Football Rivalries, a Personal View

Football rivalries, an interesting concept – but how important are they, and who are Palace’s rivals? Of course a derby like Everton – Liverpool is always going to hold huge significance, but they have played each other constantly over a long period in history. In comparison, so called rivals such as Palace and Brighton haven’t played each other much at all in recent seasons which makes me question whether we can call them our rivals? An even clearer example of this would be Watford, who call Luton Town their main rivals – but can they, when they’re 3 leagues apart? The longer the gap stays as it is, the more and more chance there is of finding newer rivals shown by the way we are now apparently rivals with Charlton. This is clearly a new development, as only 1,500 Charlton fans travelled to Selhurst when we hosted them in the 04/05 season – and indeed the overall attendance of 20,705 was our lowest of the campaign, something you wouldn’t find in a proper derby match.
People say they don’t “care” about Charlton, but anyone who went to Selhurst in the latter part of the season will say that’s not true. Granted, their wasn’t a lot to sing about as our season was over around February, but the “who the fuck is laughing now”, chants from the Holmesdale show that we do at least slightly care about them.
But then again, do we think of them as rivals, or as more just counterparts that we’ve had run-in’s with in the last couple of seasons? In short, I don’t think they are rivals to us. Not really anyway. We hate them in the same way that other clubs hate Man United, but whose to say if they hadn’t got relegated it wouldn’t have turned into a proper derby match – as, given time, more and more of the younger fans would grow up believing Charlton are our main rivals.
You have to ask, do rivalries really mean much these days? Hearing stories from my dad about several thousand Palace fans cramming into Brighton’s stadium you can immediately tell that they were full of passion, and that they really meant something. Now, when we do play the weeds, we can only bring 900 there – and the atmosphere at Selhurst is never exactly “electric”. And of course, we’ll sell out Charlton but given the way their stewards are like, is there any real chance of a Derby atmosphere?
All three teams – Charlton, Millwall and Brighton are below palace in the football league now, which begs the question: will another “rivalry” be established, against the likes of Watford or Qpr for example, or are those three enough for us? I doubt there will be another one, until one of those three – probably Millwall – makes it up. Who would we go for anyway?
I was hoping Millwall would go up – I’ve never had a chance to go the den, and yes you could call it a rough club full of thugs, but in a more positive light I think it means more to them than a lot of fans. For example, they show ten times the passion that fans of teams like Watford and QPR show, which is why we would never really be able to "hate" either of those clubs. It’s a good rivalry the Palace-Millwall one. With us and Charlton, their just isn’t enough history and although we do care, we probably don’t care as much as Charlton do. However, with Millwall, we know they have West Ham and they know we have Brighton, so we’re each other’s “2nd most hated” if you like, which does work well - although I suppose they do have Leeds aswell.
But do rivalries have a future in the game? Well of course they do, but times change. Football isn’t how it used to be – and, I’m only telling this from what I’ve heard, the rivalries just aren’t as good as they used to be. I’ll always hate Brighton, but I don’t think it’s possible to hate them as much as my dad and other supporters of his generation do – due to the history they have in prior matches between Palace and Brighton, and the huge amount of passion associated with them - something that just isn't possible nowadays