The promotion of girls’ football is one of the main priorities of the Albanian Football Association, that already organizes various competitions throughout the country involving a large number of girls who are passionate about the most beautiful sport in the world.
One of the most important tournaments of the Albanian FA for the development of women’s football is the Albanian Elementary Schools’ Championship, where girls aged U-13 participate, that takes place in regional level, and has been organized for several seasons.
It is exactly from this championship that the future football stars emerge to become part of the professional teams that compete in the Albanian FA national competitions.
This championship is organized in cooperation with the Albanian Regional Football Associations, as the participating school teams play in their regions in a tournament where teams gathering more points at the end of season is the championship winner of the respective region.
Each team has a maximum of 16 registered girls and matches are played in a 7×7 format, while the Albanian FA finances the development of this championship by providing teams with basic materials, uniforms and paying a salary for the coaches, who are usually part of the schools as physical education teachers.
In Tirana the teams participating in this championship are from the schools “Dora d’Istria”, “Avni Rustemi”, “Jeronim De Rada”, SOS Village, “Kristaq Rama”, “28 Nëntori”, “Drita Pelingu”, “Mihal Grameno”, “Vasil Shanto”, “Naim Frashëri”, “Ahmet Zogu”, “Congresi i Manastir”, Peze Helmes, “16 September”, “Kemal Ataturk”, “Musine Kokalari”, “Seit Brahja”, “Bedri Llagami” and ” Betim Muço”. In total, the number of girls participating in this regional tournament are approximately 300.
Eight teams participate in the championship of the Fier region, more specifically the teams of the schools “Naim Frashëri”, “Halit Gremi”, “Liri Gero”, “Dino Ismaili”, “Mark Dashi”, “Kristaq Shtëmbari”, “Pinellopi Piro” and “Jani Bakalli” with a total of about 130 engaged girls.
10 teams from the schools “Skënderbeg”, “Ismail Qemali”, “Ali Lacej”, “Branko Kadia”, “Ndre Mjeda”, “Shtoj i Vjetër”, “Azem Hajdari”, “Haxhi Hajdari”, “Gjon Karma” and “Vasil Shanto” are participating in the Shkodra region championship. About 160 participating girls are registered in this championship.
The championship in these regional areas has already started, as the first matches have been played, while it is expected to start within the next two weeks championship in Durrës with the participation of 8 schools, Korçë with the participation of 8 schools and Elbasan with 8 schools.
In total, there are approximately 1,000 girls engaged with school teams in these regional championships. It should be emphasized that the main goal of this activity is not the competing to win the tournament, but raising the number of women’s football and bringing girls closer to football, in order to produce as many talents as possible for professional teams.
For this reason, the Albanian FA has supported this initiative with all its possibilities, which is also finding the support of schools in every region of the country.
