Football's 90 minutes are a physical and mental test. Sometimes those means of exertion collide to create frantic flashpoints that live long in the memories of fans far and wide.
Some players take competition to the next level with their skill, others with physicality. In the latter, sporting boundaries can be over-stepped – and as you'll read within – all hell can break loose.
In this list, Football FanCast takes a look at some of the most memorable scuffles to take place on a football field, based on the brutality on show, the shock factor, and what was on the line.
10 Copa Libertadores carnage November 2023, Maracana
For top leagues all over the world, VAR tries its best to police the dark side of the game. Yet as this first inclusion shows, South American football often still holds a combative approach rumbling under the surface of any world-beating skill on display.
When Boca Juniors and Fluminense came together earlier this year for the grand final of the Copa Libertadores, it just seemed tensions were destined to boil over. A Brazilian team battling it out for South American club football's biggest footballing accolade? Against Argentinian opposition? At Brazilian football's Mecca? It was almost too good to be true.
Tempers flared on the pitch while Liverpool-linked Andre sauntered forward with the ball as two players wrestled like scrapping siblings on the floor. Another flashpoint in the game involved yet another high-potential prospect from the continent.
As a Boca corner came in, Manchester City and Brighton target Valentin Barco clearly headbutted Fluminense's veteran midfielder P.H. Ganso. To tell you all you need to know – the seemingly attempted assault featured below wasn't even brought back for a foul. Ridiculous.
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ByJack Salveson HolmesDec 5, 2023 9 The 'Battle of the Bridge' sees multiple brawls May 2016, Stamford Bridge
Next on this list of football fights comes Chelsea and Tottenham's descent into nonsense at the close of the 2015/16 Premier League season.
In a huge season-defining fixture, Tottenham needed a result to push fairytale league leaders Leicester City to the very last, as they had games in hand. Chelsea, on the other hand, had suffered a season to forget. Down in tenth, the reigning champions had languished in mid-table all term. José Mourinho had been sacked in December, while the previous season's PFA Player of the Year, Eden Hazard, had waited until April to merely open his league account.
For the Blues, it was one thing to have an underwhelming campaign. It was entirely worse, however, if Spurs tasted victory too. Before matchday 36, some figures around the west London club made this sentiment abundantly clear.
“The fans, the club, the players – we don’t want Tottenham to win the Premier League.”
(Eden Hazard)
As half-time approached, Chelsea's talk was seemingly for nothing as Harry Kane and Son Heung-min had made it 0-2 in rather comfortable fashion. However, a 'sensitive' Spurs (as Pochettino later recited) somehow lost their heads and a veritable Royal Rumble began as a result of Danny Rose's nasty challenge on Willian.
After this outburst of clearly tetchy Tottenham energy, Chelsea could sense a change in momentum. This was ultimately capped with Gary Cahill's deft finish on the hour before Eden Hazard's top-right-corner mastery, which had Leicester City players celebrating in viral scenes with just seven minutes to go at Stamford Bridge.
8 Match gets abandoned at the 'Battle of Bramall Lane' March 2002, Bramall Lane
Back in 2002's English First Division (now the Championship), Sheffield United's clash with West Bromwich Albion trumps Chelsea's Spurs scrap and actually went as far as being abandoned. Ahead of the game, United were comfortably mid-table with neither promotion nor relegation possible. Albion were fighting for promotion to the Premier League. Before this, there was no history of a rivalry, neither was there a local aspect.
However, one man was instrumental in changing all that.
United goalkeeper Simon Tracey was sent off for deliberate handball and Neil Warnock sent on Dutch substitute 'keeper, Wilko de Vogt, for striker Peter Ndlovu. Surely, it'd be fair to suggest Bramall Lane's residents were just out to survive with 10-men? No.
After West Brom strode two in front with goals from Scott Dobie and Derek McInnes, Warnock again looked to his bench. French-born Cape Verde international Georges Santos and Patrick Suffo emerged from the bench in an attempt to drag back the equilibrium.
