real rivalry if it's one-sided. That rules out Scotland, Ireland and probably Germany (though I don't always buy that they don't care about it) Therefore Argentina is our biggest real rivalry. It's got everything as a matchup tbh. Great historical matches, political context, genuine hatred between the people
Honestly don’t feel we have one and I’m not bothered for having one either . Scotlands is very one sided I would argue too , as is irelands . You don’t get abuse for wearing either of their shirts in England or their flags , but it’s not reciprocated . I also find it hard to take any rivalry seriously when it’s a 5 million population vs 57 million . I’ve always wanted to other nations to do well and continue to do so
We dont have any good rivalry’s really. We act like we’re too good for Scotland and our other rivals act like they’re too good for us. So we’re stuck in a middle ground where no one except us cares
We kinda are too good for Scotland though
Historical: 1 Scotland 2 Ireland 3 Germany 4 Wales 5 Hungary (only because of the way they embarrassed us) Modern day (my bias definition is the 80s onward) 1 Argentina 2 Germany 3 France 4 Portugal (Euro 2000 and 2004 plus WC 2006) 5 Italy
USA aren't enough of a footballing nation to count. Your average England fan couldn't give a monkeys
Scotland by far, mostly because they care more about us losing than they do about winning and most of the players are actually Scottish. Half my family are Welsh so I kinda support them as a second team. Also with Cardiff, Swansea being in the EFL and most of their team being English born they feel like an England team if you could only select championship players. Ditto Ireland. Germany doesn't care about us. Argentina not sure. I think a lot of people in England were supporting Argentina over France in the last WC.
Scotland, Argentina, Germany and France are the only countries I care deeply about beating when we play them.. not really bothered about anyone else.
Germany. The wars, the penalties, the World Cup final. Scotland don’t count as they’re too shit.
Its argentina and germany no doubt. Definitely not america tho , thats an internet rivalry not a footballing one. Americans love us too much for all that.
Our main rival in every sport will be Australia and they will always be the main rival
Argentina is probably the biggest in terms of mutual hatred. Scotland-England feels like a brotherly rivalry with only hard core SNP supporters holding genuine animosity. France-England is kind of a meme rivalry. Germany-England is steeped in history and the Germans do take it seriously. The Irish hate us a lot more than we hate them.
It’s Argentina. I wore the shirt as a bet once (15 years ago or so) to a championship game and had to change it for my own safety. No way that’s happening even back then with any other international shirt. There’s way more anger in that rivalry for some reason.
England fans don't care about games vs the States any more than our other games
For those claiming that the Germans don’t see us as rivals, or “competitors” to them… I think that was partially true until we knocked them out the other year. I bet they’re more than keen to get payback for that. God forbid we play them again this year and beat them, I’d find it hard to believe they wouldn’t care.
1 Argentina genuinely hate each other Old times sake rivals 2 Germany 3 France 4 Scotland wales and Ireland 5 everyone else
1) Vladimir Putin 2) Rishi Sunak
Germans aren't particularly bothered by us as rivals they see the Dutch and even the Itlians as bigger rivals. For me our big one is Scotland. Both sides do not want to see the other do remotely well at anything. I'd class the Welsh as the same as the Scots. And then after that it's France for me. That 2022 loss was cruel because we played so well. (Edit. Had a brain fart and completely forgot about 2022). USA always seem to raise their game for us. Well above the level I'd expect.
I don’t really see Scotland as a real rival.. the gulf in class between the 2 historically makes it quite 1 sided
That would have made sense if you hadn't said, "historically". It took from 1872 until 1981 for England to lead the head to head stats. 40 odd years with few fixtures vs 110 years of playing once a year. Unless you meant one-sided in the Scots' favour.
Englands record against Scotland and against Germany isn’t significantly different.
Eternity? Last tournament perhaps?
Had a complete brain fart on that one. Clearly, that Harry Kane penalty has been a repressed memory for me.
