Adventures in Football #134: Arena e Demave (FK Partizani)
Ok, it’s been a while, so let me quickly address that first. My last ground visit was a non-league club in Middelburg, Netherlands back in early October. Right after that trip the guy that worked nights and weekends for me quit. I literally came back off holiday to discover he’d handed in his resignation. Oh, butters. The result was someone had to fill in on those shifts and ever since I’ve been working every weekend. I think I’ve had two Sundays off and zero Saturdays since October. Bollocks. It’s getting sorted so hopefully I’ll be able to bring you more footballing content soon.
Anyway, it’s Maria’s birthday so we went to Albania. I mean, why not? The flights were cheap, the accomdation was cheap. It’s got the Mediterranean Sea. It has mountains. It’s got the Kategoria Superiore! For a switch I’m going to get the football done first and then do the tourism stuff second. So, all you foot-heads can get your content and go home, if you like.
February 28, 2026
FK PARTIZANI vs. EGNATIA (Abissnet Superiore)
We’re staying in downtown Tirana, a hub of excitement, burgeoning tourism, mass building experiments, and tanks.
I could see this from my apartment. As you can see the background is full of contruction cranes and half-built buildings. Albania is getting a makeover.
For context, it mostly looks like this. Dilapitated, tired looking, scattered abandoned buildings, stuff falling apart. This is what I expected from Albania but it’s not exactly what I got.
Here is the outside of the ground. It’s surrounded by mountains and sadly this is the one day it was cloudy so you couldn’t get the full majesty of it. Here is where Albanians take a few hours on a Saturday to take a break from their national pastimes; smoking and road rage and settle in for some footballing action. I’m kidding, of course, no one stops smoking. Smoking is allowed, indeed encouraged, everywhere in Albania. Including inside the stadium where you can buy beer from a guy at the end of the stand. You don’t even miss any action.
It’s a modest stadium, built on a military base (Partizani are a military team at heart) and seating just under 4000 people. It’s a strange design where there are only stands on opposing sides of the pitch and nothing at the ends. Like Oxford…kinda.
We get to the ground, locate the ticket office and score two tickets. The ticket office, under a sign saying billiteria, is on the far side and is an open window with a guy sat up to it. It’s not sign posted at all. Tickets are 500-1000 LEK depending on where you want to sit. I opted for the more expensive 1000 LEK seats, and I’m pretty sure the only difference is the price. It felt like we were in the ‘posh bit’, but the seating was exactly the same. 1000 LEK is a tenner, so it’s not like I’m getting ripped off here.
On examining the tickets I discover one was printed at 11am and the other at 3pm. What? They’re not even close to each other in the stand. When we get our tickets checked, the policeman rips the ticket and gives me someone elses. This was printed at 11:50AM and was just sat on the side. So….just sit anywhere, yeah? As with Albanian traffic if you get there first it is yours. I had no problem buying tickets on the day. The only issue you might have is if it’s a derby. Even then I think if you show up early enough, you’ll get in. Don’t bring an empty water bottle though! I had mine taken off me and I was tutted at. What did he think I was going to do*? They do allow the powerbank, which would do a lot more damage if I threw it at the linesman in a fit of anger.
*Probably piss in it and throw it at someone, now I think about it.
A quick swazz around the ground. Off to our left here are some mountains. Gamti is the bigger one, which is where the beautiful Bovilla lake is located. As you can see, we have astro turf. Unlike certain areas of the world, I struggle to see the value in astro here. It’s a warm climate, they don’t have extreme weather, and the only excuse is not wanting to take care of a grass pitch. Oh well. They’ll lose marks for that. We also have nets behind the goals to stop the balls. Which doesn’t work because they have holes in. The ball boys frequently struggling to rescue errant shots from the netting.
Opposite is the stand that houses both the away fans, way over on the left, and the home ultras, way over on the right. Both stands are about the same, but that one is where the fiesty atmosphere is located. It’s also cheaper, which feels very real. Poor people love sport.
Off to the right is a quick look at the dugouts and another big sign blocking the view of wasteland. Google’s coverage, recorded in 2016, shows dirt roads all around here. The introduction of a stadium has led to paving. It’s pretty cool to get here before it has completely changed. Google maps views of this area are very eye opening after visiting. The past decade has changed Albania with remarkable speed.
The ultras; the “Guerills”, are now out in full force for kickoff. They’re noisy! The section is a clear favourite for fans, and you can see how sparsely populated it is just one section over. Football is huge in Albania but most of the locals seem to support Italian teams. The standard here isn’t good enough to attract the local punters. It’s a shame because that one section created enough atmosphere for the whole ground. Imagine what it’s like when it’s full?
