Do Quidditch rivalries exist in the Wizarding World?

Question

Like in muggle sports there are rivalries between two teams, most of the times due to historic reasons or sometimes given rise by fans or media. Do such rivalries exist in quidditch?

For example, in cricket India vs. Pakistan is considered match with intense rivalry due to ongoing border conflicts since 1947. In football, at club level, Real Madrid vs. Barcelona is one such rivalry. In such rivalries, players, fans and media from both sides will be at intense level of craziness as well as dedication.

Sometimes, there is no rivalry between 2 teams, but due to certain event, match between those two teams are termed important.

For example, in cricket, Australia once scored 435 runs in 1st inning. This was 1st time in history that some team had scored such high runs (world record at that time) in One Day International match. Everyone considered this one sided match as South Africa though good team would succumb to Australian bowling. But South African team actually chased that high score and again broke the record by scoring 438 to defeat Australia. Since then, cricket match between Australia and South Africa has achieved a different status, though not rivalry.

Gryffindor vs. Slytherin is at school level, is there any mention of such rivalry at international level?

Answer 1

Yes.

There are at least two examples in Quidditch through the Ages:

• Among the British and Irish teams:

  There is traditionally fierce rivalry between the Arrows and the Wimbourne Wasps (see below).

  The description of the Wasps explains why they don’t get along so well:

  They are alleged to have taken their name from a nasty incident which occurred during a match against the Appleby Arrows in the mid-seventeenth century, when a Beater flying past a tree on the edge of the pitch noticed a wasps' nest among the branches and batted it towards the Arrows' Seeker, who was so badly stung that he had to retire from the game.

• In a description of Quidditch in Australia:

  The Thundelarra Thunderers and the Woollongong Warriors have dominated the Australian League for the best part of a century. Their enmity is legendary among the Australian magical community, so much so that a popular response to an unlikely claim or boast is “Yeah, and I think I'll volunteer to ref the next Thunderer-Warrior game.”