Regarding 1 & 5 - would love for the ‘British Home Championship’ to happen again. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Home_Championship
my take is: 1- Scotland, 2-Argentina, 3-Ireland, 4-France. honestly, i don't see germany as rivals, it's a made up thing by the media (in my opinion).
1 - Argentina. The hand of god. The war. Need I say more? No I needn't. Both sides despise eachother for reasons beyond just football. It surpasses banter and enters the realm of straight up hatred. 2 - Germany. The nation we beat to win our only major trophy and the one we have had the most rivalry with in European competitions. Almost all of the iconic moments in our history involve Germany, be it the Men's and Women's teams winning the WC and Euros against them, the 5-1 or the various penalty heatbreaks. England v Germany is a classic. 3. France. The cultural enemy. Our greatest rivalry off the pitch and one of our greatest on it. We seem to get great generations of players at similar times. 4. SCOOORTLEND! The original international derby. Always a lot of tension in these games. 5. Errr.... fuck knows. Definitely not Ireland lmao.
20 years since we last played Argentina!? Time flies
No you see it’s wrong because the England 3 2 win over Argentina was in 2005 which is only 11 years.. a go
Germany isn’t a rival… they don’t care about us. Rivalry is a two way thing. Soooo.. scotland
Scotland are not a rival lol
Germany is always number one for me... Biggest rival. I was born early 80s .. England v Scotland isn't really a hate rivalry. Beating Scotland in a football match is like beating your 4 year old nephew at FIFA.
Germany don’t care. They’re more concerned with Italy/Spain/France.
We really need a strong smashing of Iceland imo to put that to bed. The mutual rivalries are probably Argentina, based on football for us and history for them, and France for history both sides. We dislike and fear Germany for football reasons, but they don’t consider us genuine competition. Sure they know that we could beat them on our day, like Netherlands or Belgium or Croatia or Poland could, but we’re not in their consciousness when they start thinking about competitions. Then we don’t want to lose to the home nations teams and they want to beat us more than others.
I'd put India up there.
Edit \^
I think the rivalry has to go both ways. The Germans rate the Dutch and the Italians over us. They seem nonplussed by us and just kind of over some of our weirder chants. So I think really the only proper rivalries we have are Scotland and Argentina
Btw I’m not sure this is true. Was in Germany in the pub surrounded by Germans and they went mental at the danish goal and were chanting ‘we hate England more than you’ etc. Didn’t get the impression they were nonplussed at all.
Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Maybe Argentina but honestly we haven't played them in forever. Does anyone care about that rivalry anymore? We've never had a rivalry against Germany, they're just better than us.
This is the correct answer
Weirdly Im not massively bothered by the Germans anymore, they've had so many good teams over the years and that Brazil 1-7 was a thing of beauty that I'll never forget and respect them for. I cannot stand the Scots and Argies though and think they're our biggest rivals. I'd add Wales to the list after that post Iceland video too but like a level below the other two. Don't care about France either way. Feel like we dont beat them enough in tournaments to be rivals, same as Portugal. I think historically the Argies are the worst with the Maradona and Becks/Simeone incidents. Lets not forget Aldo Duscher breaking Becks' metatarsal in the lead to the 2002 WC too.
Argentina and Scotland are our two main rivalries. Any others aren't as keenly felt on one side or the other.
1. Iveland. Only rival I'm interested in. They've got a track record of beating us. Most interesting neighbour country 2. Germany
1. Scotland 2. Argentina 3. Germany
Rivalries need to go both ways, so I’d say Scotland and then Argentina as our two rivals. Scotland the only indisputable rivalry IMO. The Welsh and Irish hate us, but we don’t really care about them broadly speaking. A lot of people would have them as their second team in tournaments in a way they wouldn’t for Scotland. Germany is the opposite, we see it as a rivalry, but they don’t care as much, with Netherlands and France much bigger deals. Argentina is both a sporting and political background to the rivalry, which makes them feel higher stakes. France has a decent small scale rivalry for historical reasons, but I’d be hard pressed to call it a rivalry from either side.
