Volunteers set Albanian precedent

Volunteers are starting to become part of the scene in Albanian football. At the recent UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualifying round mini-tournament held in Korca and Pogradec, four 17 and 18-year-olds became the first volunteers to help out at a football event.

Building on the success of this trial, the Football Association of Albania (FShF) plans to involve volunteers regularly in the organisation of future matches and tournaments. The volunteers were Rei Llakmani, Piro Bardhi, Estel Eminaj and Devi Kuqi, students at Muharrem Collaku high school. The first three are in their second year, while Devi is in his third year. Their role was to accompany the participating teams – Belarus, Finland, Romania and the hosts.

"Our love of football was the first reason we decided to be part of this event," they said. "The reasons that came next were to experience something new, and to improve our language skills, international communication and relationships."

To begin with, they were a little bit timid, but gradually their confidence and efficiency grew as they dealt with everything that their role at such an event entailed. Redi Jupi, director of national teams at the FShF, said: "It is a really interesting initiative and luckily it had good results and can be considered efficient. The voluntary concept, so popular in football and sports activities, will finally take place in Albania.

"This is a first experience and it was successful. We will try again and consider increasing the number of volunteers in the next activities we organise."

For the future, the FShF is seriously considering initiating projects to recruit new volunteers for all national and international activities.