Braçe accuses the police/ They were guilty of the violence in the derby

2025-02-09 20:13:00, Sport CNA

SP MP Erion Braçe has accused the State Police of the violence in the derby between Partizan and Tirana.

Through a post on social media, Braçe accuses the police, saying that they did not even draft plans of measures to guarantee the safety of the fans.

According to him, neither Partizani nor the Albanian Football Association was to blame for the violence in the stadium between the two fan groups, but only the police.

Braçe writes that the State Police was mobilized for the derby only after a series of phone calls.

ERION BRAÇE'S POST:

CAPITAL DERBY: IT'S NOT AN ARREST, IT'S ASSOCIATION!

I have never understood why the most important match in Albanian football is perceived and played as a war. Today I was 1 hour and 15 minutes early at the stadium; the President of Partizan at 11:00; not to deal with his team, but with the State Police, security at the derby and the security of the opposing team, who did not leave the bus to the stadium without the State Police escort!

An hour or so before the match, the police were nowhere to be found! The derby has a standard procedure for the State Police: the day before, the State Police publishes the plan of measures, the routes for the movement of fans while guaranteeing everyone's safety, the controls, the method of entry and placement in the stadium. This time, none of this was declared the day before the match, at all!

Well, it was the only event in Tirana today, there was nothing else. So? The police were quickly mobilized after a series of phone calls that didn't need to be made at all; it should have been the police on duty, without phones!

The match was postponed by 30 minutes from the announced time! The deployment of the police in the stadium proved how unplanned the most important public security structure had been. Neither Partizani nor the Albanian Football Association was to blame for this, just the police!

Meanwhile, I am deeply saddened that several police officers were injured and this is another clear sign of the lack of a plan, even to control and disarm those who entered the stadium with stones, flares, and bombs!

In the end: a football match is not a war! Okay, it's not an opera, but it's not a war. It's neither violence nor hooliganism, which always has mothers and sisters as victims. Political slogans are then the usual nonsense. It's up to us, the fans, to make this our derby like yesterday's in Madrid, like Wednesday's in Liverpool!