Albania – ranked 25th. At the end of the previous season 4 teams were penalized with deduction of points in the 1986-87 season: Dinamo (Tirana), Flamurtari (Vlore), and 17 Nentori (Tirana) with 3- point deduction for collecting more than 20 yellow and red cards in the 1985-86 season, and Apollonia (Fier) with 6-point deduction for mysterious ‘infringement of rules’ – possibly a case of corruption, but veiled. Since three of the penalized teams were leading clubs, curiously the penalties hardly affected the new season: if there were no penalties, the table would have been the same. Only Apollonia would have been 6th instead of 7th. And Dinamo – 3rd instead of 4th. Apart of that – perhaps the only significant thing was the slow adjustment of Albanian football to the realities of 1980s: some teams were playing with ‘Capitalist’-made kits – Adidas and Puma. However, Albania along with DDR were the last Communist countries resisting export of players to the West.
Second Division. Studenti (Tirana) finished 5th, but was disqualified and thus relegated because of ‘crowd trouble’. In passing, two Third Division teams had the same fate this season – apparently, there were rising problems, but were they a mix of football hooliganism and political protest is impossible to tell. Nobody was punished in the top league, which is strange. Anyhow, most important here is which teams reached promotion – 2 teams dominated the championship and finished with exactly the same points and records. The winner was decided on more goals scored.
31 Korriku (Burrel) was 2nd at the end – there scoring record was 46-22 and since both leaders had the same goal-difference, 31 Korriku was 2nd only because they scored less goals. No matter – they were promoted and going back to top flight after there relegation in 1983-84.
Beselidhja (Lezhe) did not have to wait for return to the top league at all – they were relegated the previous season and immediately returned. Like their rivals they finished the season with 16 wins, 8 ties, 6 losses, and 50 points. There scoring record was 50-26, that is +24 goal-difference, just like 31 Korriku, but they scored 50 goals instead of 46 and thus won the championship.
First Division. Four teams dominated the championship – the usual suspects. One team was hopeless outsider and 7 teams fought for survival. Since the league was made of 14 teams, it was rather pitiful divide: more than half the league was concerned only with survival. And that at time when Albanian football was enjoying improvement and young talented generation was making its way. Anyhow, Traktori (Lushnje) was pathetic – last and relegated with 12 points. Naftetari (Qyteti Stalin) was unlucky to a point: they ended 13th and joined Traktori, but they lost the battle for survival only on worse goal-difference. Newcomer Skenderbeu (Korce) survived – they were 12th thanks to better goal-difference than Naftetari.
At the top side of the table only 17 Nentori was relatively weaker this season.
17 Nentori (Tirana) finished 5th with 26 points – 5 points behind the 4th-placed team. True, they were penalized with 3 points deduction, but nevertheless this was one of their weaker seasons.
Dinamo (Tirana) took 4th place with 31 points. They were also penalized with 3-point deduction, but even if they had full record 3rd place was the best they could find themselves.
Vllaznia (Shkoder) got bronze medals with 32 points. Not bad at all.
Flamurtari (Vlore) finished 2nd – they were the team most ambitiously trying to win the title, but failed and finished 3 points behind the champions. However, they actually earned the same points as the champions, but 3-point penalty reduced their record. If they had full record… they were still going to be second best, losing on worse goal-difference. This was good period for the team and also most unlucky – for a second consecutive season the title slipped way from them on goal-difference (assuming they were not penalized).
At the end Partizani (Tirana) won one more title after 15 wins, 6 ties, 5 losses, 43-18 goal-difference and 36 points. Top row from left: ILIR LAME , ARJAN HAMETAJ , PERLAT MUSTA,ARBEN MUÇA, ASTRIT RAMADANI, SKËNDER GEGA
Middle row: YLLI SHEHU, BESNIK BILALI, Prof. NEPTUN BAJKO, ILJAZ DINGU, GENCI TOMORRI
Sitting in front: EDMOND KAÇAÇI, LEFTER MILLO, LEDIO PANO, NIKO FRASHERI, ROLAND AGALLIU.
This was joyous moment – not an easy win, but important one, since Partizani was back on top for the first time since 1980-81. This was also their 14th title and they were again equal with city rivals Dinamo, which also had 14 titles. Champions usually have the best current team, but in the case of Partizani they were somewhat ‘yesterday’s news’ – the best youngsters, who eventually went to play abroad after the fall of Communism were not here.
The Cup final was provincial: Vllaznia vs Flamurtari. Vllaznia won the first leg 3-0. Flamurtari tried hard to come back at home and they did to a point – Vllaznia scored a goal. Flamurtari won 3-1, which was not enough. Vllaznia triumphed.
Flamurtari (Vlore) was coming very close to winning, but a little something kept them second. Second in the championship, second in the Cup. Perhaps they were still not ready for victory.
Vllaznia (Shkoder), traditionally the strongest provincial club, won once again. This was their 5th Cup. They had good players like Zmijani and Vata, who were part of the up and coming young generation defining the Albanian ‘boom’ of the late 80s and first half of the 1990s.
A general note on the photos must be made – even now correct dating of Albanian team photos is difficult and suspect. The best could be to say that most pictures are ‘from the period’… as for the exact year, Albanian sources often date same photo at two-three different seasons.