Upon its admission into FIFA ranked 124th, Albania ascended to their peakWorld Ranking of 22nd in 2015. The country plays their home games in theArena Kombëtare in their capital city,Tirana.
Although it never played any matches, the Albania national football team existed before theAlbanian Football Association (Federata Shqiptare e Futbollit; FSHF) was created on 6 June 1930. Albania joinedFIFA during a congress held between 12 and 16 June. Albania was invited to play in the 1934 World Cup, but did not take part due to logistical problems.[5] Albania played its first international match againstYugoslavia in 1946, which ended in a 3–2 home defeat atQemal Stafa Stadium.[6] In 1946, Albania also participated for the first time in theBalkan Cup in which Albania won by beatingRomania 1–0 in the final.[7] In 1954, Albania was one of the founding members ofUEFA. Albania waited until 1962 to compete for the first time in a UEFA Euro Cup competition, and the reason being Albania got past the first leg against Greece, for political reasons forfeited the game winning twice 0-3 and 3-0 and in Total 6-0 on Aggregate, to qualify so for the first and only time so far, for the Round of 16 in a UEFA competition.[8][9][10] At the end of the tournament Albania ranked 9th in Europe.[11][12][13] Albania participated at the1964 Summer Olympics in theMen's qualification tournament, and closely lost both matches againstBulgaria in the preliminary round.[14] They would participate for the second and last time at the1972 Summer Olympics in which they facedRomania at theEuropean qualifiers in the playoffs. Albania would lose both matches narrowly, 2–1 in the first leg and at home in the second leg.[15][16]
After six years without playing any international matches, Albania entered the1982 World Cup, managing to finish second-to-last in the qualifying stages. For qualifying for the World Cup four years later, Albania beatBelgium inTirana 2–0 as well as drawingPoland inMielec 2–2.
InEuro 2008 qualifying, Albania defeatedLuxembourg twice, and also drew 2–2 withBelarus and 0–0 away withBulgaria. Albania's Euro campaign ended with a 6–1 loss away toRomania which resulted in the resignation of coachOtto Barić and his assistant.[21] In December 2007,Arie Haan was named Albania's head coach by signing a two-year contract for the2010 World Cup qualifiers. Albania won only one match, with seven points from ten matches and Haan was replaced byJosip Kuže in May 2009 following the end of the campaign.[22] However, Kuže failed to lead Albania to better results as the team ended theEuro 2012 qualifying with nine points from ten matches. With Kuže in charge, Albania recorded its second biggest win in history by defeatingCyprus 6–1 at home.[23] Josip Kuže parted ways with Albania after three and a half years, and in December 2011, Italian coachGianni de Biasi replaced him.[24] Albania was, at one point, second in the2014 World Cup qualifying group, but then lost toSlovenia andIceland, as well as at home againstSwitzerland, and drawing in Cyprus.[25]
Albania squad wearing the visitors' uniform, 2016.
^TheSerbia v Albania match was awarded as a 3–0 win to Albania, and Serbia were also deducted three points, after the match was abandoned at 0–0 because home fans invaded the pitch and attacked Albania players when a drone carried a pro-Albanian flag over the stadium.
In the tournament itself, Albania lost 1–0 toSwitzerland to an early header in the 5th Minute fromFabian Schär despite being one man down to an Red Card forLorik Cana Albania held it's ground as they came close to an equalizer asShkëlzen Gashi as he missed an sitter in front of goalieYann Sommer.[30][31] In the following match they lost 2–0 to the hostsFrance despite an close fought match being able to defend against the favourites until the last minutes conceding two goals fromDimitri Payet andGriezmann.[32][33] While they beat in the third Group match Romania 1–0 by an header scored fromArmando Sadiku before halftime, securing Albania's first ever win in aUEFA European Championship.[34][35] The team finished last among the third-placed teams and were eliminated in the group stage.[36]
At theUEFA Euro 2024.[45] They were drawn into a "group of death" againstSpain,Italy, andCroatia, all three opponents being Euros and World Cup medalists. With two losses to Spain and Italy and a draw against Croatia, the team finished at the bottom of their group and did not advance.[46]
The team's nickname is commonly known as "Kuqezinjtë" ("The Red and Blacks") During the period before 2016, the national teams of Albania and Kosovo exchanged players with each other due to the complexities of descent brought on by Kosovo's independence, leading supporters to refer to each team as the other team's "reserve" side.[47]
Albania's uniform colors are red and black, mirroring thenation's flag. The team typically wears red shirts, black shorts and red socks. Away kits are usually all-white, with red and black trimming.