Speaking of “full”. The away end has nine fans in it. Nine. It’s like Sassuolo at the San Siro! I guess away days aren’t a thing in Albania. Rrogozhina, the town Egnatia hails from, isn’t that far away. About an hour by car. Some cultures just don’t have ‘away days’ like the UK does.
Sidenote: Egnatia’s ground capacity is 4,000. The population of Rrogozhina is 5,000.
Egnatia are higher up the league and start brightly, having several chances in the first five minutes. Somewhat against the run of play Partizani break and Valentino Murataj slots the ball home from the edge of the box. 1-0 Partizani. The Guerrils go crazy! It’s his first goal since returning to the club after a stint with Flamurtari (from Vlore). 8 minutes played.
Partizani’s captain and star player is Xhuliano Skuka and he runs the show here. He’s also returning after a stint away. In his case a big money move to Metz in 2023 (1.4M Euros). The clubs record sale. Things did not work out for him there, nor in the Romanian second division where he played last season for Poli Iasi. On 24’ Skuka cuts open the Egnatia defence and cuts back to a completely unmarked Sekou Sidibe who fires into an empty net. 2-0 Partizani!
Each club feels like it has a panto villain. If Skuka, with his theatrics, is Partizani’s then Egnatia’s is midfield hardman Albano Aleksi. Maria comments that he can’t run properly because his ass is too big. He also gets into scuffles with multiple Partizani players. He receives a yellow card on 60’ but that’s probably overdue.
Partizani could be 3-0 up at HT as Skuka goes through and is brought down by Egnatia keeper Mario Dajsinani. He’s clearly offside though. We’re dead level with him, and he’s several feet off. We have VAR! There’s no scoreboard in the ground, but we have VAR! The horrors of modern football. I’d rather they just let it go. The referee is sent to look at VAR, which is completely pointless. They should just tell him he’s offside. Apparently, it wasn’t a penalty. The crowd hate it and VAR. If the lino had just flagged him off, which he was, we wouldn’t have needed to fuck around here. Skuka meanwhile is an infuriating watch. Very talented and clever but often falling over and he doesn’t seem to understand the offside rule. I can see how the Metz transfer went wrong.
Half time is a time for people to go to the toilet. The bloke in front of me decides to climb over the seats, stumbles over and nearly falls down the stand. He then spends a few minutes retying his shoelaces in an attempt to make it look like he tripped on a loose lace. A local makes eye contact with me and he’s giggling. It’s great to have those little moments. Totally unspoken. Football is a universal language. As is looking like a prat.
The second half gets underway, and it’s like no one told Partizani. The Guerrils are silent. The team is sitting deep, like it’s a training drill. After 15:00 of this the Guerrils wake up and SET FIRE TO STUFF! YEAHHHH, now we’re talking. Egnatia are still on top, but a player goes down off the ball. The referee is sent over to VAR and Aleksi, already booked, gets a straight red card. Presumably he punched someone. Or headbutted them. He’s been dishing out aggro all game and eventually it caught up with the little toerag. Red card, fuck off back to Rrogozhina.
Astoundingly Partizani still sit deep, with Egnatia constantly attacking. Eventually creating a little down the right side with goalscorer Sidibe in exciting form. He even does a nip up! He’s eventually subbed off to healthy applause. He’s hit 4 in 6 since joining from Belgian side RAAL La Louviere. The 24 year old former Yong PSV talent seems genuinely capable and should be at a higher level.
FULL TIME:
PARTIZANI 2 EGNATIA 0
With the game over, people start to file out into the night. It’s been an experience. Let’s give it some ratings, shall we?
ATMOSPHERE:
Very strong, apart from the start of the second half. Generally, the ultras kept going and made a lot of noise and there were murmurs of atmosphere even where we were. It felt like it could have exploded with a controversial decision. In the end, it was all a bit too easy for the home team. ***½
COST:
At ten quid, five if I’d been concerned about the price, it’s good value. The quality is akin to around League One in the UK. The play was decent and it was entertaining. ****
QUALITY:
The competitiveness here was lacking. The game was great for about 20:00 and then at 2-0 Egnatia gave up a bit. The second half, with the lacklustre efforts against ten men from the home team, was quite frustrating. First half we’d be at 3+ easy. The second half was poor. **½
EASE OF ACCESS:
Skanderbeg Square, in central Tirana is 7.4 kilometres away. A walk of over an hour. Or you could cram into a crowded bus. We walked and just went and got drinks and food and stuff. The bus would have been 45:00 and packed. So, no thanks. **
MISC:
Some interesting stuff. The plagues on the end of the stand show what trophies the club has won. There’s a cafe outside the stadium so if you turn up early you can buy a coffee and wait. The view is great. We had a bit of cloud cover so it could have been better. I’ve seen photos of the main stand with mount Datji rising up over it. We went up that on the cable car. It’s very tall. ***
TOTAL: 15
A respectable score. The location helps and hinders the club. It’s lovely scenery but the distance from the centre of Tirana is daft. There are no trains here. Like, at all. You would think while they were tearing down old Tirana to build this new one that a mass transit system would help their insane roads? I guess not. Opportunity missed. The game was fun. 14 countries now gang!
