The stadium of the first conference league final

The Tirana stadium, Air Albania Stadium or Arena Kombëtare, where the first ever Conference League match between AS Roma and Feyenoord will be awarded tonight, is a small jewel of Italian architecture. Inaugurated with the Albania-France match, valid for the 2020 European Championship qualifiers, and born out of the strong will of the Albanian government and the Albanian Football Federation, which wanted a new arena for the local national team replacing the now-defunct Qemal Stafa Stadium, it can accommodate up to 22,500 spectators. The old stadium was not entirely demolished, however; rather, the Air Albania Stadium is an example of architectural integration, between history and modernity. Constructed by the Florentine architectural firm Archea Associati, it took into account the old facility's courtly façade and incorporated it into the new design through a complicated restoration that included moving and rebuilding it within the new structure. 

The previous stadium had also been designed by an Italian architect, Gherardo Bosio, in 1939 and included a monumental travertine marble entrance facing Piazzale Italia. The facade represented the true value of the structure dedicated to the Hero of the People and founder of the Albanian Communist Party Qemal Stafa, who was killed at the age of 22 by fascists in 1942, and was preserved to preserve its historical and social value. A job that required great caution and planning, and which was completed by the Tuscan firm of Tacheolab thanks to the laser-scanner technique that allows each block to be numbered and recognized and then the entire structure to be reassembled. At this stage alone, seven months were needed while it took three years to finish the construction of the new stadium.

Air Albania Stadium was designed with a modern, dynamic profile, incorporating unloaded shapes and curved lines to create an engaging effect. The concave countercurves on the four sides of the perimeter graft the stadium into the plaza and make it a shared public space beyond soccer games. The exterior facades feature 3,200 sunshade elements in bright red and black, the colors of the Albanian flag, alternating with large windows that feature a pattern inspired by traditional local carpets. On the northwest corner of the stadium rises a 112-meter-high tower that houses the Albanian headquarters of the Marriott Hotel while each grandstand has been dedicated to a player from the major local professional teams. Now this 22,500-seat arena is ready to host its first European final, with Roma and Feyenoord fans coloring the stands as they wait for the first Conference Cup to be raised to the Tirana sky.