Scandal / Red and Black fans remain without tickets for national team matches: Revenge of the AFF

One of the most ardent and loyal fan groups of the Albanian national football team, the Red and Black Fans, have been left without tickets for the national team's upcoming matches.

Through a public response, TKZ says that this was done intentionally, and has happened for the first time in 21 years of their activity.

They accuse the Albanian Football Federation of deliberately denying them tickets in retaliation. This incident comes after the Red and Black Fans expressed their outrage over the European U21 Championship that Albania decided to co-organize with Serbia.

Previously, Red and Black Fans have had a predetermined number of reserved tickets, but this time they will have to, if they want to be with the national team, proceed as ordinary citizens.

TKZ's full message:

Dear members,

Like never before in these 21 years of Red and Black Fans activity, we have been left without tickets for the National Team matches!

In these 21 years, TKZ was often the only people standing on the stadium steps, when there were no conditions, when there were no results, where there was no stadium, where there were no fans, because at that time supporting the National Team was considered foolish.

If the national football team has had a reason not to feel inferior even when defeat was inevitable, it is because the Red and Black Fans have always been there. Coaches, players and stadiums have changed, while the only ones who have been permanent with the national team have been the Red and Black Fans.

Now in 2025, when we have qualified for the European Championship twice, and when the national team has started to reap results, thus increasing the demand for tickets, we have been penalized by the Albanian Football Federation.

Through an email we received, after several insistences, from AFF officials we were informed that there will be no pre-reserved tickets as has happened in these 21 years, with the justification that they want inclusion and opportunities even for those who are not part of fan groups.

This reasoning, besides not being valid, is not even honest and moreover is typical revenge on the part of the Albanian Football Association, for our objections to organizing a joint championship with Serbia and when it is known that we also have the latter in the group, in the World Cup qualifiers.

So, with its inclusiveness, the AFF did not think when it released tickets at exorbitant prices that exceed the price of tickets for the EURO 2024 finals. Ironically, it did not think with inclusiveness either when it called for membership in the fans' club, an organization of the AFF, which came up with an offer for "guaranteed tickets" for members of this club. It did not even think about the standard of the average Albanian, but used the phrase "inclusiveness" to attack and take revenge on the TKZ that does not submit, does not obey, this because our stand is SOLD OUT, while the other stands are still empty. The AFF is making the same mistakes, and thinks that there will be a different result, but it is seriously mistaken.

The stadium and support for the national team of the Albanian Football Association cannot be stopped by anyone, not even the Albanian Football Association. WE will be present there, we will be at Wembley, we will be everywhere to give our opinion, to express our dissatisfaction. Our reactions will not stop, they will only intensify and anyone who is lied to the contrary will regretfully but be badly disappointed.

Red and Black Fans

Oh, how good it would be to be Albanian!