The tournament is being held Wednesday in Zeist, the Netherlands, at the headquarters of the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB), with 18 teams from across Europe participating.

This marks Albania’s debut in the annual competition, reflecting the FSHF’s growing commitment to using football as a tool for social development and refugee integration.

The Albanian team is composed of refugees currently residing in Albania. The FSHF has supported the players’ training and participation as part of its broader efforts to promote football’s social values and create inclusive communities.

UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin praised the initiative, saying football has the power to bring communities together and play a meaningful role in helping refugees integrate. He described the tournament as “a beautiful example of the positive impact sport can have on people’s lives.”

Albania’s refugee team has been drawn into a group with France, Ireland, and Liechtenstein for this year’s edition of the tournament.

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The course guided by the Training Department of the Association, which started on September 13, ended today with the graduation ceremony. The sporting director of Inter and a very famous name in Italian football Piero Ausilio was also present in the event.

Ausilio arrived in Tirana on Tuesday morning and started his visit at the premises of the “House of Football”, where he met the coach of the Albanian National Team Sylvinho, his assistants Dorival Guidoni Junior and Pablo Zabaleta and some of the players of the National Team, among them the Inter football player Kristjan Asllani.

Then, Ausilio was present at the graduation ceremony of the new sporting directors and shared his great experience as a sporting director in front of the audience.

Later on, Ausilio highlighted for fshf.org the great work done by the Football Association for the development of football in our country, while he also positively assessed the investments made in the “House of Football”.

The sporting director of Inter also commented on the choice of Sylvinho as coach of the National Team and indicated that he will be present on Thursday at the “Air Albania” stadium to watch the match between Albania and the Czech Republic.

“I found a very modern association that is doing the utmost to promote football in Albania.”

Ausilio also conveyed a message to the new sporting directors and called on them to work with passion to achieve success in football.

Ausilio ended his speech with a praise for the fans and showed that they are one more push to do things better and to work with pleasure and pride all the time./p.s./

The decision was made as the local stadium in the city of Struga fails to meet the criteria set by the European football body for this round’s games.

Likewise, no other stadium in the neighbouring North Macedonia currently meets the UEFA criteria and that’s why Struga side will host Iceland’s Breidablik in the arena of the central Albanian city of Elbasan.

In addition to the stadium, Albanian Football Federation will also offer its assistance to best organize the match thanks to the experience in hosting international football tournaments.

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Albania’s champion team managed to pass the qualifying rounds, thus qualifying for the group stage of the UEFA Women Champions League among the 16 best clubs of the continent.

It was perhaps an incredible success, but which came little by little as a result of the good work done by Shkodra club, but also thanks to the great support that the Albanian Football Association has given and continues to give to the development of women football.

For this reason, a special award at the gala evening of the Albanian Football Association “Best 2022” went precisely to the “Vllaznina” team with the evaluation “as an exceptional promoter in increasing the quality of women football in Albania and for reaching the group stage in the UEFA Women Champions League 2022-2023, a previously unimaginable result”. In the group stage, “Vllaznia” faced clubs such as “Real Madrid”, “Chelsea” and “Paris Saint Germain”, the greatest teams of women football in Europe.

The moderators of the evening invited all the team of “Vllaznia” on the stage to receive the “Plaque” award of the Albanian Football Association, which was handed to them by President Duka. He thanked the red and blue team for making everyone proud with their extraordinary achievements in Albania and now also in Europe. /p.s./

The Executive Committee of the Albanian Football Association made a very humane decision about three months ago, regarding the difficult situation that Ukraine is going through, by allocating a special fund for this country to help them buy medicaments, food and other necessary materials. Today, it was the successful materialization of this decision as these medicaments will now be sent to Ukraine.

Ambassador of Ukraine to Albania Volodymyr Shukrov was present today at the “House of Football”, where he saw the implementation of this decision and thanked the Albanian Football Association and its President Armando Duka for this very humane gesture.

Duka said to reporters that, “We are a sports organization and the first thing we pray for is health and peace and we must convey this message today.”

For his part, Ambassador of Ukraine Shukrov said that, “Sport unites nations, unites people and I want to express my heartfelt wishes to the Albanian people, the association and Albania in general that here you have blue skies and never be affected by war. And I really hope that our football teams will come together and play for victory,” said Shukrov./p.s./

Attending the event held at the premises of Shënkolli Academy, together with the Afghan delegation were the President of FSHF Armand Duka, member of the Executive Committee of FSHF Anila Basha, the football players of the Albanian Women’s National Team Megi Doçi, Luçije Gjini and Esi Lufo as well as representatives of the FSHF.