That’s the football done. What follows will be a mass of thoughts I need to get onto paper somewhere about Albania. Feel free to click back if you just came for football content and thanks for reading.
Albania has mapping issues. Google mapped Albania in 2016 and let me tell you, it looks nothing like what they drove. Roads and paths have changed since then. The road by our apartment is a dead end. Google thinks you can drive through it. You can’t. The entire place is in flux. Maybe Google want to wait until it’s more complete before re-mapping it. I’ve never had so many frustrations from driving or walking around a place before. We would be walking through a residential area, and the road would curve around, and it was a dead end. Maps was telling us to ‘go straight’. There’s a wall there. The unreliable nature of the normally reliable maps left me resorting to satellite images and trying to figure out where we could go.
The Albanian people at first seemed quite angry. There was a tone that I wasn’t getting but after a few interactions with people, I found the Albanians to be a very warm and welcoming people. They just don’t want you driving slowly on their roads! Everyone I dealt with was helpful and happy that we’d chosen to visit their country. The level of English speaking is good, which is fantastic because Albanian is an impenetrable language. We tried to pick up bits and pieces, and it was so hard. Even if people spoke no English, they were able to understand English. It made getting around quite easy.
Some people were curious as to Maria’s background, and I heard multiple people walk up to her asking her where she was from. Maria also told me she got stared at quite often. Asians are a rarity in Albania. Me, with my beard and black hair, was less obviously foreign. Albanians seem happy to help, even if they initially seem a little standoffish. Any time we asked for help, the locals went out of their way to do so. Not only owners of establishments and people trying to sell things. Just random strangers on the streets. I had an old guy ask me if I was from London (I had a London Jets zero-G football t-shirt on). He was happy I was in his country. “Albania good?” he asked, offering a thumbs up. I gave him the thumbs up. Albania is good.
The city hustles and bustles and if there’s waste land, or even a path, a business will spring up on it. Walking through Tirana, you’ll see pop up shops everywhere. “Is it market day?” asked Maria. Every day. Pavements covered in wares. Walls covered in t-shirts for sale, books, fruit, car parts, paint, toys. You name it. The world is a shop. People will go diving into the dumpsters for recycling. Albanians generally chuck everything in a skip outside apartment blocks or on city streets and then people will come along to dig through it. Pulling out anything useful and selling it to recycling plants. Digging through rubbish is a literal form of employment.
I appreciate the lack of western meddling. The EU is trying to turn Albania into a tourist destination, and I hope it’s successful but also that it doesn’t change the individual flair of the country. I saw very little International commercial stuff, which is great. I think I saw two Burger Kings the whole time I was in the country. Maria swears she saw a sign for a KFC. Nothing else has made it here. Let’s keep it that way. It’s all local businesses. Local coffee shop owners, local wine, local beer, locally made bread and pasta. Local meat. The food is a mixture of Turkish and Italian influence. Most places we ate at provided free bread and it’s baked by them. In the restaurant. Whether it’s upmarket or fast food. Everywhere makes their own bread.
It was interesting to see the beginnings of development with Filippinos and Thai workers in upmarket restaurants. There was a lot of English being spoken in these places. They are clearly getting ready for a boom in tourism. 12M people visited Albania in 2025. If they are to continue this trend, there is work to be done. The roads are terrifying. Both in terms of how bad they are in places (and therefore likely to give you a puncture) and in how they are used by the locals. There is a serious lack of public transport. The buses that do run are enormous and the roads are small. Little Smart cars buzzing around them like flies.
Cars are the preferred transportation but there’s also a lot of bikes and scooters. No one knows how to use bike lanes. Most motorbikes will just drive between cars at high speeds. Most cars change lanes without warning. It’s a recipe for disaster. There’s no Uber at all in Albania so renting a car is the quickest way to get about. We rented a Hyundai and it was a piece of shit. The locking didn’t work, there was a huge dent in the passenger door, three hubcaps were missing, there was clear weather damage and there was paint scraped off at the front.
