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KF Tirana (Albanian: Klubi i Futbollit Tirana, in English Football club Tirana) is the most successful Albanian football club. It is also the most popular football club in the country with a considerable number of supporters. KF Tirana team plays its home games in the capital of Albania, Tirana, at the Selman Stërmasi stadium or at the Qemal Stafa stadium. The club was founded on August 16, 1920 under the name of "Agimi Sports Association". In 1927 the club was renamed to SK Tirana (Albanian: Sportklub Tirana), in 1947, to "17 Nëntori Tirana", from 1952 to 1956 to "Puna Tirana", and in 1991 the club was renamed KF Tirana. Tirana won its first title of Albanian champions in the first Albanian Football Championship. KF Tirana is also the only club in Albania to have played all the championships of the Albanian Superliga since 1930 and all the Albanian Cups started in 1938. The club participated in a European cup competition in 1965-66 for the first time. The club also has women's football team called Tirana AS who have won both of the official organised events held so far in Albania. They also have a futsal called Futsal Klub Tirana who have won the Albanian Mini-Football Championship 5 times out of a possible 7, and they have competed in the UEFA Futsal Cup on four occasions.

The '20s

In August 16, 1920, Albanian patriot P. Nika altogether with A. Erebara, P. Jakova, A. Hoxha, A. Koja, P. Berisha, A. Zajmi, H. Fortuzi, B. Pazari, L. Berisha, S. Frasheri, H. Alizoti, A. Gjitomi and V. Fekeci founded the "Agimi Sports Association". The association's favourite sport was football. In October of that same year the newly founded team played the first match against "Juventus" Shkodra. In 1925 the association's governing council was elected. Its members were A. Zajmi, S. Stermasi, B. Toptani, I. Gjinali and A. Koja. The team also played its first international match against the Montenegrin team "Crnagorec" Cetinje the same year. In 1927 on the initiative of Mr S. Stermasi, Mr A. Erebara, Mr A. Zajmi and Mr A. Koja, "Agimi" changed its name to Sportklub Tirana (SK Tirana). During the period 1927-1930 SK Tirana played many friendly matches against other Albanian teams.^[1]

[edit] The '30s and WW2

The onset of the Albanian national football championship was on April 6, 1930. At the end of the first championship the white-and-blue team finished at the leading position, thus becoming the first Albanian champions. Later on they won the championship six times out of seven during the pre-WW2 period, convincingly dominating the Albanian football scene. SK Tirana were the first Albanian football team to introduce the permanent role of a regular coach and also the first to secure the services of a foreign coach, the Hungarian Samo Singer, in 1934. From 1930 to 1944 Tirana won eight national championships (out of 11 organized by the FSHF during that period), however two of them, the "two war championships", are still not recognized by the FSHF. To this date there has never been an official position from FSHF as to why these two championships are not recognized by its own organizer.^{[2] [3]}

[edit] 1944-1957

After the war, KF Tirana made a good start reaching the second spot in 1945, after losing to Vllaznia Shkodër in the final. But soon the club would become a victim of the reigning communist regime in Albania. At the beginning of march 1946, at the "Nacional" movie theater in Tirana, as a result of instructions coming from the communist politburo, KF Tirana was forced to change its name to "17 Nentori". The club was thus denied its own name. The following decade would unroll in the same suffocating atmosphere, becoming even heavier after the foundation of two system-privileged teams that would follow the experiences of their sisters in the former USSR, former Yugoslavia, and the other eastern European countries: Partizani, the Defense Ministry team and Dinamo, the Internal Affairs Ministry team. Dozens of Tirana’s talented players were "convinced" to play during those years in either Partizani or Dinamo. As a result "17 Nentori" struggled to stay at the top during the years 1947-1957, however the team managed to gain some of the lost groung during the second part of the 50's after replacing in part some of the first choice players of its line up.