In his welcoming speech, President Duka expressed the readiness of the FSHF to support the Afghan Federation and the women team in order to feel better in Albania, creating the proper conditions to play football.

“I would be happier if I visited the girls and the Afghan federation in Afghanistan in normal conditions, because I am convinced that they are not very happy to have left their homeland for various political reasons or the ongoing conflict there “, said Duka.

On his part, the Secretary General of the Afghan Football Association Fazil Mohammad Shahab thanked President Duka and the FSHF for the hospitality and support given, as he expressed his readiness to continue the cooperation between the two federations.

“Albania is already like a second home for us. We feel very good here and thanks to the support of the FSHF and President Duka, there have been created all the proper conditions for us. It is difficult to be away from home, but we feel at home here in Albania,” Shahab said./p.s./

The court has ruled that the elections scheduled for the head of the Albanian Football Association are invalid, suspending the heads and organizers of this process for at least 3 months.

The prosecutor said that the suspension of Armand Duka, Ilir Shulku and Ardian Haçi is necessary because during this process there were found a number of irregularities.

He also requested the physical presence of FSHF heads to provide clarifications regarding investigations into manipulation and other irregularities related to the election process.

The court of Tirana has suspended Armand Duka from exercising the duty of President of the FSHF.

Unlike the previous 5 decisions that were of a civil nature, this decision is criminal.

The bailiffs went a few days ago in the offices of the Albanian Football Association, to stop the assembly that was scheduled for March 2, which was suspended by a court decision.

The FSHF assembly was suspended by the Court due to the investigations launched for manipulations with the elections, deciding to postpone them until the full investigation of the case.

The court accepted the request for securing the lawsuit by ordering the execution of the decision.

Objecting its execution, according to the court, constitutes a criminal offense, warning the senior leaders of the FSHF with criminal prosecution. /j.p/p.s./

The delegates present at the Assembly voted for the proposal by the Vice President of the Association Edvin Libohova for the postponement of the elections to mid-March following a dispute with a regional association.

“There have been two court rulings that suspend the activity of the assembly and the elections. While one of the rulings has been formally repealed, we expect the other to be repealed from one moment to the other and that would remove the last obstacle for holding the elections”, said Libohova.

“In respect of the court ruling in question, I invite you to agree until its formal repeal to postpone the elections for president and the Executive Committee until March 15, at 10:00,” added Libohova.

The Assembly will remain open and will continue its work until March 15. /j.p/r.e/p.s./

According to media reports, Tirana Court has blocked elections in the FSHF until the review of the manipulations and the entire voluminous file, where the election fraud is proven during elections for the regional sports associations.

Through this decision, the Court of Tirana has suspended the mandates of the FSHF until the trial of complete forgery file.

The Court also decided that Duka, Shulku and Kokëdhima should be suspended until the final decision on all the violations for which they are charged.

The court of Tirana has decided that the FSHF cannot hold elections without first reviewing the complaints in court, which are in fact filed from all regional sports associations. These associations in their reports have expressed concerns about the fraud about the number of delegates and their purchase.

In its decision, the Court of Tirana has suspended the Executive Committee of the FSHF for the elections of March 2, as well as the entire Commission of Verifications in the FSHF for the elections, who are in fact the trusted people of Armand Duka.

In this way, the elections for the FSHF scheduled for March 2 will be postponed, until the trial of violations is completed. The court of Tirana has decided that the elections of the FSHF should be held only after Court takes a decision on the violations that are carried out./k.s/j.p/r.e/p.s./

Duka is the current chairman of the FSHF and is seeking a sixth four-year-term in office although the city hall has accused him of corruption.

The Verification Commission has already verified the legitimacy of the proposals and the integrity of the candidates proposed for the post of the Chairman and member of the Executive Committee of the Albanian Football Association.

According to the announcement of the Albanian Football Association, after reviewing the proposals submitted by the members, it turned out that the following persons have received the necessary proposals for being the candidate for Chairman of the Albanian Football Association: Armand Duka, Dritan Shakohoxha and Sulejman Starova.

The candidates for member of the Executive Committee of FSHF are 12. They have received the necessary number of proposals to be officially in the race, at least 2 proposals.

The Verification Commission is the body responsible for organization and supervision of the electoral process in accordance with the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly of the Albanian Football Association and the conduct of integrity control, approved by the General Assembly of the FSHF./k.s/j.p/p.s./