If you think Auburn-Alabama makes for a fierce rivalry, it’s an intrastate cuddle puddle compared to the Derby di Sicilia. Since 1935, the two most prominent soccer clubs in Sicily—Calcio Catania and Palermo Calcio—have fought for supremacy in what is less an annual Serie A soccer match than a tribal war. The games would, ritually, devolve into riots, the worst coming in 2007 when a policeman was killed as he tried to break up a brawl among fans outside Stadio Angelo Massimino.
In the wake of that tragedy, the Italian government took a dramatic step. It forced soccer teams with deficient security standards at their stadium to play their home games without spectators.