ABSTRACT
Disputes over results of football matches, violent conflicts and claims of political intervention are evident in both the contemporary and the early beginning of the national football championships in 1930s Albania. The article questions the ‘reappearance’ of contested winners and violent confrontations in football matches through continuity and change in the relationship between state and sport. The relationship is examined socio-historically through the struggle for power between centre and localities. The article claims that the radical changes in social conditions and the transitions from one form of society to the other have not radically changed the form of interactions of power struggles with football and have not immunized public institutions from being used in the profit of groups in power. The tensions in football demonstrate the unsuccessfulness of central attempts in disempowering and subordinating localities. However, on the other hand they show the continuation of such attempts. Finally, the article underlines the possibilities of empowering communities through sport, in this case, football.
