🇦🇱 KF Spartak Tirana (Albania)

KF Spartak Tirana (Albania)

This is KF Spartak Tirana. This is their story.

Found in 1950, as a team that represented the trade unions, KF Spartak adopted the colours blue and red while having the nickname ‘Gladiatoret’ In their first season in 1951, the club competed in the Karegoria e Dyte, the second division of Albanian football. The format was simple. With 48 clubs competing from the start, being split into eight groups. The winners of each group would go into the second phase, or the semi-finals, which consisted of two groups of four, with the top two of each group qualifying for the final, one more group stage with four clubs competing to become champions. The four clubs that made it to the final group stage were automatically promoted. Spartak Tirana were placed in Group 4, winning the group that consisted of clubs like Dinamo Elbasan, Puna Librazhd, Puna Peqin, Spartak Elbasan, Spartak Kavaje and Spartak Peqin. As group winners they went to the semi-final stage, being placed into Group 1, alongside Puna Lezhe, Puna Shijak and Puna Rubik. They failed to progress, winning only one of their games, meaning they would be playing in the second tier for the following season.

It wasn’t until 1953 when the second division resumed, with the 1952 season not played, although the Albanian Cup and Albanian first divisions took place. The new season saw a new format being brought in. Only fourteen clubs competed in the competition, with two groups of seven made up. Spartak Tirana were placed in Group B, and won it comfortably, winning ten of their twelve games, drawing one and only losing one game. This meant they progressed to the final, facing Group A winners, Puna Elbasan. There are varied reports from this game, some saying Spartak Tirana won 6-1, while others have said it a much closer affair, with Spartak Tirana only winning 1-0. Whatever the score was, Tirana won the game and were crowned champions that year, their first piece of silverware in the club’s history. It meant they would compete in the 1954 National Championship.

The Albanian National Championship was more straight forward, with a simple league format deciding who the champions of Albania would be. Spartak Tirana were nowhere near the title, finished 11^th, out of 12 clubs, winning four, drawing five and losing thirteen. But as the league was looking to expand to sixteen clubs in the 1955 season, they were spared immediate relegation to second tier. But it was only a stay of execution, as they finished 14^th and in the final relegation place, only a one point from safety. It was disappointing for the club to find themselves relegated back down to the Kategoria e Dyte so soon, but that’s where they played for the 1956 season.

With the format changed to a league format now in the second tier, Spartak Tirana didn’t spend much time wallowing from their disappointment of relegation the previous season. They won the league at a canter, finishing top by seven points to their nearest rival, Puna Fier. So, after one season, they found themselves back in the National Championship, ready to compete with the big boys of Albanian football. It was a league that now only had eight clubs competing in it, half of the number of teams that competed the last time they were in the league. It didn’t help their cause, and Spartak Tirana had one of the worst seasons in the club’s history, going the whole season without winning a game, drawing just two games all season, and only scoring six goals. It meant they were once again relegated to the second tier. But that isn’t what happened, and after the 1957 season, Spartak Tirana were dissolved, technically in the year 1959, with sports clubs reorganising themselves to get the most out ot the facilities available to them. It was widely recognised in Albanian football at the time that there were too many football clubs in the country at the time. As a result, most of Spartak Tirana’s players went to other clubs, but mainly to a club known as 17 Nentori, a club who nowadays are known as KF Tirana, and is recognised as the most successful club in Albania to date, with 53 domestic trophies to their name.

And so, Spartak Tirana remained defunct for decades, with no plans to resurrect the club until 2012, when a group of football fanatics felt it was time to bring the club back to life. The club entered the Kategoria e Trete – Group A for the 2016-17 season, The immediately gained promotion, finished top of the ten-team league. It saw the club promoted to the Kategoria e Dyte for the 2017-18 season, and the quality of football didn’t phase them as tey finished a respectable 4^th out of 14 clubs, although they were a massive twenty-three points behind the play-off positions and second placed Veleciku. However, things were looing good for the clubs second coming and another season in Albanians third division was something the club could look forward to, with a view to go one better and try and get into one of those play-off places.