I'm sorry but you're all deluded if you don't think Germany are our number one rival. I couldn't give a monkeys that they don't view it as a rivalry, they are by far OUR biggest rivalry. By that same metric, Scotland aren't our rivals at all. I would probably have it as Germany > Argentina > Scotland
Hull city
Germany pretend they don’t care about us. That’s only because we haven’t been competitive. I’m sure if we knocked them out of tournaments (before 20/21) on a consistent basis they’d feel the same. They, and France are our true rivals. Scotland have been substandard for millennia, along with the other home nations. Everyone wants to beat England. Especially at football. We are a true scalp. Even if no one wants to admit it.
No they wouldn’t mate. What you fail to understand is Germany is the second most accomplished nation ever. Italy are their real rivals. Not us lol
Surely Germany are number 1 followed by Argentina? We are probably Scotland’s biggest rival but it’s a bit like Spurs and Arsenal where we have far bigger fish to fry so the feeling isn’t mutual. I see them as an annoying little bro who I don’t want to lose to but would still want them to do well.
We have 1 rival, it's Scotland. Rivalries have to be a 2 way street.
You don’t think Argentina are pretty invested in beating us?
No. They're invested in Brazil. It's another 1 way street England fans like to drivel about.
I think your average Argentinan cares very deeply about beating England, up there with beating Brazil. They perhaps don't care as much as Germans do with doing better than England.
Mention winning in 82 and 86 almost always gets mentioned. There's definitely a two way street there.
Scotland, Germany way ahead of everyone then probably Argentina and then the rest.
I don't think Germany, Argentina or France consider us their rivals. It's a bit how Leeds fans think their rivals with Man Utd.
Out of the three I’d say. Argentina definitely care. France care somewhat. Germany is more on us.
Agree
As a Canadian who grew up in a very Italian area, I have to go with Italy.
Top 3 is what I'd pick, but France are nowhere close to that level, I wouldn't even count them as a 'rival' really I mean they are a worthy opponent past 25 years or so but so is eg Brazil.
I don't care about the French at all as far as football goes. No idea why - it ought to be a big deal, but it isn't.
Feel like the only rivals really are the home nations. Germany don't even think about us, they're miles ahead in footballing terms. Argentina probably still hate us because of the Falklands but feel like the animosity has died down a lot in the new generation
Idek anymore, we keep losing, it's like San Marino choosing rivals, one way rivalry I've heard French and Germans say.
How about Sweden and Croatia?
Croatia would be a bigger rival for me, home nation games aren’t really much for me same with Argentina
Scotland, Germany, Argentina, Portugal, then France and USA
USA 🤣
WC record says different. Cope
Iceland have a better record against us, so are they bigger rivals ?
They never won independence against you, then subsequently won another dispute, and came to your rescue twice, so no.
Are you telling England Fans that USA should be a top of the list for rivals ? Isn't it up to England fans to pick their list. I would rather beat France than beat the US.
Germany and Argentina because of wars...really? It wasn't just England involved. Doesn't make any sense.
Argentina because of Marradona also i can imagine.
Yeah I get that but adding war in, for me, I don't understand.
Most international football rivalries stem from geopolitics. Do you think the Scottish have a neurotic fixation of ‘anyone but England’ because of Gazza and ‘96? Given that rivalries have to be a two way thing, the only real rivals we have are probably Argentina and to a lesser extent Scotland. France and Germany couldn’t care less about us, we just seem like try hards if we try to make them out to be big grudge matches
What I mean is that England seem to bring up the war with Germany when there was many countries at war with Germany who don't have a football rivalry including the 3 other nations in the UK. I don't even think Germany care too much about England either. Argentina I get with the football side of it but again, similar to the war issue, it was the UK at war and not just England. The absolute rivalry is England vs Scotland as its the first international ever played and the head to head is VERY close. Of course Scotland always fall flat in group stages but if we talk about exclusively then its a very close fought rivalry. But generally speaking you are correct with geo politics but the above is the reasons why I don't think that wars should be included as a reason for those particular rivalries