Upon its admission into FIFA ranked 124th, Albania ascended to their peak World Ranking of 22nd in 2015. The country plays their home games in the Arena Kombëtare in their capital city, Tirana.
Although it never played any matches, the Albania national football team existed before the Albanian Football Association (Federata Shqiptare e Futbollit; FSHF) was created on 6 June 1930. Albania joined FIFA during a congress held between 12 and 16 June. Albania was invited to play in the 1934 World Cup, but did not take part due to logistical problems. Albania played its first international match against Yugoslavia in 1946, which ended in a 3–2 home defeat at Qemal Stafa Stadium. In 1946, Albania also participated for the first time in the Balkan Cup in which Albania won by beating Romania 1–0 in the final. In 1954, Albania was one of the founding members of UEFA. Albania waited until 1962 to compete for the first time in a UEFA Euro Cup competition, and the reason being Albania got past the first leg against Greece, for political reasons forfeited the game winning twice 0-3 and 3-0 and in Total 6–0 on Aggregate, to qualify so for the first and only time so far, for the Round of 16 in a UEFA competition. At the end of the tournament Albania ranked 9th in Europe. Albania participated at the 1964 Summer Olympics in the Men's qualification tournament, and closely lost both matches against Bulgaria in the preliminary round. They would participate for the second and last time at the 1972 Summer Olympics in which they faced Romania at the European qualifiers in the playoffs. Albania would lose both matches narrowly, 2–1 in the first leg and at home in the second leg.
Albania participated for the first time in a qualifying phase of a World Cup in 1966. The team was drawn in the Group 5, finishing in the last position with only one point from six matches. In the qualifiers of UEFA Euro 1968, Albania drew 0–0 against West Germany, denying the Germans a chance to participate in the finals. Albania did not participate in World Cup 1970, UEFA Euro 1976, World Cup 1978 and UEFA Euro 1980 qualifying for unknown political reasons.
After six years without playing any international matches, Albania entered the 1982 World Cup, managing to finish second-to-last in the qualifying stages. For qualifying for the World Cup four years later, Albania beat Belgium in Tirana 2–0 as well as drawing Poland in Mielec 2–2.
21st century
In the 2002 World Cup qualifiers, Albania only beat Greece. For the Euros two years later, Albania beat Russia 3–1 at Loro Boriçi Stadium. This match was also the debut of the German coach Hans-Peter Briegel who led Albania to an undefeated run in home matches. Despite good results, Albania finished in the penultimate spot with only eight points. Albania defeated Greece 2–1 two months after they won Euro 2004.
In Euro 2008 qualifying, Albania defeated Luxembourg twice, and also drew 2–2 with Belarus and 0–0 away with Bulgaria. Albania's Euro campaign ended with a 6–1 loss away to Romania which resulted in the resignation of coach Otto Barić and his assistant. In December 2007, Arie Haan was named Albania's head coach by signing a two-year contract for the 2010 World Cup qualifiers. Albania won only one match, with seven points from ten matches and Haan was replaced by Josip Kuže in May 2009 following the end of the campaign. However, Kuže failed to lead Albania to better results as the team ended the Euro 2012 qualifying with nine points from ten matches. With Kuže in charge, Albania recorded its second biggest win in history by defeating Cyprus 6–1 at home. Josip Kuže parted ways with Albania after three and a half years, and in December 2011, Italian coach Gianni de Biasi replaced him. Albania was, at one point, second in the 2014 World Cup qualifying group, but then lost to Slovenia and Iceland, as well as at home against Switzerland, and drawing in Cyprus.
Albania squad wearing the visitors' uniform, 2016.
↑The Serbia v Albania match was awarded as a 3–0 win to Albania, and Serbia were also deducted three points, after the match was abandoned at 0–0 because home fans invaded the pitch and attacked Albania players when a drone carried a pro-Albanian flag over the stadium.
In the tournament itself, Albania lost 1–0 to Switzerland to an early header in the 5th Minute from Fabian Schär despite being one man down to a Red Card for Lorik Cana Albania held its ground as they came close to an equalizer as Shkëlzen Gashi as he missed an sitter in front of goalie Yann Sommer. In the following match they lost 2–0 to the hosts France despite an close fought match being able to defend against the favourites until the last minutes conceding two goals from Dimitri Payet and Griezmann. While they beat in the third Group match Romania 1–0 by a header scored from Armando Sadiku before halftime, securing Albania's first ever win in a UEFA European Championship. The team finished last among the third-placed teams and were eliminated in the group stage.
At UEFA Euro 2024, Albania were drawn into a "group of death" alongside Spain, Italy and Croatia, all of whom are European and World Cup medalists. After losses to Spain and Italy and a 2–2 draw against Croatia, Albania finished bottom of the group and were eliminated in the group stage.
Albania competed in the 2024–25 UEFA Nations League B, where they finished bottom of their group and were relegated to League C. They subsequently participated in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification, finishing second in Group K with four wins without conceding, two draws, and two defeats against England, thereby securing qualification to the play-off stage for the first time in their history. In the play-off, Albania was eliminated following a 2–1 defeat to Poland, despite initially taking the lead.
Team image
Nicknames
The team's nickname is commonly known as "Kuqezinjtë" ("The Red and Blacks") During the period before 2016, the national teams of Albania and Kosovo exchanged players with each other due to the complexities of descent brought on by Kosovo's independence, leading supporters to refer to each team as the other team's "reserve" side.
Albania's uniform colors are red and black, mirroring the nation's flag. The team typically wears red shirts, black shorts and red socks. Away kits are usually all-white, with red and black trimming.
