Metropolis Alligators is a professional Valladarfootball club based in Metropolis that plays in the Valladar Liga-1, the highest level of the Valladar football league system. Founded in 1916 as the football branch of the Royal University of Metropolis sporting club, which was disbanded in 1934 due to internal quarrels among university directives and students regarding the sports played within the club, it was refounded in 1956 under its current name by the brothers Alberto and Mario Limas, who were allowed by the University directives to claim the history, colours and achievements of the former club. In both of their incarnations, the Alligators were affiliated to the Asociación Distrital de Fútbol and competed in the District of Metropolis state championship, of which they were the winningest club in the amateur era. Metropolis Alligators were a founding member of the Valladar Super League, and have competed in the top flight every season. They play their home matches at the Alexander I National Stadium, Valladares' national stadium able to seat 95,021 people and located in the Metropolis suburb of Swangard, to the west of the federal capital.
Up to the 71st Valladar Liga-1 season, the Alligators have won 16 Liga-1 championships, tied with Fontvielle Impact for most domestic league titles. They also became the first Valladar winners of an international tournament, winning both the 29th Globe Cup and UICA Super Cup. The Alligators have fierce rivalries with fellow Metropolis clubs Marinos, Nacional, as well as Foixien teams Fontvielle Impact and AS Bezieres. The club's traditional kits are green and blue hoops, with white being the first colour choice for alternate kits.
Like their forefathers RUM SC, the core of Metropolis Alligators' fanbase has been mostly integrated by the Anglophone middle and high classes of northern Metropolis, as well as the inhabitants of the Livingstone borough, the historical cradle of both sides. However, as the team's success was piling up in both the amateur and professional eras, the popularity of the team extended beyond the well-off members of society and beyond Metropolis as well. Nowadays, it is said that there is no populated settlement in Valladares without an Alligators fan living in it.
Metropolis Alligators has two main crosstown rivals: Marinos Metropolis, who represent the middle and lower class Spanish-speaking areas of southern Metropolis and whom they face in the Derby Metropolitano, and Nacional, against whom they play the Derby Añejo and were the team's main rival in the amateur era. Meanwhile, there are growing and increasingly more intense rivalries with Fontvielle Impact, AS Bezieres, Tannenberg FC, and Eterna Stars. While the matches against TFC and the Stars are equivalent to confrontations between the three main cities in the country, and the one against Bezieres is known for being a competitive rivalry where both sides respect each other, the Alligators-Impact matches (now dubbed as Derby de Valladares) face the two winningest sides in Liga-1 against each other and have become increasingly heated on both sides of the rivalry. Bohemians Metropolis, also hailing from northern Metropolis, could also be considered a minor rival.
Olivier Bonilla