Information AboutKf Partizani |
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Klubi Futbollit (or Klubi Sportiv) Partizani is an Albania n Football club, playing in the capital, Tirana , and founded in 1946 . Their first participation in the Albanian National Championship was in 1947. It is regarded as one of Albania's top teams having won the National Championship 15 times (1947, 1948, 1949, 1954, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1962-63, 1963-64, 1970-71, 1978-79, 1980-81, 1986-87, 1992-93), one Albanian Second Division (2000-01), 15 Albanian Cup (1948, 1949, 1957, 1958, 1961, 1964, 1966, 1968, 1970, 1973, 1980, 1991, 1993, 1997, 2004) and two Albanian Supercup (1994, 2004). Under the communist regime all the sporting clubs were owned by the Albanian State. Partizani was run by the Albanian Army (controlled by the Ministry of Defence) from it's foundation until the early nineties. It's main rivals were Dinamo run by the Police Forces (a division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs), and 17 Nëndori (present-day SK Tirana) run by the Tirana City Hall. It is reported that the two ministries used their influence in favor of their respective teams. The Ministry of Defence would sometimes recruit players from other teams (mostly from teams of other cities) to serve as soldiers to make them play for Partizani. Similar tactics were used by the Ministry of Internal Affairs as well in favor of Dinamo. This resulted in a championship highly dominated by the teams of the capital. KF Partizani became the first club to be privatized in Albania. The experience was not a positive one however, the club ran into economic difficulties and into a legal dispute over the club ownership. While the two arguing sides were settling their dispute in court, the club ended the 1999-2000 season in 14th and last place in the league dropping to the second division for the first time in their history. The court finally ruled in favor of Albert Xhani who also took over the role of team president, a position he still retains. Partizani went on to win the Albanian Second Division title and get back to be a contender for the following National Championship titles. Partisani is the only privately owned team in Albania. The other teams are mostly owned by the City Hall's but supported by private donors, who usually carry out the role of president. Partizani plays at the stadium " Selman Stërmasi " (which is home stadium to SK Tirana ) and national stadium "Qemal Stafa" which have a capacity of 10,000 and 28,000 respectively. In 1962-63, the club participated in a European Cup competition for the first time. In the 2003-04 season, the club finished fourth in the Albanian Premier League. In the 2004-05 season, they participated in the UEFA Cup, but were eliminated in the second qualifying round by Hapoel Bnei Sakhnin FC 6-1 on aggregate. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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