By DASHNOR KALOÇI
Part One
Memorie.al/ Throughout the history of Albanian football championships, republic cups and other activities in this type of sport developed before the 1990s, naturally there have also been recorded various incidents and events among athletes, fan groups and law enforcement forces, just as has happened and happens everywhere in this most popular sport in the world. But two of the most serious events that alarmed the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania (PPSH) and the Albanian government of that time, are thought to be those that took place in 1987 and 1988, in the city of Puka in the match between the local “Tërbuni” and “Industriali” of Laç, for the national championship of the third category, and the one in the City of “Stalin”, in the match between the local team “Naftëtari” and “Dinamo” of the capital, valid for the championship of the first category (today the superior category), which among other things became the object of analyses and meetings not only in the respective cities, but up to the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the PPSH.
For both these extraordinary events that have left their mark on Albanian sport, after the 1990s several writings have been made in which former footballers, coaches, referees, high local officials and other figures connected with sport or not have given their testimonies, who have given their versions regarding the events in question, but archival documents have never been made public, as to how they were treated by the high leadership of the PPSH, which athletes and fans were punished (even with prison) or which high local officials were dismissed from the high party and state duties they held. Starting from this, in this writing we are publishing some archival documents and photos from these matches, which have been extracted from the Central State Archive and are being published for the first time together with the respective facsimiles by Memorie.al.
THE MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE SECRETARIAT OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE PPSH, WHERE THE GRAVE EVENT THAT OCCURRED IN THE CITY OF “STALIN”, IN THE FOOTBALL MATCH BETWEEN THE TEAM “NAFTËTARI” AND “DINAMO” OF THE CAPITAL, WAS ANALYZED
PARTY OF LABOUR OF ALBANIA
CENTRAL COMMITTEE
– General Sector –
MINUTES
OF THE MEETING OF THE SECRETARIAT OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE PARTY, 11 JUNE 1988
The Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Party, in its meeting of 11.6.1988, took into consideration the matter “On the ugly event in the stadium of the City of ‘Stalin'”.
The meeting is chaired by comrade Foto Çami, secretary of the Central Committee of the Party. Taking part are the secretaries of the CC of the Party, comrades: Hajredin Çeliku, Lenka Çuko and Simon Stefani.
Taking part as guests to report are comrades: Abdyl Pilafi, first secretary of the Party Committee of the District of Berat, and Sofie Çuedari, first secretary of the Party Committee of the Region of the City of Stalin.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE MEETING
“ON THE UGLY EVENT IN THE STADIUM OF THE CITY OF STALIN”
COMRADE FOTO ÇAMI: We have called you to report to us how the event developed in the stadium of the City of Stalin, what measures you have taken and what conclusions were reached from the discussions you have held in the base organizations of the Party and from the trial that was held for this matter? How do you find the situation now, how did the communists and the Party react to this ugly phenomenon?
COMRADE ABDYL PILAFI: We have set out the event also in the information we have sent. Now the situation has stabilized. According to the instruction you gave, general meetings of the communists, of the base organizations of the Party have been held with the participation of all comrades, where this problem was discussed. We think that it was treated correctly by the communists and workers of the City of “Stalin”, with a sense of responsibility and in a self-critical spirit. This spirit was felt also in the measures.
COMRADE FOTO ÇAMI: Among the participants of the event there were also communists…!
COMRADE ABDYL PILAFI: In the general meetings it was made evident that the indifferent attitude of the communists and of the cadres not only did not restrain the acts that occurred, but became the cause for them to take such proportions.
COMRADE FOTO ÇAMI: What did the communists say in these meetings? How do they understand the personal example of the communist, when they are not at the head of the masses? How did they defend the power of the people, when they saw particular elements rise up against the organs of the dictatorship of the proletariat?
COMRADE ABDYL PILAFI: A part of the communists expressed themselves that “the feeling of fanaticism had darkened their eyes”. Many of them said that they had left quickly, as soon as the match ended, when nothing had yet happened.
COMRADE FOTO ÇAMI: The people stayed there. The event lasts nearly 3 hours and the communists maintained an indifferent attitude.
COMRADE LENKA ÇUKO: If the communists had acted, the event would have been prevented and the people would have followed their example.
COMRADE FOTO ÇAMI: Only one, named Llambi Shella, has maintained an attitude and has acted as a communist…!
COMRADE SIMON STEFANI: The problem that is raised today, in this meeting, has worried us all. In the City of “Stalin” there are 1600 communists. If these communists are not in the vanguard role and do not stand up for the country, for our order in today’s conditions, how can they act in another situation?! Why is the organization of the Party there not in fighting positions so as not to lose its reason to fanaticism?
COMRADE FOTO ÇAMI: What kind of communist is he who accepts that “his eyes have been darkened by the feeling of a fan”?!
