Dynamic local rivalries

[scythian12]

As far as I understand, dynamic competitive rivalries can form ingame if two teams are on a similar reputation level and compete regularly for the same competitions. I would like to propose a similar system for local rivalries and also possible to implement on the lower levels of the game. The inspiration comes from the fact that the German press (and to some extent the participating players and staff as well) refer to games between football clubs which are relatively near each other as "derbies" even if these pairings have no historical rivalry associated with them. When Unterhaching plays Ingolstadt or Regensburg (or last year Ulm) in the 3. Liga, there is always a heightened level or reporting and expectation before these games, even though on the surface there should not be. My suggestion would be that the game should look evaluate (at least in league competitions) each year the average distance between the participants and foster a growing rivalry for teams which relative distance to each other is much smaller than the average or overall distance in the entire league. The value this rivalry receives should grow each year when they play in the same division and should also be proportional (maybe even exponential) to how close the teams are in comparison to the league average. The rivalry should wane if the teams drift apart in the competition landscape or if their distance to each other is not as close in relation to the others anymore. (With the above example, in the Bavarian Regional division, an Unterhaching-Ingolstadt game would not constitute a derby). The game should possibly also check that you cannot become rivals of a rival (the enemy of my enemy is my friend), to stop a ManU-Everton rivalry forming for instance.