Ibrox Noise was amused to see the stats pertaining to the ‘dirtiest rivalry’ and learning Rangers v the other mob is well up among the worst in Europe.
While this list, delivered by BonusCodeBets, excludes the absolutely brutal South American leagues, nevertheless the stats for European rivalries sees Rangers and the other mob to be well up there.
For yellows, it’s fourth. For second yellows, joint second. For straight reds, a joint third. And for total red cards it’s joint third again.
As far UK goes, nothing comes close to Rangers v the other mob, although Arsenal Tottenham, statistically gets nearest.
The dirtiest rivalries? PSG Marseille, Lazio Roma, el-clasico, and Rangers the other mob.
Overall, the Old Firm is among the most undisciplined in the world but of course the stats, which only count the last 10 years, overlook Rangers’ disaster in 2012 and how that affected parity.
What does this mean for Sunday? Nothing we didn’t strictly already know – the match is absolutely the world’s most intense club rivalry, with only el-clasico matching it. No other UK derby even remotely comes anywhere near Rangers the other mob, even including the only other rivalry which could have staked a claim – Liverpool Man Utd.
But for pure red cards yellow cards etc, it’s hard to pick the clear worst, with all four of the top contenders matching each other for the most part.
Here’s the full list:
| Teams | Yellow Cards | Second Yellow Cards | Red Cards | Total Red Cards | Games | Yellow Cards per Game | Red Cards per game |
| PSG vs Marseille | 95 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 20 | 4.75 | 0.60 |
| Lazio vs Roma | 135 | 6 | 4 | 10 | 21 | 6.43 | 0.48 |
| Barcelona vs Real Madrid | 124 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 21 | 5.90 | 0.38 |
| Rangers vs Celtic | 115 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 24 | 4.79 | 0.33 |
| Arsenal vs Tottenham | 102 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 21 | 4.86 | 0.33 |
| Cardiff vs Swansea | 34 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 3.78 | 0.33 |
| Arsenal vs Chelsea | 84 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 21 | 4.00 | 0.29 |
| Newcastle vs Sunderland | 37 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 4.63 | 0.25 |
| Sheff United vs Sheff Wednesday | 10 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2.50 | 0.25 |
| Crystal Palace vs Brighton | 48 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 13 | 3.69 | 0.23 |
| Forest vs Leicester | 18 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 3.60 | 0.20 |
| AC Milan vs Inter Milan | 116 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 21 | 5.52 | 0.19 |
| Man United vs Liverpool | 78 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 21 | 3.71 | 0.19 |
| Aston Villa vs Birmingham City | 27 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 4.50 | 0.17 |
| Tottenham vs Chelsea | 93 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 21 | 4.43 | 0.14 |
| Bayern vs Dortmund | 80 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 21 | 3.81 | 0.14 |
| Fulham vs Chelsea | 22 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 2.75 | 0.13 |
| Everton vs Liverpool | 89 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 21 | 4.24 | 0.10 |
| Man City vs Man United | 88 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 21 | 4.19 | 0.10 |
| Brentford vs Fulham | 34 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 3.09 | 0.09 |
| West Brom vs Wolves | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2.50 | 0.00 |
Fascinating stuff!