COMRADE ABDYL PILAFI: This answer tired us too and we insisted that the facts speak of a lack of evaluation of the events, of pronounced indifferent attitudes.
COMRADE LENKA ÇUKO: A communist must not become a sick fan.
COMRADE FOTO ÇAMI: Has it occurred to you that all this event may have been instigated also by the enemy? You know that during the war we exploited such cases, like sports matches, various artistic performances and others in favor of the war of our people. Do you think that it does not occur to the enemy to exploit the sick fanaticism of our people?
COMRADE LENKA ÇUKO: This possibility is not excluded either…
COMRADE FOTO ÇAMI: Are these communists so blind, as not to see how the mass of a sports event and the manifestation of the fan’s feeling were crossed?!
COMRADE SIMON STEFANI: How can the narrow interests of sick fanaticism be placed above those of society?!
COMRADE SOFIE ÇUEDARI: Excuse me to explain some of the reasons for this ugly event: In the first place the responsibility for this event falls on me, as first secretary of the Party Committee of the Region and on all the communists. The concern that we have caused the Party is quite great. I say this in the name of all the base organizations of the Party, in the name of all the communists, who instructed me to tell the Party to have faith in them and to forgive us for the incident that occurred unintentionally.
COMRADE FOTO ÇAMI: If these communists have been so well-formed and so honest, then how did they allow this ugly event to happen? Was an attitude maintained toward the communists, comrade Sofie? Have you expelled any communist from the Party, because of the responsibility connected with the event?
COMRADE SOFIE QUEDARI: We have returned two communists to party candidates, to 6 others we have given a remark with a note in the registration card, and for 5 communists it has been proposed that they be dismissed from duty. We have also oriented the Party organizations to maintain an attitude also toward 27 communists, whose children have taken part in this event.
COMRADE HAJREDIN ÇELIKU: An attitude can be maintained also for the parents, since the bad behaviors of children reflect the upbringing of the parent, but in the first place an attitude must be maintained for the communists who were present at the place of the event.
COMRADE LENKA ÇUKO: As comrade Abdyl informed me, a bureau secretary who was at the place of the event, when he was asked to maintain an attitude as a communist, said: “I am not doing anything”. What else could this communist do who saw what happened and maintained an indifferent attitude?! I told comrade Abdyl that the base organization of the Party should expel this bureau secretary from the Party. Why do we want such a communist in the Party?
COMRADE SIMON STEFANI: You, comrade Abdyl, are not answering comrade Foto’s question: How did we communists react to this ugly event? Stop at this matter, do not pass so quickly.
COMRADE FOTO ÇAMI: The Party organization of the apparatus of the Party committee has met and has only advised this communist, for him it has not taken any party measure.
COMRADE SOFIE ÇUEDARI: He has been given a remark with a note in the registration card and has been dismissed from duty.
COMRADE ABDYL PILAFI: This measure is sufficient, since I recommended that the base organization of the Party be gathered and this matter be raised. The organization then expressed solidarity with this opinion.
The question that is put to me here, in the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Party, weighs on me even more. When I went to the place of the event, I almost felt myself alone, before the situation that had been created. The two instructors of the apparatus of the Central Committee of the Party who deal more with the problems of sport did not appear at all and were not found at the head of the task to calm the situation. We had the possibility to stand up to the situation…!
COMRADE FOTO ÇAMI: The match until the end was very correct. The event happened after the match.
COMRADE SOFIE QUEDARI: If measures had been taken, even a limited number of people if they had acted, they could have prevented the worsening of the situation.
COMRADE ABDYL PILAFI: People complain that even the refereeing of the match was done with subjectivism.
COMRADE FOTO ÇAMI: We saw it also on television. The players gave their hand to the referee at the end of the match…!
COMRADE ABDYL PILAFI: In that situation there was also noticed some case of grabbing on the part of the police comrades. Nevertheless this event that happened puts us before responsibility, us, the workers of the Party, and makes us draw conclusions for our work in the future.
COMRADE FOTO ÇAMI: What conclusions have you drawn?
COMRADE ABDYL PILAFI: I have the opinion that an unusual “concern” for football exists also among some cadres, whom we know as such and to whom we have drawn attention. The feeling of sick fanaticism has created in people a harmful psychology. Some of these cadres see the concern for football as a sign of the growth of their personality, and cultivate in themselves a boisterous pride that “Naftëtari” will definitely enter the first category.
COMRADE LENKA ÇUKO: Why don’t these cadres affirm their personality with the work for the realization of the tasks? Let them first realize the tasks in oil extraction.
COMRADE ABDYL PILAFI: I have the opinion that even the two instructors of the district Party committee who follow sports problems are kept near the team more by the feeling of sick fanaticism, than by the task they have.