Santos entered the game, far from calm. After suffering a broken eye socket in a previous encounter with WBA midfielder Andy Johnson, a loose McInnes ball presented the perfect opportunity for some Santos skullduggery. Johnson approached the ball, and with Santos closing in, he was like a deer in the headlights.
In comes the tackle. It's murderously knee-high, and two feet are firmly engaged. As a brawl breaks out, Suffo tag-teams Santos and headbutts an angry McInnes, leaving him bloodied. Santos and Suffo get red-carded back to the bench from which they came. Yet United wouldn't have to play with eight for long. Rob Ullathorne and Michael Brown then got injured, and with Sheffield United down to six, referee Eddie Wolstenholme was forced to draw the carnage to a close.
It was the first time a match in English professional football had ever been abandoned through a team's insufficient numbers.
7 Teammates Graeme Le Saux and David Batty scrap November 1995, Luzhniki Stadium
The next featured contretemps come 28 years ago, as Graeme Le Saux and David Batty came to blows. Fighting each other as teammates, the scuffle brought Blackburn's Champions League away visit to Spartak Moscow into disrepute and painted a wider picture of squad dynamics behind the scenes.
The Champions League was a pleasant add-on to a season marred by mediocrity. Well, it was supposed to be, anyway. Partaking in a winnable group alongside Rosenborg, Legia Warsaw and Spartak Moscow, hopes were high. Yet after three losses in a row and a quiet 0-0 draw in Poland, chances of progression weren't looking good.
In this game at the Luzhniki Stadium, internal frustrations came to the fore. Blackburn were determined against their already-qualified opposition and chased every ball. However, such was the determination that Graeme Le Saux and David Batty even tackled each other. The two collided just four minutes into the game and instead of getting up and brushing themselves down – a nasty exchange followed. Le Saux took exception and started a punch-up that could've been much worse had Tim Sherwood not been there to break it up. Spartak ran out 3-0 winners.
6 Newcastle duo Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer come to blows April 2005, St James' Park
From one teammate scrap to another now, as 2005's April showdown between Newcastle United and Aston Villa brought the Magpies' midfield into an on-field frenzy. Perhaps the most notorious same-team duel in Premier League history, Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer traded blows in a poor performance against the Villans when the no-nonsense midfielder felt his junior was deliberately not passing him the ball.
In this game under Graeme Souness, Newcastle had the chance to put breathing space between themselves and the bottom half of the table after taking seven points from their last three matches. However, as the clock ticked past a mere five minutes, the Magpies were one down thanks to Juan Pablo Angel capitalising on black-and-white defensive ineptitude. On 73 minutes, Steven Taylor was then comically sent off for handling the ball and then acting like he'd been shot.
Gareth Barry scored the resulting penalty for 2-0, and then another spot-kick seven minutes later before inward frustrations from the hosts burst out with Bowyer and Dyer as the video below shows.
5 Dion Dublin plants headbutt on Robbie Savage March 2003, Villa Park
Back in his playing career, Dion Dublin scored a superb 45 goals with his head. However, he likely regretted none of them as much as the one he inflicted in the Second City derby of 2003. This edition of mercurial Dublin wasn't heading at the goal. as he connected sweetly with the pointed face of Robbie Savage rather than a Mitre size five.
The long-locked Welshman was on the end of a nasty derby day tackle. While remonstrating, Savage just frustrated his clearly pent-up hitman even more. Dublin focussed his sights on him and BOSH.
4 "Serves you right for Muscat" – Warnock's Blades have last laugh December 2004, The Den
Our next featured incident is a moment quoted by football-loving schoolboys all across the land. While a key soundbite from the deep arsenal of a solid Neil Warnock impression, the above saying came to life back in December 2004's battle between Millwall and Sheffield United at The Den.
Notorious Australian troublemaker Kevin Muscat was the key aggressor in this one, as for a spell, his wrath put the game into a complete descent of carnage. Going into the break goalless, the Millwall man took frustrations from a frenetic game out on chirpy Blades goalkeeper Paddy Kenny. Fighting in the tunnel saw Kenny with "a big blown-up head where someone has headbutted him" and an alleged Millwall player with a full water bottle "thumping people."
