Conference League, the Tirana stadium passes the test of the great event of the Roma-Feyenoord final

A fairly boring game with a flicker of Zaniolo who unlocks it and decides the fate of the Conference League final between Roma and the Dutch side of Feyenoord. It was since 2010 that an Italian team hadn't won a cup in Europe. Roma had been missing a European final for 31 years.

The wait, for Roma supporters, it was well rewarded. Satisfaction from theUEFA also for "theTirana experiment“. The stadium of the Albanian capital, but above all the organization of the event has passed the test of adequacy for the management of such important numbers of fans (inside and outside the stadium).

Apart from the clashes that took place the day before the match, which were inevitable because they took place outside the real context of the event, everything took place in the best possible way with little inconvenience for citizens and guests arriving from abroad. L'municipality administration city ​​of Tirana has skilfully and obsessively separated the two fans, both for the entrance to the stadium and for the pre- and post-match phases. The fear was that it would not be possible to manage the surplus of spectators who had arrived in Albania without ticket, but eager to party and encourage their team even without being able to enter the stadium.

The strategic "fan zones".

That of creating external areas, with big screens and other forms of entertainment, could have seemed like a crazy idea, a pretext that the two fans could have used to get to the street fight. The strategy, on the other hand, proved to be successful, because the areas identified for the set-ups were really well studied from the point of view of escape routes and logistics. The space dedicated to Roma supporters was in an area that resembles the Roman quarter of theEUR, with an artificial lake and green fields everywhere, the one intended for Dutch fans was everything around the stadium, while the "neutral" Albanians (who instead largely supported Rome) had everything at their disposal Skanderbeg square, right in the center.

Police always present, few barriers and little pressure. The routes, all obligatory. Organized cheering was then able to count on bus – also escorted by police – made available by the Municipality of Tirana for transfers from the port and airport to the city centre.

The festive atmosphere after the victory of Rome

After the game, what was expected was a great celebration of the Romanists, in the surrounding areas of the stadium and in the center of Tirana, but which in fact did not take place. World Cup victory party instead there was in Rome, with carousels of yellow and red flags and smoke bombs in all the streets.

The test for the "Arena Kombetare" stadium in Tirana

The stadium of Tirana has passed the test of the great event. The new facility fromItalian soul – designed by the “Archea Associati” studio and signed by the Florentine architect Marco Casamonti – is a stadium with an original aesthetic; from the outside it hardly even looks like a football stadium. What immediately stands out is the skyscraper located at one of the vertices of the rectangular plan. Red is the dominant color, after all it is also the most representative color of the Albanian state.

There are parking lots, service areas and a commercial area. All within walking distance of one of the main squares of the city (Piazza Madre Teresa), where there is also the headquarters of Polytechnic University of Tirana and begins the "Boulevard Deshmoret e Kombit", one of the largest and most important streets in Tirana. Not even the memory of the old stadium "Qemal Stafa" remains, if it weren't for that single recovery work of one of the facades. The previous plant was therefore totally demolished in 2016 and now Tirana can boast a modern stadium from 22.000 places which complies with all the European standards imposed by UEFA. Without this new arena, it would not have been possible to host adults international football events.