Albania does not invest too much attention and financial support in terms of sports, the government is more focused in improving the technology of the country as well as strengthening their arm forces.
Although Albania is not that aggressive in the field of sports, they still had managed to play a few of the popular sports in the world. Football is the one that could be considered as the most loved sport by their country they are in fact a member of the FIFA and one of the founding countries of EUFA.
Aside from football, Albanian is fond of playing basketball too. Basketball became one of the sports that they had accepted and is considered to be their second favorite sport next to football.
Basketball in Albania has begun after World War I, Albania is one of the first few countries who had been immediately introduced to basketball. After it was introduced to them basketball became widespread to their country.
As a proof that basketball was immediately embraced by the citizens there, on September 1945 they had created a committee wherein the citizens could address problems about basketball. After the creation of the committee numerous clubs and organizations where created including the Albanian Basketball Association which then joined the FIBA.
The Albanian Basketball Association governed the Albanian Men’s National Basketball team to participate in the 1947 Eurobasket which was hosted by Czechoslovakia and was held in Prague.
Another evidence that basketball is loved by the country is that not only men are participating in the said sport, women are also eager in showing their skills in playing basketball. In 1947, just after a year from the creation of the Albanian Basketball Association, the said association started the Women Basketball Championship.
There were eight women basketball teams that compete with each other to be hailed the champions of the Women Basketball Championships.
In the year 1951, the Albanian Basketball Federation formed another league aside from the Albanian Basketball League, and this league is named the Republic’s Cup. The Republic’s Cup is open for both professional and especially the amateur teams that can’t join the leagues that are exclusive for professional teams only.
One more proof that the Albanians, whether professional or amateur, young or old, men or women, loves basketball is the formation of the Women’s Republic Cup and the Youth’s Republic Cup for the teenagers who can’t join the professional leagues. The most recent league that the Albanian Basketball Association formed was the Basketball Super-Cup, which was created in the year 1999.
The popularity of basketball became widespread especially in the 1970’s. However, the journey of the popularity of basketball in Albania is not easy. The popularity of basketball struggled when the communism in their country fell.
Due to the said conflict, a lot of basketball team was broken and most of the professional basketball players in Albania decided to leave the country and play for foreign teams instead. After many years, the popularity of basketball rose again and many basketball teams were formed again.
Albanian Basketball Association
Famous Basketball Players In Albania
The Albanian Basketball League
Albania National Basketball Team Achievements