Supporters of football teams across the world look forward to travelling far and wide just to earn the bragging rights for another season.
So, whatever the background to the biggest grudge matches, a team of experts from London's Daily Mail decided on their list of the 50 greatest clashes that get the blood boiling.
Our own Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates - who meet each other tomorrow in their much-anticipated derby in Soweto - came in at Number 14 on the Daily Mail's list.
14. Kaizer Chiefs v Orlando Pirates
As those heading for the 2010 World Cup will soon come to realise, the majority of South Africans are either Chiefs or Pirates fans.
Battles between the pair are awash with colour, costume and carnival noises, while aggression and animosity is a very rare footnote. The desire for victory, though, is strong. The root cause of the rivalry, apart from locality, is the breakaway of former Pirates player Kaizer Motaung to form a new professional club in 1970. He took with him a few disgruntled Pirates players, and so the Chiefs were born.
10. Palmeiras v Corinthians
The story of Brazil's greatest football rivalry begins with a group of Europeans who'd later become known as the "betrayers". The rebel members split from Corinthians to create a sports club for Italians, known as Palestra Italia, and later just simply Palestra (Palmeiras). As the years passed honours and fans were split between the two clubs. True to Brazilian culture, the fixture is awash with colour and sound.
9. Olympiakos v Panathinaikos
Billed as a clash between the "eternal enemies" of Greek football, passions run high on and off the field in Athens. History favours Olympiakos, the traditionally working-class club, with 12 of the last 13 domestic titles.
In an echo of other European leagues, political forces are present in the club's respective corridors of power, which simply adds to the tension in the city.
8. Roma v Lazio
It is perhaps surprising that such a devilish rivalry can exist in a city shared with God's top man. Yet when Rome's best sides lock horns, all hell breaks loose.
Politics and proximity have equal claim to be the source of the hate, but historically it is the decision of Lazio not to merge with three other clubs from the capital, so creating AS Roma, that began the rift.
7. Liverpool v Manchester United
A struggle for the Best of British title has kept these two adversaries in battle for more than half a century. United's dominance of the Premier League era has hauled them level with the Merseysiders on 18 domestic titles, while Liverpool trump their rivals on the Continent with five European Cups to three. Culturally, too, an industrial rivalry exists between the two beacons of England's north-west.
6. Ajax v Feyenoord
They say that opposites attract. Holland's most successful clubs certainly don't think so.
On one side, the cultural, historical and liberal socialist capital of Amsterdam, with a club famed for championing "the beautiful game". On the other is Rotterdam, a rugged, industrial city, which was the birthplace of politician Pim Fortuyn's anti-immigration party, and home to Feyenoord. As a result, violent fan clashes have long marred occasions when the two sides meet.
5. Barcelona v Real Madrid
"El Classico" never fails to live up to its name. Over the years the fixture has brought the planet's finest footballers - Maradona, Zidane, Ronaldinho, Romario, Cruyff - in two of the world's most formidable stadiums.
Politically, it pits Spain's capital against the capital of Catalonia, an independent region in the north-west. Crossing the divide is not recommended, as Luis Figo found out. After a move from the Nou Camp to the Bernabeu, fans threw a pig's head at him.
4. Partizan Belgrade v Red Star Belgrade
Out of the ashes of World War 2, two teams were created in Belgrade. FK Partizan became the central club of the Yugoslav Army and Red Star were the civil adversary. Both can lay claim to being the supreme team in the country - it has largely been a duopoly since their inception - although Red Star's European Cup title in 1991 sets them apart.
However, in a country were the game is rife with corruption allegations, this once great on-field battle has left its better days in the past.
3. Celtic v Rangers
The religious undercurrent to the Old Firm derby makes it unlike any other fixture in the world. Away from the obvious antipathy that exists between two dominant clubs in the same city, there is a long and passionate rivalry that goes beyond the confines of the stadium.
Celtic are the Catholic club with roots entrenched in Ireland, while the Protestant faction of the city is linked strongly with Rangers. Between them they dominate Scottish football in a way that has led for calls for them to join the English Premier League.
2. Fenerbahce v Galatasaray
Sparks are bound to fly when football clubs are added to a city separated by a mass of water, especially when the city straddles Europe and Asia. Istanbul's dominant sides were founded two years apart and a social rift soon added spice to the rift created by geography. Gala were seen as a club for the aristocracy, with Fener the "people's club".
1. Boca Juniors v River Plate
Spain has "El Classico", Argentina has "il Superclasico". And what an occasion it is. Like many other fiercely contested same-city fixtures, social resentment is as much the catalyst as proximity.
From humble beginnings in the La Boca neighbourhood, River moved to the aristocratic suburb of Nunez, earning the nickname "Los Millonarios". Juniors, meanwhile, remained in the poor suburb.
The entire country is gripped for days in the lead-up to match day, and as the game kicks-off so do 90 minutes of ear-bursting and nerve-jangling atmosphere. The fixture was recently listed as one of the top 50 sporting events to attend before you die.