Football is a game filled with passion. There is no one who takes to the pitch but isn’t interested in winning, which can mean a level of frustration boiling over if it is perceived that someone else on your team isn’t pulling their weight.
Add in the natural level of competitiveness that will be there within each squad and it is perhaps only surprising that more fights don’t break out between people who are on the same side as one another.
When it does happen, though, it tends to be big news, with everyone knowing what’s happened, even if the reason as to why it’s happened remains unknown.
Idrissa Gueye v Michael Keane
Given the fact that the two teams are often friendly on account of the fact that they both hate Liverpool, it might come as something of a surprise to some that a fight broke out between two people on the same team during a match between Manchester United and Everton at Old Trafford in the November of 2025. A misplaced pass from Idrissa Gueye led to the United captain Bruno Fernandes having a chance on goal. A confrontation erupted between Gueye and Michael Keane, during which Keane pushed Gueye away and Gueye responded by slapping his teammate.
Idrissa Gueye is sent off for hitting his own teammate Michael Keane 😲🟥 pic.twitter.com/kLsC8caK0I
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) November 24, 2025
Tony Harrington, the referee for the match, spotted the incident and brandished a red card just 13 minutes into the game. Everton manager David Moyes was forced to make his second change, having already been forced to replace Seamus Coleman because of an injury. As Jordan Pickford and Iliman Ndiaye had to hold Gueye back from an attempted to carry on the argument with Keane, the Video Assistant Referee checked the footage and confirmed the referee’s decision. Remarkably, Everton actually took a 1-0 lead through Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and left with all three points.
Ricardo Fuller v Andy Griffin
The referee’s decision to brandish a red card to Gueye for a slap on his own teammate represented a period of nearly 17 years since the previous sending off for an altercation between two people who were supposed to be on the same side. You have to go back to the December of 2008 for the previous one, which saw Stoke City taking on West Ham United in London. Stoke had taken the lead at the Boleyn Ground, but a mistake from captain Andy Griffin saw Carlton Cole break free and equalise. Clearly annoyed, Ricardo Fuller slapped Griffin in the face.
The consequence was a red card from the match referee, who was given no choice after the manner in which Fuller failed to keep his emotions in check. The Jamaican striker later claimed that he was provoked before unleashing physical violence on his team’s captain, declaring that Griffin had been ‘very rude and disrespectful’. The Jamaican was Stoke City’s leading goalscorer at the time, having netted six times, but a three-match ban as well as a fine from the club followed, although he did remain with the Potters for another four years and scored 43 league goals in total.
Kieron Dyer v Lee Bowyer
It was only three years or so prior that one of the most infamous examples of teammates fighting one another occurred in a Premier League match. Newcastle United had already conceded three goals to Aston Villa at St James’ Park, so it’s fair to say that the mood in the ground wasn’t the best. The Magpies had also already been reduced to ten men because of Steven Taylor’s decision to handle in the penalty area, which had also seen them concede a second after Juan Pablo Angel’s opener. It was after the third went in that Kieron Dyer and Lee Bowyer squared up to one another.
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The Newcastle manager at the time, Graeme Souness, was certainly no stranger to on-field conflict after his own combustible career, but even he seemed to be shocked by what he witnessed as the two threw fists at one another. It resulted in both men being sent off, leaving the home side with just eight men. The fight happened because Bowyer accused his teammate of not passing to him, to which Dyer responded ‘it’s because you’re shit’. Players from both teams attempted to separate them, but Bowyer received a seven match ban on account of the fact that it was his second red of the campaign.
Graeme Le Saux v David Batty
The 1994-1995 season had been a remarkable one for Blackburn Rovers who, under the management of Kenny Dalglish, had been able to steal the Premier League title from the grasp of Manchester United. It meant that Rovers could take part in the Champions League the following season, which is where the bust-up in question took place. The new season saw the defending champions having won just one of their first six Premier League games, having failed to win away from home in any competition by the time mid-November rolled around, when they travelled to Moscow.
@thefootballhistorian David Batty vs. Graeme Le Saux 🥊 #davidbatty #graemelesaux #blackburn #blackburnrovers #championsleague #spartakmoscow #footballfigths #football #footballedit #footballtogether #footballquotes #soccer #footy #footyedit #footballhistory #footballhistorian #footballtiktok #footytiktok #soccertiktok ♬ original sound – The-Football-Historian
Going up against Spartak Moscow in the middle of November meant that the temperate had already dropped before David Batty stepped across the ball to stop it from going out of play. Graeme Le Saux also wanted to keep the ball and didn’t see Batty, so the two collided. Batty called his teammate ‘selfish’, which resulted in the left-back throwing a punch at his midfield teammate, requiring Tim Sherwood to break the two up. It was about as pure an example of a season