As the clip above shows, United scrapped through a rough-and-tumble second half despite Kenny and Muscat's dismissals. Phil Jagielka ended up in goal (as there was no fit sub goalkeeper) for the visitors and conceded from Mark Phillips before Andy Liddell's powerful free kick levelled. A 30-yard scorcher from Derek Geary saw points at the Den go back north for the first time in 20 years, and Warnock prowling at the full-time whistle. He shook the opposition's hands and smirked, "serves you right for Muscat."
3 Maradona's Blaugrana brawl against Bilbao May 1984, Santiago Bernabéu
We're at the business end of the list now: box office stuff. May 1984's Copa del Rey final at the Santiago Bernabéu pitted Diego Maradona's Barcelona against Basque side Athletic Bilbao, but it wasn't a standard outing.
There was a bit of needle there. Andoni Goikoetxea – or the aptly named 'Butcher of Bilbao' – broke Maradona's ankle in 1983, and it was the first time the feisty Argentine was able to exact revenge. He didn't get the result, yet he left with his dignity after a horrid hacking game against a physical Bilbao outfit.
In the game, the final score was 0-1 to Athletic, but Maradona felt his anger after the scruffy affair warranted the chance to level his own scores. There were frenetic scenes at the full-time whistle, where Diego attacked anyone he could.
2 Norman Hunter's showdown with Francis Lee November 1975, The Baseball Ground
In ice hockey, there are fights galore, and when in combat, the phrase 'the gloves are off' springs to mind. This was no different in November 1975, when notorious bruiser Norman Hunter of Leeds, and forward Francis Lee of Derby had a downright fist-fight during a game. There were no gloves to speak of, yet the way the commotion was sparked drives parallels of two padded ice-bound behemoths striking blows as the game swirls around them.
Hunter had fouled Lee in the Leeds penalty area, resulting in a penalty that Charlie George scored. Clearly, after this tackle had kicked off some on-field needle, back-and-forth evolved into fisticuffs and the ref stopped the (first) fight between the pair for bookings.
It didn't stop with the flash of yellow, though. As soon as the referee turned his back, the pair were at it again. Both sets of players joined in the ruckus and Hunter was ushered away while the Jack Russell-like Lee was restrained. He too was taken away after this, yet came off worse. Lee required four stitches and was banned for four weeks.
1 Graeme Souness breaks Lica Movila's jaw April 1984, Anfield
Earlier, Souness was presented as a figure of authoritative calm when his two Newcastle players scrapped it out. However, when Kieron Dyer and Lee Bowyer were getting dragged through media scrutiny, they likely had a Souness highlight reel that hinted at the pot calling the kettle black.
The Scotsman was not averse to having it out on the pitch. That was the thinking back in 1984's European Cup semi-final first leg against Dinamo Bucharest – when Reds captain Souness went to war against Lica Movila's jaw.
Sammy Lee's goal gave Liverpool the lead 25 minutes in, and with 20 minutes to go, the tie was still in the balance heading into the second leg. As a Liverpool attack went awry, Souness reached boiling point after a game of repeated snide jabs from Movila – a man who was the last one back as his side broke clear…
“Movila was the worst of the lot. He kicked everything that moved and three times caught me with punches off the ball. I’d had enough.” (Graeme Souness)
Where Movila perhaps thought his dark arts were working, he had in fact been too effective. Plus, the line that the Bucharest captain had been treading, as well as banking that Souness wouldn't breach, had simply been kicked away in the Anfield turf. With one more shirt pull, the midfielder was quite literally picking his jaw up off the floor.
With the ref (and camera) moving with the play, Souness picked his moment to strike. He connected sweetly, yet like a sly assassin, quickly evaded the scene. By the time the referee had seen the man down, Souness was 40 yards away – signalling cleverly that his victim's cries of anguish were more trademark displays of gamesmanship. It doesn't get much more brutal than that.