TIRANA, May 14 – One of Albania’s elite clubs, Vllaznia is one step from a first-ever embarrassing relegation from the top flight of Albanian football with only two games remaining from the 2017-2018 Superliga season.
The Shkodra-based club in northern Albania suffered a shock 2-0 away loss to Partizani last Sunday and are now five points behind their nearest rivals Teuta and Kamza, both of which claimed victories in their last championship games.
Having produced some of Albania’s best talents, Vllaznia is one of the eldest clubs in the country boasting 100 years of history and the only team not to have been relegated from the top flight of Albanian football since its beginnings in the early 1930s.
But with only two games remaining, the club find themselves in one of their most critical times and only a miracle would save them from relegation.
Vllaznia face two tough fixtures against second-placed Kukes and already mathematical winners Skenderbeu in their last two games and can make with only two victories hopeful that one of their nearest rivals will make a false step. Vllaznia are disadvantaged even if finishing on equal points with Teuta or Kamza because of negative head-to-head balance sheet which is the number one criterion in the ranking.
Last year, Vllaznia escaped relegation in their final championship game decider with Tirana, Albania’s historically most successful club which will be back to Superliga next season following an embarrassing first-ever relegation.
Critics have blamed the 10-team Albanian Superliga that Albania has been applying since 2014 for the relegation of some of Albania’s elite clubs. Until 2013, the Albanian Superliga had 14 teams, four of which were relegated and played 26 matches in two stages.
The competition got tougher after Albania adopted a four-stage championship with ten teams and two relegations out of 36 league games.
Vllaznia’s likely relegation comes amid financial problems and at a time when the club has been out of the top five since 2011-2012 campaign.
In late 2017, the Shkodra municipality-run club unveiled plans to privatize the club or sell some of its shares in a bid to help the club escape its financial crisis, but the appeal failed to attract any investors.
According to a document published on the Shkodra municipality’s website, the club’s losses were at an average of 51 million lek (€380,000) annually from 2011 to 2015 when the municipality was the sole owner of Vllaznia following the withdrawal of its private sponsors and shareholders.
The assets of the club which has won nine championship titles and six Albanian Cups were estimated at 258 million lek (about €2 million) in 2015, but that does not include its renovated stadium.
Shkodra’s 16,000-seat ‘Loro Borici’ stadium was renovated in 2016 and also hosts the national side’s home matches and those of neighboring Kosovo which has yet to build a stadium meeting international standards after it was admitted as a FIFA and UEFA member in 2016 and played its first World Cup qualifying campaign.
The municipality of Shkodra, the largest local government unit in northern Albania, says annual losses Vllaznia incurs have seriously hampered local public finances and expects the club’s privatization to strip Shkodra taxpayers of financing a company with huge losses and make a concrete investment with its sale revenues.
Albania’s top flight clubs are both local investor and municipal-owned.
