September 26 – The Albanian Football Federation (FSHF) and the Municipality of Kamez have started the construction of a new football base in Valias, part of the large-scale FSHF programme ‘100 Fields’, which aims to improve sports infrastructure across the country.
At a site visit, president of the FSHF, Armand Duka, had a closer look at the project’s progress in Valais, accompanied by the mayor of the Municipality of Kamеz, Rakip Suli, and the member of parliament, Lindita Nikolla.
Duka expressed his gratitude to the Municipality of Kamеz for the partnership, emphasising the crucial importance of investments in sports facilities for children. He said the main goal of the federation is to educate young people through sports and to increase the number of children playing football. He stated that the FSHF is open to cooperation with all municipalities and private companies to build even more sports fields throughout Albania.
“We have been discussing this for some time and have now started the project. In fact, Kamеz, on the map of sports fields, is one of the most developed areas, because we used to have a center for the national teams with three fields, which we have now handed over to be managed for youth football, so that all the youth in the area can play, train, and play matches. With this investment here, even more will be reflected. Now our goal is to have more children playing football. It is ours, it is common, and it is for everyone, because football is first and foremost education, and then competition,” said Duka.
“I truly thank you for cooperating on this sports field and, undoubtedly, we are open to continuing and having even more, and by this example, to also get into Tirana, because to be honest, Tirana, which has the greatest (population) density, but also Kamеz, which is a municipality with a large population, we have a lack of inventory of sports fields…” continued Duka.
“We are ready to work with you, of course, with any local unit, but not only, also with private companies, as long as we build sports fields. We are not asking for any management rights, just to build sports fields, to make them available to youth, to educate footballers, and to produce footballers.”
The mayor of Kamеz, Rakip Suli, said the main goal of the municipality is to involve as many youth players as possible in sports activities and to invest continuously in sports for the development of the community.
“First of all, we sincerely thank you for the support, from the project part and step by step, because normally, experience has its part, your staff’s experience is much higher, because for us it is the first time we are building a stadium in the Municipality of Kamëz,” said Suli.
MP Lindita Nikolla, also expressed her gratitude to Duka and Suli for the investment in facilities which she described as a “jewel” for the young people and the entire community.
Contact the writer of this story, Aleksander Krassimirov, at [email protected]