On 24 March 2016, the Albanian Football Federation unveiled a New Jersey for the national team players, set to be worn during the forthcoming UEFA Euro 2016 tournament, hosted that year in France. Manufactured by Macron, the jersey redesign, labelled "Triumfi," was conceptualised by Tirana-based studio PIK Creative.
For most of Albania's history, the home stadium was Qemal Stafa Stadium in Tirana. Construction started in April 1939 during the Italy regime, lasted for three years but stopped briefly in August 1943 following the fall of fascist regime. The stadium had an Olympic Stadium shape, as idealised by Gherardo Bosio, a young fascist architect from Florence. The stadium's initial capacity was 15,000, due to the fact that Tirana at that time had only 60,000 inhabitants. It was named after Qemal Stafa, a Hero of Albania in World War II. The stadium was inaugurated officially on 7 October 1946 when Albania played its first competitive match against Yugoslavia. Ever since then, a further 130 international matches took place in the stadium, with the last being a friendly against Georgia in November 2015. In 2005, Cecilia de Marco and Elisabetta Lorusso, two young Italian students, called the stadium as "one of the strongest symbols of Italian impact in Albania". In November 2013, Qemal Stafa Stadium was shut down by FIFA for not fulfilling international standards. The stadium's demolition started in June 2016, and it was announced that it would be replaced by Arena Kombëtare.
Albania has played home matches at other venues; outside Tirana, the national team has played matches in Flamurtari Stadium in Vlorë, Tomori Stadium in Berat, Niko Dovana Stadium in Durrës, Loro Boriçi Stadium in Shkodër and Elbasan Arena in Elbasan. In February 2014, renovations for Elbasan Arena (at the time Ruzhdi Bizhuta Stadium) started. The work lasted for seven months, and the stadium was inaugurated on 9 October when Albania played a friendly match against KF Elbasani's under-19 squad; Albania won the match 17–0. The official inauguration occurred two days later in the Euro 2016 qualifying match against Denmark.
The first international match at Loro Boriçi Stadium was played on 29 March 2003 against Russia, with Albania winning 3–1. In October 2014, Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, promised the reconstruction of the stadium. The stadium's construction started in May 2015 and finished in August 2016. In 2016–17, the stadium served temporary as the home of Kosovo national team, due to stadiums in Mitrovica and Pristina being renovated and not meeting UEFA standards.
This derby is otherwise known as Brotherly derby (Albanian: Derbi vëllazëror), or the Brotherly (Albanian: Vëllazërorja). The documented beginnings of this derby date back to World War II, specifically on 29 November 1942, where they played a friendly match as part of the celebrations for the 30th anniversary of the independence of Albania. The match ended with a 2–0 win for Tirana.
This football rivalry between Albania and Serbia is mainly due to historical tensions between the two countries. It has been described as "one of the fiercest rivalries in the world". During the Euro 2016 qualifying phase, with Portugal, Denmark and Armenia, the Serbian crowd were chanting "kill, kill the Albanians" and were throwing flares at the Albanian players, after which there was a clash between the two teams.
A choreography of Tifozat Kuq e Zi in the national team's first match at Elbasan Arena against Denmark in October 2014
Tifozat Kuq e Zi (Red and Black Fans) is a non-profit football supporters' association for the Albania national football team and various national team sportive activities. It was founded on 25 December 2003. In cooperation with FSHF, it organises trips for football fans to visit games, and develops and sells merchandise to support itself and fund sporting related projects.
The ongoing dispute between the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports and the Football Federation of Albania has been seen as a political intrusion by FIFA and UEFA, which led to the banning of Albania from international sportive activities. FSHF president Armand Duka is highly unwanted by the TKZ who have numerously asked for his resignation believing he is responsible for internal corruption in the Albanian Football Federation.
The TKZ have been praised by many different football players and managers, whom were not just Albanian. One example is with Switzerland's former coach, Ottmar Hitzfeld, who was astonished by how many Albanian fans turned up and how enthusiastic they were in 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying match between Switzerland and Albania where the Swiss won 2–0 thanks to goals from Gökhan Inler and Kosovo-born Xherdan Shaqiri. He did not believe that there were 12,000 Albanian fans in the stands which was more than how many Swiss fans turned up for the game. He stated that "Albanian fans are fantastic and the most passionate fans I have ever seen". During that campaign, TKZ attended all games Albania played apart from a match against Cyprus in Nicosia and were also large in numbers in the away games to Slovenia in Maribor and Norway in Oslo.
↑Additional matches are scheduled to be played in Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the first world cup, however they are not considered to be official hosts of the tournament.
↑Besnik Dizdari (15 October 2015). "Dr. Armillotta ka të drejtë" (in Albanian). Panorama-Sport. Archived from the original on 18 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
12"Historia e ndërtimit të stadiumit "Qemal Stafa""[History of Stadium "Qemal Stafa" construction]. Gazeta Standard Online (in Albanian). Standard.al. 26 September 2014. Archived from the original on 18 October 2019. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
↑"Nis prishja e stadiumit "Qemal Stafa""[The demolition of "Qemal Stafa" Stadium starts] (in Albanian). TV Klan. 9 June 2016. Archived from the original on 18 October 2019. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
↑Fation Shehu (24 March 2013). "Oslo kuqezi, De Biazi: Ja si i "mashtruam" norvegjezët…"[Oslo red&black, De Biasi: Here's how we "deceived" the Norwegians…] (in Albanian). Oslo: Panorama Sport. Archived from the original on 19 October 2019. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
1 (7 October 2026)
Albania 2–3 Yugoslavia 
Albania 5–0 Vietnam 
Hungary 12–0 Albania 
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