That wasn’t the case for the 2018-19 season. While the club finished closer in regards points to the play-off places, only ten points behind second placed Luzi 2008, the club finished 6^th out of the now 13 club group. Things seemed to be stable on the field, with the club not looing in any danger of relegation, but off the field, things weren’t looking so great. The 2019-20 season saw the club drop even further down the table, into 10^th place out of 13 clubs again, but things in Albanian football were not looking good, with three clubs dissolving after that season. Although, two of them were the B teams of Tirana and Viliznia, another club, FC Kamza withdrew and dissolved that year as well. Spartak Tirana were to follow almost immediately, with the club withdrawing from the league for the 2020-21 season.

Some would see this as the club folding once again, and technically, withdrawing from a league season is just that. However, the club continued to compete in the Albanian fourth division, finishing 7^th out of eight clubs, winning just two games all season, both wins coming against the only club that finished below them, Osumi.  They also faced a bit of controversy that season, being deducted three points for fielding an ineligible player against Eagle FA. With the Albanian football leagues starting back in August for the 2022-23 season, it remains to be seen what football clubs will be taking part in the fourth division.

I got in touch with football fanatic, writer and co-editor of KIT Magazine, Phil Harrison, who is writing his own book on Albanian football and the countries communist past. He was able to give me an insight to Albanian football, how it is run, and why so many clubs, like Spartak Tirana, had or have dissolved.

Hi, Phil. Thank you for taking time out to answer my questions. It has been quite a challenge to find someone with knowledge about Albanian football, so I suppose my question is, why Albanian football?

Phil Harrison: It all dates to 1989 when England played Albanian in Tirana. It was very much a Stalinised country. I remember the pictures on BBC, with a picture of woman on a wooden cart and a picture of man walking out of shop with a cabbage as if he won the lotto. It looked very archaic, and it spiked my interest. So, I looked into it, and there is very little into Albanian football, bar a few magazines so I persisted with it. So, communism fell in 1991 in Albanian and I’ve always been interested in Communism, but it was always different in Albania, uglier than other countries. My principles are overall, if the country has a bit football history that has been forgotten as such then I’m interested.

What can you tell me about Spartak Tirana? In my research, it just always felt there was no room for them in Albanian football, and that’s why they have been dissolved at least once, and then withdrew and fell down the leagues, or is there something more to that?

Phil Harrison: They formed after the liberation of Albania. Quite adversely, they had two very famous managers, Adam Karapici and Loro Borici. For a club for a relatively small following, they had some big names involved. They were based right beside Blloku, which was an enclosed area where Albanians lived. They never had an official ground, like many Albanian clubs at the time.

The infrastructure in the SFH in the early days wasn’t great, it was a poor city to play football. There were no grounds to play football. Games where always played on a Sunday at 3pm with only one stadium in Tirana. (Spartak played in the inner regions of Tirana)

In 1951 Albania became close allies with the Soviet Union and they sent in sporting experts to the country to improve Albanian football. But there was still not enough for all the clubs and Spartak were wound up as you could only have a certain number of clubs to play in the one stadium and they were left out.

In 1960, Soviet-Albanian split and any Soviet influence was frowned upon and ultimately was stamped out, so Spartak would have been targeted as they still had that Russian influence, the name Spartak being a stand-put reference.

Albanian football isn’t the biggest or the most well known around the world. Few would be able to name more than two or three clubs from there. Is there a reason for this? Is there other sports that come before football? A lack of investment in the sport or even a lack of interest from the Albanian people?

