Author: Gersi Kokonozi, Jona Kaso, Neada Mucaj
For more than 70 years since its construction, the Qemal Stafa Stadium served as the main stadium in Albania, the home of the Albanian National Team, as well as the home of athletic competitions and other events. Today, this stadium has changed, not only the name, but also the appearance. It was hailed as a stadium that meets all European standards, opening a new page for sports in Albania.
A colossal investment worth €85 million, Air Albania is the most modern stadium in the country.
Considered as the Wembley of the Balkans, it has a capacity of 22,500 seats, a 112 meter high tower (24 floors), which is today the tallest tower in Albania, inside which there is a shopping mall, as well as offices, wedding venues etc. But in this vast space, something seems to be missing from the ruins left behind. Athletic track!
Qemal Stafa Stadium was an Olympic stadium with a capacity of 20,000 seats. Built during the years of fascist occupation and inaugurated in 1946, the Qemal Stafa stadium met the conditions for many sports, except football. It had gymnasiums for weightlifters, boxers, and the athletic track was used by athletes. When it was built, it was initially conceived as the Olympic Stadium of Tirana, because at that time the Albanians had high results in athletics in the Balkans and Europe.
Albania has historically achieved the highest results in sports, especially in recent years, in athletics and weightlifting. These athletes had a place where they trained together until 2015, in the capital, in minimal conditions, not of the highest level, but at least it was something. And today, where do they train?
According to the Ministry of Education and Sports and based on Law 79/2017 "On Sports", Albania is represented in international activities for the sports of athletics, weightlifting and martial arts with national champion athletes according to the respective categories. Athletics, its European and world, but also Balkan activities, takes place in stadiums licensed by the World Federation, whether these are open or closed.
If the national team plays in Air Albania stadium 5 games a year plus 4 derby games, then 80 million euros were spent for 9 games a year?!
What were the consequences of removing the running track? Why was it removed? What was promised to weightlifters and athletes? What was offered?
While Tirana is the only capital in the world without an athletic track, where does Luiza Gega train with the team? A champion like Gega has no athletic track.
Even today there is no project for the construction of a new track.
Luiza trains at the Elbasan stadium, the only stadium in Albania certified by the World Athletics Federation and that meets all the conditions; which means that only in this stadium are the results of the races known.
"I often go, when I'm in Tirana, to train in Elbasan, but it's very tiring, since I train twice a day. Going, coming, going out again for training is really tiring, - says Gega, - while in the summer, starting from May, I train in Korça. I sleep in Dardë and I train at the Skënderbeu stadium".
The infrastructure does not help this sport, therefore the athlete is forced to move.
Taulant Stërmasi, national athletics coach for 20 years, also coach of Luiza Gegë, shares the same concern.
According to Taulanti, in 2013, 75% of the national stadium, Qemal Stafa, became the property of the AFL (Albanian Football Federation), bearing the biggest burden of expenses for the new stadium.
"When Edi Rama became prime minister, Armando Duka proposed that the stadium's athletic track be removed for cheaper costs, and thus the new stadium does not have an athletic track. The project of the new stadium (Air Albania) was kept hidden, it was not shown, because the athletic track was actually removed there, as well as the indoor gyms for various sports", says Stërmasi.
In 2013, Mr. Rama gathered the best Albanian athletes, among them Daniel Godelli, Luiza Gegë, and was promised that he had a project for the construction of an Olympic Park for athletics, weightlifting and many other sports, but the Olympic Park at the former Dinamo Complex resulted only in two gymnasiums with parquet for basketball and volleyball.
In 2016, the president of the World Athletics Association (IAAF), Sebastian Coe, met Prime Minister Rama in Tirana, the latter promised him that he would build an athletics track at the Selman Stërmasi stadium in the capital, but again this did not happen.
Taulanti together with the team train in Liqeni and Durrës.
But apart from Gega, many athletes, such as Briken Çala, Klevis Çelaj and many others, do not benefit from any space to train inside this stadium.
Klevis Çelaj, even though he has won the first prize in boxing matches, is an athlete who trains in difficult conditions and not at all good for a boxer. In an interview we conducted with him, he says that the economic conditions do not allow him to train in a private gym and that boxing is a sport that needs work and dedication. The environment where he trains is nature and a punching bag, which he created with circumstantial, household tools.
"If the Air Albania stadium had a gym to train in, it would be a very good opportunity to develop my passion and talent, boxing. Although many other sportsmen have asked for it, nothing has been done", he says.
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Qemal Stafa Stadium before its demolition for the construction of Air Albania Stadium
Although in European standards, the only national stadium does not offer anything to athletes except football and this makes them train in foreign countries and not in Albania.
Different sources inform us that the first stadium, Qemal Stafa, had a capacity of 20 benches, while Air Albania was designed with 22.500 benches, thus removing the running track. But is it really 22,500 seats in the stadium, removing the running track and removing the gyms for other sports, such as boxing, weightlifting, javelin etc.?
We have sent requests for information to the Ministry of Education and Sports, the Municipality of Tirana, as well as the Albanian Football Federation to ask if the training facilities for athletics, weightlifting, boxing and other sports, which were an integral part of the Qemal stadium The staff would be rebuilt in the new complex or elsewhere. Until the moment of publication of this article, there is no response from these institutions.
At the beginning of the project, information was made known that for the construction of the stadium, 60 million euros would be spent only on the football track and the construction of the stands, so the running track was not part of the project, later, after the construction of the stadium began, in 80 million euros were spent on the basis of the project. A ghost project, which is nowhere to be found, because they don't want to get into the debates again.
In the eyes of an architect, the new stadium has not preserved the historical memory. The facade of the Qemal Stafa stadium was a monument of the second category, which was quickly removed and restored, as only happens in Albania. The construction technology is innovative, but the parking is outside the norms. Access is bad, because the stadiums are not built inside the city, but on its outskirts.
"I can only say that his concept is superficial and does not come as a result of an analytical process. In conclusion, apart from the name, I can say that as an Albanian it doesn't look bad to me", he says.
History, architecture, culture are what a nation is most remembered for.
For athletes, we don't just have to wait for the new project, while as citizens we have to get used to things that don't look bad.
