Internacional and Grêmio are the protagonists of what many consider to be Brazil's biggest and most violent derby, the Gre-Nal. The hatred between the two clubs from Porto Alegre is on par with any other you can name from anywhere else in the world. Off the field however the teams share a surprising feature, they've almost always had the exact same sponsor who paid them the same exact amount.
Inter was the first of the two to have a sponsor on its jersey, a Brazilian private pension company called APLUB in 1983. Grêmio didn't get its first sponsor until 1988 with Coca-Cola. The following year, in 1989, Inter switched to Coca-Cola as well marking the first time the city rivals had the same sponsor.
In 1994 Coca-Cola as a whole decided to withdraw it's investment in Brazil and both clubs went their separate ways. Inter went back APLUB while Grêmio had Renner, a paint company.
The split was short lived, in 1998 both clubs got sponsorships from GM, in 2001 they switched to the local bank Banrisul, and since February of 2025 they are both sponsored by the online betting company Alfa. This means that now for 27 consecutive years, and 32 years total, the two city rivals have had the same sponsor.
So why does this happen? How is it that two clubs who absolutely despise each other allow this to happen and for so many years? The answer is simple, they have the lucidity to realize that they are stronger together then separate and it is the only way the can compete with clubs from stronger financial markets like São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
When a sponsor has the two biggest teams from all of the South of Brazil not only do they have a sort of monopoly but they are able to use both clubs together for marketing campaigns and activations. To put it simply, if Grêmio is worth "X" and Internacional is worth "X", together they are worth "3X" because there is added value in sponsoring both simultaneously. Additionally there is a real and true worry that if you only sponsor one of them the other half of the fans won't consume that product.
This story goes to show how even in one of the most heated derbies in the world, both on and off the pitch, when it comes to money there's always a path to collaboration.