Local derbies in football get no closer than when the two teams share a home stadium. Think of the Derby della Madonnina, which pits AC Milan and Inter Milan against one another at the San Siro. And then there’s the Derby della Capitale between Lazio and Roma at the Stadio Olimpico.
But if we discount games between sides at the same venue, what becomes the shortest local derby in world football?
PSG vs Paris FC (10 metres)
The conclusion of the 2024/25 season has thrown up a new contender for that particular title. Paris FC have been promoted to Ligue 1 for the first time in 46 years following their ascension from French football’s second tier, which means that they will take on Paris St Germain – or PSG, as they’re often better known – in home and away contests in 2025/26. And the distance between their respective home stadia? Around ten metres, at most!
PSG play at the resplendent Parc des Princes, one of European football’s most iconic venues, while Paris FC will take up residence at the Jean-Bouin Stadium – the home ground of rugby union outfit Stade Francais – as their usual home, Stade Charlety, does not fit the bill as a Ligue 1 host.
Paris FC Moving on Up
Paris FC is officially promoted to Ligue 1… this is how close they’ll be from PSG next season 🏠🔥🏠 pic.twitter.com/4P0Pyd32D6
— Ligue 1 English (@Ligue1_ENG) May 2, 2025
The rivalry is fascinating, given that the two teams were once one – they split in 1972 after the board of the unified outfit fell out and decided to go it alone with two different clubs. While PSG have gone on to dominate French football, Paris FC have largely campaigned in the lower reaches – until, you perhaps won’t be surprised to learn, they were acquired by a rather wealthy benefactor.
Bernard Arnault, the founder of Louis Vuitton, is one of the richest people on the planet. He owns the majority stake in Paris FC, while Red Bull also has a minority share – together, they will likely bankroll the club to the very top of French football. But will they be able to surpass PSG? Only time will tell, but with just ten metres separating their home stadia – literally the width of a road, their local derbies in 2025/26 will have plenty of spice to them. So is PSG vs Paris FC the closest local derby in world football?
Nottingham Forest vs Notts County (400 metres)
While the two Paris stadia are separated by the width of a road, in Nottingham the city’s premier clubs are kept apart by the breadth of the River Trent. On one side, you have Nottingham Forest and their City Ground home. On the other, there’s Notts County and their Meadow Lane venue. Separating them is the River Trent, its banks and some car parking space… which amounts to about 400 metres, as the crow flies.
Their rivalry is understandably fierce as a result, although the fluctuating fortunes of the two sides in modern times means that their paths have rarely crossed – by our reckoning, a League Cup tie back in 2011 was the last time that they played a competitive game.
You have to go back a few more decades to find the last occurrence of the two Nottingham teams playing in the same league. That happened in 1993/94, when Forest were promoted to the Premier League as the Championship’s runners-up… Notts County, meanwhile, missed out on a play-off place by just three points.
Dundee FC vs Dundee United (273 metres)
The localist of local derbies in British football takes place in Scotland, where the respective homes of Dundee FC and Dundee United can be found on the same round… albeit on different sides and around 273 metres apart. Dundee play at the Scot Foam Stadium – better known, when stripping away the commercialism, as Dens Park, while Dundee United’s home is Tannadice Park. And you could, feasibly, build a bridge over Tannadice Street and connect the two… not that either would want that, of course.
They say familiarity breeds contempt, which is true of the Scottish Premiership, where the teams can play each other up to four times per season. But the bad blood between the sides from Dundee is guaranteed anyway due to their proximity – this is one of the closest derbies on planet football.
But for how much longer will it be played? It’s thought that Dundee FC plan to move from Dens Park and establish a new base at the out-of-town Camperdown Park… a mammoth three miles away from Tannadice. Incidentally, the proximity of this Dundee rivalry is matched, metre for metre, by that of Malmo FF and IFK Malmo in Sweden.
They also find themselves about 275 metres apart, although Malmo FF’s 22,000 capacity stadium stands tall against IFK Malmo’s 14,000 venue. This rivalry is fairly good-natured: the two sides don’t play each other that often; in fact, they haven’t had a competitive fixture since 1986. When Malmo FF vacated their former Malmo Stadion home in 2009, they handed the keys over to IFK… so this is as amiable a local rivalry as you’re likely to find in football.
FC Copenhagen vs Boldklubben 1893 (209 metres)
The home stadia of Danish giants FC Copenhagen and second-tier outfit Boldklubben 1893 are separated, quite literally, by a running track. The latter’s Osterbro Stadion is dwarfed by the former’s 38,000 Parken Stadium home, which at various times of the day casts a literal and metaphorical shadow over Boldklubben 1893’s quaint little venue.
The two teams rarely meet on the field due to the sheer gulf in class between them, although they were drawn against each other in a Danish domestic cup competition in 2017, with FC Copenhagen running out 3-0 winners. The average attendance at Boldklubben 1893 is around 1,800, while FC Copenhagen bring in around 28,000 paying punters each week. So, beyond their incredibly close proximity, there’s not a great deal to link the two geographical rivals.