[edit] 1958-1970

From 1958 to 1964 Tirana kept on producing some good football and finishing the championship almost always at the third spot. These years were a prelude to what was about to happen later: Tirana reexperienced its pre-war glory spell under the services of the unforgettable coach Lym (Myslym) Alla. At the end of the 28th national championship Tirana became champions of Albania more than twenty years after their last title. The team repeated the success the year after, but this was an obvious challenge to Partizani's generals and Dinamo's secret service bosses. After having practically won the 1966-1967 title three matches in advance, Tirana was banned from the competition and the title was assigned to Dinamo. After this, Tirana won the championship two years in a row in style, losing only two matches in 1968 and only one during the 1969-1970 season.

[edit] The 70's and 80's

During the seventies Tirana struggled hard to stay at the top, the best result being the second place and the worst the thirteenth. Yet the club won the national cup twice. The old players' generation reaching its career sunset, this could only mark the end of a highly successful era. But the unsuccessful spell wouldn't last long this time. Tirana won the championship at the end of the 1981-1982 season, and they went on to win the title three other times during the eighties, in 1984-1985, 1987-1988, and 1988-1989 and the Albanian Cup in 1983, 1984, and 1986. The club was also successful in the European clubs competitions and many of the team players made up the core of the best Albania the country had ever had.

[edit] The '90s and 00's

During the first half of the nineties KF Tirana (which in August 1991 regained its old name), likewise the whole Albanian society, went through a period of profound changes. Almost all the best Albanian players left the country and went abroad looking for a richer team who could hire them. But it seems that the club simply couldn't stand being too long from the leading spots. Thus at the end of the 1994-1995 season, KF Tirana once again won the championship five matches in advance with 12 points ahead of the second placed team. During the recent years Tirana has dominated the Albanian football by winning 10 out of the last 15 Albania's championships.

[edit] KF Tirana in Europe

In addition to being the best team in all domestic competitions, KF Tirana has also given the best appearances in Europe among Albanian teams. Although Tirana have passed 10 times the first european round, they have never gone further than that.

The most decent team to compete in Europe was that of season 2004/05. After having easily passed FC Gomel of Belarus in the first round, Tirana played against Ferencvarosi TC in the second round. Having lost the first leg at home 2-3, KF Tirana produced a fantastic football in Budapest and was leading 1-0, after which the team missed a penalty and ball hit woodwork twice , but just couldn't score the qualifying goal and therefore were eliminated with a 3-3 in aggregates.

[edit] Recent seasons and the present

Even though KF Tirana shone through the last 20 years, the last three recent seasons displayed instability. Despite the fact that most of the key players remained in the team, other factors affected negatively the presentation, not only in the domestic league, but also the international appearances. KF Tirana's last solid dominating season was the one 2006/07, when the title was easily achieved. However,since the team failure in Champions League qualifications (two losses against Slovenians of NK Domzale) which interrupted the chain of successes in first leg's European league matches, KF Tirana started an unexplainable downfall. The season 2007/08 found them in 6-th spot, an unusual position for this team for last 18 years.

Although Tirana won the title in 2008/09, it was a glowless season. The problems started again in 2009/10 where the club just couldn't be a match for champions KS Dinamo in Superior League and were eliminated early in the Cup from KS Besa.

The only consolation of another failed season was the achievement of Europa League first qualifying round participation. Having a coefficient of 1.799 KF Tirana ranked among seeded teams on the first round. The draw goggles in Nyon revealed Zalaegerszegi TE as first round opponent. Having drawn goalless at the first leg in home soil, KF Tirana won their second away match 1-0 in 107' of extra time via a marvellous free kick from Erindo Karabeci and KF Tirana qualified with a scoreline 1-0 in aggregates. The following round gave Tirana a much tougher opponent, FC Utrecht. The Dutch team beat the white and blues 4-0 in the first away leg, as the second leg ended 1-1 draw.Thus KF Tirana were eliminated with a 1-5 aggregate scoreline, focusing the attention in the incoming Domestic League which starts on August, 21-st.