There are a few delivery services; Wolt and Baboon. The latter is the Albanian alternative to the international Wolt, which seems to have the lion’s share of this business. They’re owned by Doordash/Deliveroo. There’s no Amazon. There’s no DHL. People go to their local shops for everything and the shops are plentiful. It was a throwback to a simpler time.
Stray animals are quite common. There were cats hanging around outside shops. People see these cats, nip in the shop for some cat food, and feed them. You see empty cat food tins sitting open on the curbs. There are also loads of stray dogs. Occasionally just running down main roads. Albania does have beggars and we frequently saw them, again like the dogs, risking their lives on Albania’s busy roads. At no point did I feel unsafe but there was a moment where Maria was hassled by a local asking, loudly, where she was from and following us down the road. That was out by the football ground. They probably don’t see many tourists out there.
When we went, Albania was warm and sunny. Late February and it was 18 degrees C. The locals were all wearing winter coats. I tried so hard to blend in and wear a hoodie, but I ended up resorting to wrapping it around my waist. I’m sweating here lads! Currency was an interesting one. The LEK is about 97 to the English pound. Which made life easy because 100 LEK was basically a quid. Just slide the decimal point along. It helped that the colour of the money matched our English currency. So, 500 LEK was blue, 1000 LEK was brown, 2000 LEK purple. Cash is still king in Albania, and a lot of places have no card machines. Even if they do, they prefer cash. There are a lot of ATMs, but we got £250 worth of LEK at the start of the week and that lasted. Most meals cost about 2000 LEK or so. Our most expensive night was eating a big pile of grilled meats, along with four pints and a glass of wine. The total was still under 4000 LEK. Less than £40.
My only other issue in Albania stemmed from internet. My advice is to go with an eSIM. My phone is too old for an eSIM so I had to rely on EE’s attempt at roaming. They’re normally great in Western Europe and super easy to use. In Albania it cost me £70 on day one and a chat with my bank, as they decided to block my credit card. Leaving us with only the apartment’s wifi to survive on. Maria’s own roaming didn’t work at all, but the eSIM she installed worked like a charm. It was so good, I ended up hotspotting off her data.
My inital concerns about Albania all proved to be untrue. Once I’d adjusted to the Albanian way of life, I too was barging my way through crowds like a pro. Aggressively crossing roads. The Albanian way is that if you get there first, you have the right of way. No room for the meek. The style of Tirana was not unlike New York. A lot of bustle. Lots happening everywhere. Vibrant! It was an experience and one I’m very glad I have had.
My normal diary format was shot to bits here because I had so much I wanted to talk about regarding the country and the culture. The best thing about Albania is the people. I had great experiences with everyone I met. From the restaurant owner who gave us free desserts in Durres to the rental car guy who got out of bed to unlock our car and even drove our bag to the airport. All with a big smile on his face. What a guy. The apartments we stayed at were the Bloom Apartments on Rruga Karl Gega. They are great at communicating and really take care of you. I can’t recommend them enough. Although be warned, the building looks a bit dodgy from the outside (photo below). The apartment itself is great.
I’ll leave you with a few sights of Tirana and Durres. Enjoy! Thanks for reading.
AF
Skanderbeg Square, at night.
The Pyramid of Tirana. A bizarre structure. Hundreds of steps take you up so you can look over the city. And at wacky new buildings at strange angles.
Traditional Albanian food. A bit like lasagne without the pasta. Veal, aubergine and bechamel. With fresh bread for dippin!
The coastline at Durres.
The Bridge Bar! The owner used to live in London. He married a woman from Preston and they relocated here to enjoy sun and serve dark Montenegro beers. I respect it.
Parking is a risky sport in Albania.
Durres Amphitheatre. Used to have a capacity of 20,000 and has stood for 1400 years. It would have been longer but it got destroyed by earthquakes. Original building was here in Roman Empire times.
Dajti Express cable car. Taking us up Tirana’s mountain; Dajti.
Maria making friends on Dajti mountainside.
Tirana from the mountain.
Our building in Tirana. It looked nicer inside, honest.
Mural in Skanderbeg Square.
A bookseller’s wares on the mean streets of Tirana.
The Air Albania national stadium. A bizarre complex that looks like shops until you see the odd stairwell hidden away.
Paranoid Albanian leader Enver Hoxha built bunkers all over Albania as he expected the country to be attacked by foreign forces. What remains now are mostly rubble but this one, in Tirana, is an art museum.
Twitter