Today we will not only make an overview of the measures taken by State Police to ensure smooth conduct of one of the most important events of the UEFA Conference League, which took place in Tirana’s “Air Albania” stadium, but will also express profound gratitude to all police officers who engaged and handled one of the biggest international football events,” he said.

Nano went on saying that the State Police and entire country had never experienced the weight of organizing an event of such proportions before.”

“This was the first experience of this magnitude, which showed that the Albanian Police were not unprepared, I even have to say that given the experiences and damage caused in some cities of European countries during such sporting events, Albania was a huge success in this regard. Undoubtedly, the extraordinary influx of fans and sports personalities in Albania contributed to breaking the bias that Albania is not a safe country. On the contrary, in these days of stay they found that our country goes beyond expectations in terms of cultural, artistic, sports and geographical resources, ” he said.

Nano stressed that “the State Police drafted a plan of bold and risky measures, a plan which, thanks to the commitment and professionalism of the State Police structures, was successfully implemented.”

“For 5 months in a row, in cooperation with Italian and Dutch counterparts, with UEFA and the AFF, the police experts have worked hard in order for this activity of European proportions to go off without a hitch. Also, as part of security measures for international football matches and in line with the directives of the Council of Europe, for the direct and timely exchange of information between the Police structures and their counterparts from other countries , in April this year, a national office for exchange of information about international football matches was set up at State Police Directorate General, which from the first day of its establishment was in constant communication and exchange of information “not only with the officers of Italy and the Netherlands, but also of other neighboring and European countries to acquire the best models of policing international football matches, ” he said.

While highlighting the cooperation with the stakeholders and factors that had a role in the smooth conduct of the activity, Nano stressed that State Police have maintained a very good cooperation before and during the match with the police services of Italy and the Netherlands.”

“Groups of officers from these two countries were on the ground together with the State Police officers to ensure the smooth running of this activity. I express my gratitude for the support and contribution to all Dutch and Italian Police officers, in particular the colleagues of the Office for maintaining Public Order and Safety at the Central Police Directorate for Prevention, the Rome Questura as well as the Specialist Office for Interforce Security in Tirana,” he said.

Nano also thanked the Kosovo Police for accepting the invitation to send a group of specialists of different levels, in order to assist the State Police with managing the fans from Kosovo, as well as to gain experience in policing activities of such magnitude that are a rare occurrence in our region.

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