On 24 March 2016, theAlbanian Football Federation unveiled a new jersey for the national team players, set to be worn during the forthcomingUEFA Euro 2016 tournament, hosted that year in France. Manufactured byMacron, the jersey redesign, labelled "Triumfi," was conceptualised by Tirana-based studio PIK Creative.[48][49]
For most of Albania's history, the home stadium wasQemal Stafa Stadium inTirana. Construction started in April 1939 during theItaly regime, lasted for three years but stopped briefly in August 1943 following thefall of fascist regime.[50] The stadium had anOlympic Stadium shape, as idealised byGherardo Bosio, a young fascist architect fromFlorence.[51] The stadium's initial capacity was 15,000, due to the fact that Tirana at that time had only 60,000 inhabitants.[51] It was named afterQemal Stafa, aHero of Albania inWorld War II.[52] The stadium was inaugurated officially on 7 October 1946 when Albania played its first competitive match against Yugoslavia.[53] Ever since then, a further 130 international matches took place in the stadium, with the last being a friendly against Georgia in November 2015.[54] In 2005, Cecilia de Marco and Elisabetta Lorusso, two young Italian students, called the stadium as "one of the strongest symbols of Italian impact in Albania".[50] In November 2013, Qemal Stafa Stadium was shut down by FIFA for not fulfilling international standards.[55] The stadium's demolition started in June 2016, and it was announced that it would be replaced byArena Kombëtare.[56]
The first international match at Loro Boriçi Stadium was played on 29 March 2003 againstRussia, with Albania winning 3–1.[19] In October 2014,Prime Minister of Albania,Edi Rama, promised the reconstruction of the stadium.[65] The stadium's construction started in May 2015 and finished in August 2016.[66] In 2016–17, the stadium served temporary as the home ofKosovo national team, due to stadiums inMitrovica andPristina being renovated and not meeting UEFA standards.[67]
This derby is otherwise known as Brotherly derby (Albanian:Derbi vëllazëror), or the Brotherly (Albanian:Vëllazërorja). The documented beginnings of this derby date back to World War II, specifically on 29 November 1942, where they played afriendly match as part of the celebrations for the 30th anniversary of the independence of Albania. The match ended with a 2–0 win for Tirana.[a][69][70]
This football rivalry between Albania and Serbia is mainly due tohistorical tensions between the two countries. It has been described as "one of the fiercest rivalries in the world". During theEuro 2016 qualifying phase, with Portugal, Denmark and Armenia, the Serbian crowd were chanting "kill, kill the Albanians"[71] and were throwing flares at the Albanian players, after which there was a clash between the two teams.[72]
A choreography of Tifozat Kuq e Zi in the national team's first match atElbasan Arena against Denmark in October 2014
Tifozat Kuq e Zi (Red and Black Fans) is a non-profitfootball supporters' association for the Albania national football team and various national team sportive activities.[73][74] It was founded on 25 December 2003.[73] In cooperation withFSHF, it organises trips for football fans to visit games, and develops and sells merchandise to support itself and fund sporting related projects.
The ongoing dispute between the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports and the Football Federation of Albania has been seen as a political intrusion byFIFA andUEFA, which led to the banning of Albania from international sportive activities. FSHF presidentArmand Duka is highly unwanted by the TKZ who have numerously asked for his resignation believing he is responsible for internal corruption in theAlbanian Football Federation.[77][78][79][80]
The TKZ have been praised by many different football players and managers, whom were not just Albanian. One example is with Switzerland's former coach,Ottmar Hitzfeld, who was astonished by how many Albanian fans turned up and how enthusiastic they were in2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying match betweenSwitzerland and Albania where the Swiss won 2–0 thanks to goals fromGökhan Inler and Kosovo-bornXherdan Shaqiri. He didn't believe that there was 12,000 Albanian fans in the stands which was more than how many Swiss fans turned up for the game. He stated that "Albanian fans are fantastic and the most passionate fans I have ever seen".[81] During that campaign, TKZ attended all games Albania played apart from a match againstCyprus inNicosia and were also large in numbers in the away games toSlovenia inMaribor andNorway in Oslo.[82][83][84]
^The alternative name of the Albania national team that was used during this match.[68]
^Additional matches are scheduled to be played inArgentina,Paraguay, andUruguay in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of thefirst world cup, however they are not considered to be official hosts of the tournament.[91]
^Besnik Dizdari (15 October 2015)."Dr. Armillotta ka të drejtë" (in Albanian). Panorama-Sport.Archived from the original on 18 October 2015. Retrieved17 October 2015.
^ab"Historia e ndërtimit të stadiumit "Qemal Stafa"" [History of Stadium "Qemal Stafa" construction].Gazeta Standard Online (in Albanian). Standard.al. 26 September 2014.Archived from the original on 18 October 2019. Retrieved18 October 2019.
^"Nis prishja e stadiumit "Qemal Stafa"" [The demolition of "Qemal Stafa" Stadium starts] (in Albanian). TV Klan. 9 June 2016.Archived from the original on 18 October 2019. Retrieved18 October 2019.
^Fation Shehu (24 March 2013)."Oslo kuqezi, De Biazi: Ja si i "mashtruam" norvegjezët…" [Oslo red&black, De Biasi: Here's how we "deceived" the Norwegians…] (in Albanian). Oslo: Panorama Sport.Archived from the original on 19 October 2019. Retrieved19 October 2019.
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