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The debate over stadium security
The opening round of the 80th Albanian football championship brought an ugly incident. This season’s opening match, Skënderbeu–Partizani, was marred by violence between supporters. The absence of police was cited in the media as the reason the violence escalated.
In fact, legal changes in 2017 meant that, for the first time, public-order police were no longer present in the stands. Instead, as in the Western world, the organisation and smooth running of football matches were left to stewards and private physical-security services.
Everything went well in the Super Cup match, Skënderbeu–Laçi…
But the first violent incident in the league led the Albanian Football Association, FSHF, to describe the change to the Law on Sport as a “premature legislative amendment” and an “undermining of public safety in stadiums”. Immediately after its first press statement, FSHF issued another communiqué calling on the State Police to “be present at all sports facilities”. The association “used” the first violent incident to argue that the police were “absolutely essential to guaranteeing public safety”.
Through its press statements, the association did nothing other than show, once again, that it continues to refuse to acknowledge violence in Albanian sport as a problem. Passing this problem on to the clubs, cultural institutions and law-enforcement bodies, and the latter’s silence in unison, is another indication of this state of affairs.
But it must be said that this state of affairs has persisted for more than 40 years.
Violence in the documents of 1977–1979
Yes! It is true. Violence was present in stadiums, and outside them, in communist times too, despite the way nostalgia has distorted memory so thoroughly that few people can bring themselves to say it.
Even then, the former system, with its dictatorial police apparatus, did not acknowledge the underlying problem, treating violence as an “alien manifestation”. Hoxha’s regime never accepted violence in sport as a problem arising first from the low level of sporting culture and standards (for ideological reasons, the Party fought professionalism in sport: the aim was mass participation, not professional and elite development), and then from organising competitions without meritocracy.
The years 1977–1979 contain some of the ugliest incidents in Albanian sport, as official state documents demonstrate. During this period, 30 athletes, 10 coaches and 19 referees were banned for varying periods, up to life. After repeated violent incidents, mainly in football, the principal institutions ordered a report on the so-called “alien manifestations in the field of sport”.
The language used in the report identifies most of the acts as “sick fanaticism” and “vandalism”, while the Physical Culture and Sports Committee and the Ministry of Education and Culture “suffered” the greatest pressure over the “situation”.
To understand better what these incidents were, here are some of them:
“In 1977, at the stadium in the city of Shkodër, during the closing ceremony of the championship, fanatical supporters threw stones and insulted the Dinamo team, which had won the championship title.”
“After the match, on the pitch and on the bus, supporters from Vlorë district insulted and threw stones at the Partizani football team. Also in Vlorë district, immediately after the match with 17 Nëntori, supporters threw stones at the bus, breaking its windows. In the city of Fier, after the match with Butrinti of Saranda, Fier supporters threw stones at the bus, broke its windows and injured an athlete.”
Acts of this kind continued in 1978.
“In Stalin City, supporters threw stones at and injured the match referee.”
Such acts continued in 1979 too.
“During the game and afterwards, Selenica supporters attacked the Bilisht team and bus with stones and catapults. After the match between Dajti and Ylli i Kuq of Pogradec, a Dajti player struck the linesman.”
“On 28 February 1979, at the Besa–17 Nëntori match, supporters from Tirana and Durrës districts committed antisocialist acts of hooliganism against one another and against passengers, and seriously damaged trains and the Kashar station building.”
Responsibilities and sporting culture
By recalling the period 1977–79, we can understand that it is not the presence of the security authorities, or “vigilance”, that can eliminate violence in sport (because when it comes to that, it would be hard for anyone to outdo the communist system), but an open, clear approach and a policy with vision, one that can instil and develop sporting culture among footballers and supporters, as well as meritocracy in match results.
The FSHF is therefore wrong to demand the return of police to the stands, because in doing so it merely evades its responsibilities and refuses to acknowledge the underlying problem: a lack of will and appropriate policy. All the other institutions are likewise profoundly wrong to neglect the issue and allow unchecked “hooliganism” to be routinely promoted as the best way to support football teams.
Below is the “Report”, classified Secret, prepared for the Council of Ministers on “Certain alien manifestations in sport and the measures being taken to eliminate them”. Part of File no. 598, 1979.
The archival information was obtained through cooperation with the Institute for Democracy, Media and Culture (IDMC).