The Albania national football team (Kombëtarja e futbollit të Shqipërisë) represents Albania in men's international football, and is governed by the Albanian Football Association, the governing body for football in Albania.
Albania competes in the three major international football tournaments—the FIFA World Cup, UEFA European Championship and UEFA Nations League. Albania was the winner of the 1946 Balkan Cup and the 2000 Malta Rothmans International Tournament. At Euro 2016, Albania made its debut at a major men's football tournament, scoring its first goal and recording its first victory in a major tournament against Romania on 19 June 2016.
Since its completion in 2019, Arena Kombëtare (National Arena), known as Air Albania Stadium for sponsorship reasons, has been the team's home ground. Albania's highest FIFA World Ranking was 22nd in August 2015.
The colours of the team are red, white and black, and the double headed eagle is its symbol. Its supporters are collectively known as the Tifozët Kuq e Zi and use the same red and black colours as both the team and the nation's flag.
In 2020, Albania won group 4 of UEFA Nations League C and was promoted to UEFA Nations League B.
History of the Albania national football team
Although it never played any matches, the Albania national football team existed before the Albanian Football Association (Federata Shqiptare e Futbollit; FSHF) was created on 6 June 1930. Albania joined FIFA during a congress held between 12 and 16 June. Albania played its first international match against Yugoslavia in 1946, which ended in a 3–2 home defeat at Qemal Stafa Stadium. In 1946, Albania also participated for the first time in the Balkan Cup in which Albania won by beating Romania 1–0 in the final. In 1954, Albania was one of the founding members of UEFA. Albania waited until 1962 to compete in a Euro Cup competition and the only time Albania was between the best 16 teams of the Continent, the reason being Albania got past the first leg as Greece, for political reasons forfeited the game.