Phil Harrison: Basketball is a big sport in Albania with most clubs having basketball teams within them, but football is the biggest sport in Albania, so you cant really blame other sports for the reason for the lack of interest in Albanian football. There probably still a lack of investment, as money still has to be invested into other areas in the country, while there isn’t very much Western influence like businesses and stuff like that. Obviously, the new national stadium being built has been fantastic. If you look at all of its best assets, the best Albanian players, they play in the better leagues around the world. Fans become kind of bored, with no real progression. The standard back in the 60’s was great, but nobody really got to see that. For example, there was only one player in the national squad that actually played in the Albania squad that played in Albania, I think he was a goalkeeper.

Of course, with the introduction of the Europa Conference League, smaller nations and their clubs will have more of a chance to play in European competitions. Do you see this as an opportunity for Albanian football to put itself on the map, with clubs like KF Tirana now competing in those competitions?

Phil Harrison: Gives the club a platform, but from a wider perspective, does it improve the standard? Probably not, as all the really good players have migrated, and I don’t think it will bring better footballers to the clubs or bringing Albanian football up the ranks of European football, I don’t think that will happen. It is very much an indigenous game in Albania.

In my research, a name that came up in regards Spartak Tirana and Albanian football was a man named, Loro Borici. What can you tell the reader about him?

Phil Harrison: Well, he was originally a footballer who played for Vllaznia Shkoder, which is in the northern area of the country. That are never really embraced communism and were always viewed with contempt by the Albanian government. Vllaznia where the oldest team in Albaina, they were formed in 1919. They were the forefathers of Albania football. They didn’t win the league for the first ten years, but when Borici played for them, they started winning. He then moved to Italy in 1940 and played for Lazio, until 1942, and was playing in the same attacking midfield area as Silvia Piola, Italian footballer of the year, so Borici couldn’t break into that team, so he returned to Albania. At the end of the second world war, in 1947 he played for Partizani. In between that time, he captained the Albanian side, who won one of two national titles, the Balkans cup. They played three games, against Yugoslavia, Romania, and Bulgaria. They won two of those games and lost won. At that time, there was a real sense of excitement in that era. He then joined Spartak, under the management of Adam Karapici. He managed the Albanian national team; he had success with them in 1947. They had some minor success, drawing with Romania, and Hungary (Named something else) They also drew with Yugoslavia in 1948, the same season they won the Olympic gold medal.

Borici played for Partizani, one of the great teams of Albanian football. His goal ratio was 2.7 goals a game in 1951, however Partizani didn’t win the league or cup. Partizani scored 106 goals, and only conceding 10.

(Sidenote: Partizani are still the biggest club in Albania, while Dynamo’s support has dwindled.)

He was member of their golden team, then he left to join Spartak in 1957, when they had just been promoted to the top division. He stayed there until they were shut down in 1959-60. He was player coach at Spartak, and then he became player coach at Partizani, and had three spells as the National team coach.

He wasn’t as successful a manager at Partizani, as previous managers. Towards the end of his reign of being national team coach, he was known for a having a very defensive style of football. It was known as ‘Borici football’ and wasn’t great.

One of his great achievements was that he led Albania to a 0-0 draw West Germany in 1967, which stopped West Germany from qualifying, which enabled Yugoslavia to qualify. Albania should have won the game. The Albanian media still felt that if Borici was more adventurous they would have won, with a goal that wasn’t given as it was declared not to have crossed the line by an Austrian ref.

Who is the best Albanian footballer to every play the game?

Phil Harrison: Well, the player I would say. I have watched footage of this guy. He used to get on the ball, and he was progressive. He was Panajot Pano. He was known as Mbretit which means the King. His parents moved to Tirana, and he became part of the youth academy at 17 Nentori (Now known as KF Tirana), and he broke into the team, and he was part of the team that broke the dominance of Dynamo Tirana. They beat Dynamo, 4-0, in 1958, and a couple of weeks later they beat them in the cup. It was 0-0 but the referee added an extra 15 minutes to the game. When nobody scored the ref brought the game to a halt and declared Nentori the winners based on their corner kick count, 8-4 on corners.

