South Wales Derby - History

History

The first match between the two sides took place on 7 September 1912 at Swansea Town's Vetch Field, a Southern Football League Division Two match ending in a 1–1 draw. Over the next two decades, as they rose to the national Football League, the clubs met frequently not only in league competition but also in the Welsh Cup as at the time they were two of the best Welsh teams and as such often progressed further into the tournament.

During the last few decades both clubs have been plagued by football hooliganism, notably Cardiff whose Soul Crew became notorious through their actions, and matches between the sides have often been marred by violence between the rival sets of supporters.

In September 1988, after seeing their side win in Swansea, a group of Cardiff fans were chased into the sea by a group of Swansea fans. Since then, Swansea fans mockingly suggest to their Cardiff City rivals that they "swim away", in reference to the event.

On 23 December 1993 a match between the two sides was dubbed 'The Battle Of Ninian Park' as Swansea fans were placed in the grandstand for the game. As Cardiff went up 1–0, The Swansea fans began ripping out seats and throwing them at the Cardiff supporters, which resulted in the home fans invading the pitch. The following day national news showing pictures of the violence shocked the nation, forcing the FAW to ban away fans from this fixture for several years, the first fixture in Britain to do so.

Although in recent years the hooligan violence of both sides has sharply decreased matches between the two sides can still see serious trouble, as such any games between the two teams are normally subject to a much higher level of policing than normal matches (bubble matches). A heavy police presence was also required when Swansea fans travelled to Cardiff when they played at the Millennium Stadium in the Football League Trophy final in 2006.

In recent years the South Wales derby has taken place less frequently as Cardiff City moved up the leagues whilst Swansea fell on bad times and nearly dropped out of the football league and hence avoided each other. The first derby to take place in just under a decade took place in the League Cup on 23 September 2008 with Swansea winning 1–0. The match saw sets of supporters from both clubs clash with police after the match. The return fixture, on 5 April 2009 at Ninian Park, was marred by referee Mike Dean being hit in the head by a coin thrown from the Cardiff crowd, as well as Cardiff fans clashing with police after the match. The violence led to 5 arrests on the day and more following the use of CCTV footage.

The first derby of the 2009–10 season on 7 November 2009 at the Liberty Stadium ended in a 3–2 win for Swansea and again saw crowd disturbance as hundreds of Swansea fans waited out side the ground for the Cardiff City fans to depart. This resulted in a total fifteen arrests were made during and after the match. Cardiff City fans also vandalised the North Stand in which they were placed for the game for the second year in a row. Seats and toilets were vandalised, pipe work ripped from walls and doors broken in the away fans' area. The cost of the damage is said to cost thousands of pounds. However, police praised the majority of supporters for their behaviour before, during and after the game which was attended by more than 18,000 fans. Divisional Commander for Swansea, Ch Supt Mark Mathias, who was in charge of policing the match, said: "The overwhelming majority of fans behaved extremely well."

The first South Wales derby in the Top Division will take place during the 2013-14 season, following Cardiff's promotion from Championship.