Blood has also become a fundamental factor in opening disagreements in the support sphere. The first football conflicts arose in Venezuela precisely on the basis of national disagreements. Back in the era of amateur football, the matches of the three teams were collectively called Clasico Europeo for a very simple reason – each of these clubs was formed by a European community.
The Italians founded Deportivo Italia (now the club is called Deportivo Petare), the Portuguese – Deportivo Portugues (disbanded in 1985), and the Galician migrants from Spain – Deportivo Galicia (legally reorganized into the Aragua team in 2002).
It was against the background of the struggle of all these southern Europeans that the Venezuelans got an idea of \u200b\u200bfootball as such – in the country itself, baseball and basketball have historically been much more popular sports.
Strong interest in football
In Venezuela, he woke up at the beginning of the 2000s and was associated with the so-called “Boom of Vinotinto”, a significant and qualitative progress of the national team. At the 2007 Copa America, La Vinotinto managed to make it to the playoffs, at the 2011 Copa America the national reached the semi-finals, and in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers, the Venezuelan national team for the first time came close to winning a ticket to the World Cup.
Thus, “Boom Vinotinto” became a real vector breakthrough, having managed to open up a sport that was once not very popular in their country in a new way for Venezuelans.
The classic national derby of Venezuela
It is positioned as a duel between the two most popular clubs in the country – the capital Caracas and the Deportivo Tachira team, representing the city of San Cristobal. This confrontation is only 30 years old, but Clasico Nacional has already managed to bring the biggest football unrest in the history of Venezuela.
On December 10, 2000, Caracas defeated Depor 2-1 in the first final match for the national cup. The return match took place a week later in San Cristobal and local fans were eager to see their team win, but the game ended with a score of 2: 2, which means that the Copa Venezuela went to the capital.
On the field, the players grappled in hand-to-hand combat, a little later law enforcement officers joined them, and then supporters also ran onto the lawn. While the police successfully drove the athletes into the premises under the stands (where they continued the mass mahach without a shadow of embarrassment), Deportivo fans smashed and burned the bus of Caracas.
This incident gave a powerful impetus to the formation of the Barras Bravas Institute in Venezuela. Founded in 1997 and basically set fire to an enemy bass, the Avalancha Sur (“Southern Avalanche”) group instantly gained shocking fame.
At the same time, the Los Demonios Rojos (“Red Devils”) gang of the capital, which was born in 1989, who, despite a serious numerical minority, tried to protect the players of Caracas during the famous incident, became real heroes in the metropolitan sector.
Thus, 15 years ago, the Venezuelan Clasico Nacional passed the status of a purely sporting rivalry and stepped into the framework of a real football war: with its “third halves”, with its goals, with its own history and with its own heroes.
Clasico Lara – Zamora
Fights between clubs Deportivo Lara and Zamora, one of the most popular teams in the west of the country. The tension comes from the constant fighting between the fan groups Huracan Rojinegro (Red and Black Hurricane, Deportivo Lara) and La Burra Brava (The Brave Donkey, Zamora).
Interestingly, the barra brava of Zamora consists of individual mobs, which is not so characteristic of the organized hooliganism of South America.
Clasico del Oriente
Fights between teams from the east of the country. This term is usually used to refer to matches in which Deportivo Anzoategui, Monagas (this club is known for copying the colors and emblem of Barcelona) and Deportivo La Guaira, referred to among fans as Real ESPOR (immigrants from Spain and Portugal who founded the team , originally took the name “Real”, adding the acronym ESPPOR to it, i.e. combining ESPana and POPtugal).
Highest risk matches in the country
Clasico Nacional, Clasico Lara – Zamora are considered, as well as a meeting between the clubs Deportivo Lara and Portugues. Despite the not the highest status of the confrontation.
It was in the clash between the fans of Deportivo Lara (Huracan Rojinegro) and Portuguesa (Lanceros Rojinegros) that the first murder of a football fan in Venezuela was committed. The games of Deportivo Lara and Portuguesa are referred to in the press as the “Red-Black Duel”, since these are the colors that are the main ones for the two clubs and their rabid fans.
Even at the beginning of their difficult journey, the guys from Huracan Rojinegro sang: “Our color is red, because it is blood; and our color is black, because it is death!”
Surprisingly, this gloomy thought turned out to be truly prophetic.