They beat Dynamo, team of the police, and the Dynamo patrons didn’t like this. Nentori were regarded as the ‘hip’ team of Albania, and they were one of the hated clubs in Albania. However, the ministry of the interior, they wanted to break Nentori, who had a wealth of youngster coming through. Players lay for a club up to a certain age and then they were given national service. What this would do is wrestle the young players from their parent club, to one of the bigger clubs when their national service ended, as they would be practically free agents by then. The bigger clubs would give benefits like nice houses and other things. He moved to Partizini where he became a legend and became known as Vogel e o Puskas which meant the little Puskas, not only because he was predominantly left footed and he rarely done anything with his right foot. He was an aggressive and attacking player, rarely letting it go. He was an exciting player to watch. But the other thing is, he looked like Puskas. He went on to be hugely successful with Partizani as they went on to play in a thing called the Spartakiad, which was like a tournament between all the army clubs from the Eastern bloc, like Honved and CSKA Moscow. In 1967, in Vietnam, they reached the final and lost out to CSKA Moscow in the final but Pano was outstanding and was voted player of the tournament. It was a huge thing in Albania when they came back. His playing style, he was hungry for the ball and was hard to knock off the ball. He would be the player that Albanians regard as the best Albanian player to ever play the game.

Albania’s national team are usually seen as the whipping boys of their qualifying groups, whether it be a World Cup or European Championship campaign. Can you ever envisage a time when Albania may compete to qualify for a major international tournament and what do they have to do to even get close to that goal?

Phil Harrison: I think they qualified before for the Euros 2016. They have won games, like home and away to Hungary only recently. They are kind of pushing the boundaries. The potential is there. All their squad play in other parts of the world. The likes of Borja, at Chelsea. He is the first kind of breakthrough in the Premier League. They have always been capable of producing these kinds of individual players but now they seem to be able to produce these kind of street wise players. They came incredibly close to qualifying for Mexico 86. During the campaign, they drew with Poland and beat Belgium, so they were playing against teams who were, at that time, the best in the world. Historically they have had the players, but now they play abroad with will make that bit of difference.

Where did you inspiration for your book come from?

Phil Harrison: I’ve always been interested in smaller nations and their football. When I saw Albania in the 80’s when they played England, it looked like an alien planet and that fascinated me a little bit and made it alluring to me. When the information for Albania came available, after communism, I just wanted to know more. It’s years and years of obsession about Albania. In 1992, I went to Albania, the only time I’ve ever been to the country, on a day trip but I am planning to go over there in September 2022.

You have mentioned that yu have an interest in smaller footballing nations as such, are there any other countries you have an interest in and any ther plans for other books like the one you are writing.

Phil Harrison: Funnily enough, I am interested in and want to write a book on the Haitian journey to the 1974 World Cup and the background on how they got their as it was very interesting. The regime there was very brutal. I would like to cover that. I would also like to cover a Turkish football book and their footballing history. So, yea there is lots of interesting things from there, it’s a vastly unexplored country, for an Englishman.

Although Spartak Tirana did finish second bottom in the most recent season since writing. there is no relegation from the league and so it can only be assumed that they will be continuing to compete at that level for the time being. But who knows what will happen? During my research and reading about the club, they just seem to be a bit of an erratic club, one that could come and go whenever they want. Disappearing back in 1959, and just reappearing in 2012, to play in the league in 2017 and then just withdrawing in the 2020 season is all very erratic and makes the club seem very unpredictable, The other thing I found was the huge amount of clubs in the city of Tirana, a city with a population of just over 600k. Maybe there just isn’t enough room for KF Spartak Tirana? Maybe they missed the chance to establish themselves back in the 1950’s when they won their first bit of silverware, as it seems unlikely that they will replicate that success anytime soon. However, as I said, who knows? One of the most unpredictable clubs I have read about. I hope to see them playing in the top division of Albanian football one day again. It would be interesting to see, and a derby against KF Tirana would be fun to see. Maybe I’m hoping for too much there.