Hardy(T)'s World Soccer Diary

7/9/96, Permet, Albania

A Saturday afternoon in Albania - what does a chap's thoughts turn to? Football, of course, and so it was that five plucky Englishmen left their base camp in the Pindus Mountains and walked the 5km or so into Permet in search of top Albanian Second Division action.

We'd been encouraged by the steady stream of traffic into the town and general blaring of car horns, but when we arrived at the Stadiumi Durum Qypi, we were disappointed to discover that the local team, Permëtë, were playing away this week. To be honest, it looked as though Permëtë hadn't played at home for quite some time: the grass was about 10 inches high, although this problem was being alleviated by some goats grazing in the penalty area; the terraces were crumbling and completely overrun with weeds; and the goal posts had an 'interesting' configuration: a third post, not dissimilar to the one used by my mother to hold up the clothes line, had been placed in the middle of the each goal to prop up the sagging crossbars! The goats, it turned out, belonged to the family of gypsies who were living under the main stand!!!

A couple of what transpired to be reserve or junior players emerged from the stands to tell us, in a combination of pidgin English, sign language and the particularly useful Albanian word "Futboll", that there was no match on this week. However, they produced ball and invited us to have a bit of a kickaround on the hallowed turf. This we did for a while until we'd decided a) we were knackered b) we were too embarrassed and c) it was time for a few swift "birra" in the appropriately named Kristal Bar (Mark is a Palace fan!). Of course, this England Invitation Side was captured on film for posterity...

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