The Football Association organized a festive event with sports journalists on the occasion of the end-of-year holidays, as a gesture of thanks and appreciation for their ongoing cooperation and contribution to the development and promotion of Albanian football.
During his speech, the President of the Albanian Football Association, Armand Duka, thanked the journalists for their cooperation and contribution to the growth of Albanian football.
President Duka said that the year coming to a close has been very important for Albanian football and wished everyone happy holidays, a more successful 2026, and Albania’s qualification for the World Cup.
“On my behalf and on behalf of the Football Federation, I would like to thank you for accepting the invitation to be together here to share some festive moments at the end of this year and on the eve of the coming year. Naturally, a meeting like this with people who are so important to the world of football, with representatives of the media, inevitably makes you reflect on what we have all gone through together during this year and on what you have contributed to the development of Albanian football.
The year we are closing has truly been an important one, with positive and progressive developments, significant challenges, major infrastructure projects, and very strong representation on the international stage with all the national teams—above all with the senior national team, which finished the qualifiers in second place and secured a spot in the play-offs, once a dream of ours, and one that you have covered and conveyed with emotion, passion, and originality.
The contribution of all Albanian media—today’s modern media, portals, TV channels, and others—has been great and genuine. Of course, there has also been criticism, but we ourselves are critical as well. We are critical of certain episodes and strive to improve them and to prevent isolated incidents from turning into recurring phenomena.
Your help in eliminating these issues and in accelerating our projects has been very important. As I said at the beginning, we are here together for a few festive moments as a sign of appreciation and mutual understanding for what we have achieved during this year. I would like to emphasize once again my thanks for the contribution you have made, and for the contribution made by everyone to the development of Albanian football—undoubtedly the main actors, the players, coaches, club officials, as well as our partners.
I wish you happy holidays. The New Year is a traditional celebration for us Albanians, and I hope we celebrate it in the best possible way. I wish that 2026 will be even better than 2025, healthier for all of you personally, for your families, and for each of us.
Even more success, and what I believe we all wish for together: better football, with more results, more progress, more children on football pitches, and on the international stage with Albania’s qualification for the World Cup. And I hope we will all see each other together in America,” said President Duka.
