Draft:DVTK-Nyíregyháza Rivalry

DVTK-Nyíregyháza is a football rivalry between DVTK and Nyíregyháza Spartacus. The rivalry is regarded as one of the most fierce and hostile rivalries in Hungarian football, with violence, riots and hooliganism often being palpable when the two teams play each other. The fixture is often coloquially referred to as the „Eastern El-clásico", due to both teams hailing from the North-Eastern part of Hungary. The roots of the rivalry can be traced back to the social and cultural differences of the cities, and counties that the two teams represent, namely Miskolc and Nyíregyháza respectively.

The Rivalry
The first time the two clubs met was in 1946, in the 2nd Division of Hungarian Football, and DVTK would win both games that season, beating their soon-to-be arch rivals 2:4 away, and stunning them 6-1 at home. Due to the teams not being in the same division, the next time the fixture took place was in August of 1980, in a game which also happened to be the first ever top-flight match of Nyíregyháza, with the newbies of the 1st Division defeating DVTK in front of 20,000 spectators, an attendance figure that remains the highest when it comes to the rivalry. The teams would both stay in the top-flight for the next 4 years, with both of them being relegated at the end of the 1983/84 season, a season marred by controversy, with several teams coming under allegations of match fixing. As a result of this, both teams would start their 2nd division campaign with a -4 point deficit. Over the following years, the clubs came close to being promoted back to the 1st division on numerous occasions, but it was DVTK who managed to clinch a 2nd place finish in 1991, 7 points above Nyíregyháza, thus achieving promotion.

1990/91 season, 2nd division, Eastern conference top 4 table: Nyíregyháza would follow suit the following season, getting promoted via 2nd place as well, finishing 3 points behind their second biggest rivals, Békéscsaba. Their return to the 2nd division was short-lived, with both clubs being simultaneously relegated in 1993, with Nyíregyháza only managing to come away with a win 3 times that season, and managing to collect a mere 18 points. In 1997, the clubs were once again embroiled in a promotion battle. Nyíregyháza managed to defeat Diósgyőr 1-0 in the penultimate game of the season, and were looking destined for a return to the first division. However, against all the odds, they lost 3-0 to Salgótarján, while DVTK, who were facing a 2 point deficit from Nyíregyháza going into the game, managed to collect the 3-points needed to overtake Nyíregyháza by a single point, by defeating Szolnok, thus returning to the top-flight. One year later, in the 1997/98 season, Nyíregyháza finally fulfilled their dream of returning to the coveted top-flight once again, this time achieving promotion as champions, finishing 2 points above Dunaferr. In 2000, DVTK finished 16th, meaning the drop to the 2nd division was inevitable again, however, this time, the consequences were much more severe, as this pushed the club to the brink of bankruptcy, and were only saved by the finances of Borsod Volán. In the same season, Nyíregyháza managed to finish an impressive 9th, which meant that for the first time in history, they would be several divisions above their rivals from Miskolc, as DVTK would start the following season in NB3.

In 2004, the two clubs both returned to the 1st division, finishing yet again 1 point within each other, but Nyíregyháza would go straight back down in 2005, being 4 points from safety. In 2007, led by former DVTK coach, Gálhidi György, the red and blues won their third 2nd-division title, finishing above record-champions, Ferencváros. In 2009, DVTK got the better of Nyíregyháza by a 1-0 win, their first win over their rivals in the 1st division since 1999. At the end of the 2009/10 NB1 season, both teams finished in the relegation zone, with DVTK collecting an astonishingly low 17 points over the course of the season, spoiling their centenary year. The following season, DVTK won their first 2nd division title since 1974, and got promoted again, while finishing 6 points above fellow Borsod-county team, Mezőkövesd, and 8 points above Spartacus. Inconceivably, the two teams scored and conceded the exact same amount of goals that season, with both teams finishing the season with a goal difference of 66-23.

2010/11 season, 2nd Division, Eastern Conference top 4: The ensuing 3 seasons were the first time since Nyíregyháza's first stint in the top-flight in 1980, that the fixture was not held for consecutive years (due to the two teams being in different levels of the hungarian football league system). In 2014, Nyíregyháza were promoted as champions again, but their stay in the 1st Division was once again, cut short, due to the hungarian football federation changing the number of teams in the top division from 16 to 12 at the end of the season, and not giving them the license needed to be eligible to play top-flight football, which meant that they started the 2015/16 season in the 3rd Division. In 2021, after a lengthy hiatus, the fixture took place again, with DVTK suffering relegation after a club-record 10 consecutive top-flight seasons. In 2023, DVTK won the 2nd Division, and were promoted as champions. Nyíregyháza would follow suit in 2024, meaning that after almost a decade, the "Eastern El-Clásico" is returning to the hungarian top-flight.

Results in the 1st Division
Below is a list of every top-flight fixture between DVTK and Nyíregyháza.