The Derbi de la Comunitat ("Derby of the Community"), or the

Valencian Country The Valencian Community is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid wit ...

Derby, is a regional football rivalry in Spain between

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

clubs

Valencia CF Valencia Club de Fútbol, S. A. D. (; ), commonly referred to as Valencia CF or simply Valencia, is a Spanish professional Association football, football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top tier of the Spani ...

and

Villarreal CF Villarreal Club de Fútbol, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D., usually abbreviated to Villarreal CF, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Villarreal, in the Province of Castellón, Castellón province of easte ...

. Separated by , historically the clubs maintained a friendly relationship since they were always in different divisions and rarely faced each other. However, a rivalry began in 1997 when billionaire

Fernando Roig Fernando Roig Alfonso (born 25 June 1947) is a Spanish billionaire businessman, the owner and president of the Spanish football club Villarreal CF, Villarreal, owner and president of Spanish ceramic company Pamesa and owner of 9% of the Spanish ...

failed to succeed his brother Francisco as the owner of Valencia CF and controversially opted instead to buy Villarreal CF from the city of

Villarreal Villarreal (officially, in ) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's capital ( ...

. A relatively unknown team up to that point, Villarreal grew increasingly stronger under Roig's heavy investment, challenging Valencia's supremacy as the biggest club of the region, converting a once non-existent rivalry into the most important game in the autonomous community. Today the rivalry has evolved into a defining factor as to who is the best team to represent the local area in Spain and worldwide - their meetings include a

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

semi-final in 2004 and a

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

quarter-final in 2019 (both won by Valencia).

Head-to-head statistics

All-time results

League

Copa del Rey

Europe

Statistics

Top goalscorers

Appearances

References

{{Spanish football rivalries Football rivalries in Spain Valencia CF Villarreal CF Football in the Valencian Community Recurring sporting events established in 1986