why is a a football match between teams geographically close to each other called a "derby"?

Answer 1

Derby is a greek word (previous answer)??? Utter nonsense!!! The most likely derivation is from a very long established game of something vaguely resembling football which is held in Ashbourne, in the county of Derbyshire every Shrove Tuesday. The entire male population of the village (as was, now a town) used to divide into two teams and the game was played between goals about 2 miles apart - basically it was an excuse for a good old brawl. The term 'Derby' has thus come to mean a match between two sides in close proximity. There is also a possible explanation that the original Derby was between two church sides in the city of Derby itself.

Answer 2

The term derby was first used as a term for a sporting contest, having been derived from the world's oldest horserace. So originally a local derby was merely a contest between two local teams, but it has since evolved to mean a local rivalry.

Answer 3

it is what is called from the past , it is not a new thing

Derby is a Greek word means the { close battle }, and used to describe the wars between the neighbors in the history

but then it changed and used for games and sport, in the mean of games to the close teams , in the same city

hope you get the point
take care
bye

Answer 4

Rogerb, the derby horse race was so called because it was originally a race beteween horses owned by two neighbouring owners, and only comprised two horses at first, it later built up to the racce we now have, so the term DERBY for a contest between 2 neighbouring people of towns came earlier, see the wikipedia definition.

Answer 5

Interesting question. There are several answers that I found so follow the links below.

Answer 6

I thought such a game was called a "backyard rivalry". Maybe it's called both.