COMRADE SIMON STEFANI: They are connected only with the matter of football and do not deal enough with the discipline of the athletes and with other matters of their work.
COMRADE ABDYL PILAFI: Now that we are making these analyses it comes out that such manifestations have been noticed even earlier, in 1965. We have learned now that even two weeks ago, the windows of the bus of the athletes who had come to our city from Vlora were broken. We, as a party committee, are quite concerned about this event and are taking measures for the proper conduct of the further revitalization of cultural and artistic life in the district.
COMRADE FOTO ÇAMI: It is important to know what conclusions have been drawn from this event that happened.
COMRADE ABDYL PILAFI: We have reached the conclusion that the indifferent attitude of the communists and cadres was one of the main factors that influenced the development of this event. This conclusion should serve for the strengthening of our educational work, for a deeper analysis of the acts of hooliganism, which in the City of Stalin are worrisome.
I have the opinion that in connection with this matter the educational work must be raised to a higher level, especially in the base organizations of the Party and in the Party committee of the Region of the City of “Stalin”. We too, as the district party committee, must follow this task with more responsibility.
COMRADE FOTO ÇAMI: It seems that until now the Party Committee of the District has hung this “bell” on the Party Committee of the Region of the City of “Stalin”, keeping its mind “asleep” that there is someone to deal with the work of the Party in the City of “Stalin”. You have gone with the thought that it is a party committee of a region, at the head of which works a good comrade, a member of the Central Committee of the Party, and you have forgotten that the Party Committee of the District of Berat is also responsible for the Party Committee of the Region of the City of “Stalin”. So you have distanced yourself from the responsibility of educational work there and deal more with the zones, enterprises and cooperatives.
COMRADE ABDYL PILAFI: It is so. We feel this deficiency of our work, for which we have responsibility before the Party. These foreign manifestations that are noticed in the City of Stalin speak clearly about the deficiencies of the organization of our educational work. From the analyses that we have made it comes out that manifestations of improper behaviors we have not only in the City of Stalin, but also in Berat. We feel responsibility for these weaknesses of our work and at the same time it comes out as a task for us to make the war against foreign manifestations more organized, aiming to revitalize more also the artistic, sports and cultural life of the youth.
COMRADE FOTO ÇAMI: If only football remains as the main sports activity, the fans will run more after football. This too is a premise that cultivates sick fans.
COMRADE ABDYL PILAFI: Another conclusion that we have drawn from the analyses that were made is the matter of the more correct understanding of the relations of the region with the district. The remark you made, comrade Foto, is in place, about the excessive carelessness that is noticed on the part of the Party Committee of the District toward the problems of educational work in the City of “Stalin”. This carelessness has been connected with the fact that there is a Party committee of the region there, which follows these problems more closely. But it should not happen thus.
COMRADE LENKA ÇUKO: The influence of the Party Committee of the District must be felt directly on the base organizations of the Party in the region.
COMRADE ABDYL PILAFI: We have discussed this matter also earlier with comrade Sofie. I have the opinion that also a part of the comrades of the apparatuses of the Party committees are troubled by the feeling of localism and egoism, which have not been without influence also in the measures. This phenomenon is emphasized also in the sports opinions that are expressed “we have the team of ‘Naftëtari’, the district does not help us”, “the district has the team of ‘Tomori'” etc. These opinions are not without influence also in the relations between the district and the region. To the instructor (Naim Halilaj) who covers these problems we have said that from time to time he should report, but he rarely remembers to come to report to the party committee of the district, almost once a year.
COMRADE FOTO ÇAMI: He comes continuously to the Committee of Physical Culture and does not come to the Party Committee of the District?!
COMRADE SOFIE ÇUEDARI: We had thought to move that instructor, while now, on this occasion we dismissed him from duty.
COMRADE ABDYL PILAFI: In the region of the City of “Stalin” there is also a comrade, chairman of the Trade Unions, named Thanas Gaçe, who has some wrong opinions that he has expressed also when comrades from Tirana have come. He said that; “the squad of ‘Naftëtari’ was taken out of the first category by the comrades of the district” etc. I called him and criticized this comrade, because his attitude worried me. “I have no problem”, he told me.
Such a psychology is transmitted and fed immediately also to simple people. When we were passing one day with comrade Sofie in the City of “Stalin” I saw a group of people who were engaged in the arrangement of sports environments. We greeted them and congratulated them for the work they were doing. “What can we do, the district does not help us”, a worker told me. To tell the truth, I did not feel good that such a localist spirit exists. We have tried to be very careful in all kinds of relations with the inhabitants of the City of “Stalin”, as for treatment, supply, etc./ Memorie.al
Continues in the next issue
