You can give me the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics, or the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Redskins. All three are great, if not historical sports rivalries that have transcended time and history. That much I can’t argue. But no rivalry in sports can compete with the level of history and personal, social, and cultural animosity that exists between La Liga powerhouses FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.

You can try to argue against that but you’ll ultimately fail. Like it or not, Barcelona vs Madrid is more than just a game between two teams. It represents so much more than just 20 men passing the ball around a football field and two more manning the opposite goal posts. Football, or any other sport for that matter, may be a respite for a lot of people from their everyday lives. Two hours to forget about everything and focus entirely on what’s in front of them. But that doesn’t happen whenever Barcelona and Real Madrid plays. Quite the contrary, actually.

I’m not going to dive deep into the political tension between Barcelona and Madrid. That would be a different bag full of worms entirely. But I do know that there’s incredible political tension between the two cities, one representing Spanish nationalism (Madrid) while the other viewed as representing Catalan nationalism (Barcelona). Supporters of both sides view the others as rebels to the country’s cause,  with some even taking that ideology to extents that lead to inevitable hostility.

So you can imagine what it must feel like when these people flock either Camp Nou and the Bernabeu Stadium to root for the home squad and raise holy hell on the away side. The cheers and jeers aren’t fabricated, nor are they canned as some NBA teams are allegedly doing. What you hear during an El Clasico is as real as it is vile, born from a disdain of opposing beliefs and the feeling that the home squad they cheer for are the vanguards of their perceived superiority over the other.