From Korça, Prime Minister Edi Rama stated that one of the main objectives is to turn sports, especially football, into an engine for tourism and economic development. Thus, in other words, Rama said that the plan is to develop the sports infrastructure so that well-known European teams can come and hold preparatory sessions in Albania.
"It is the ambition to transform sports and football in the first place, into an increased opportunity for tourism by providing infrastructure and logistics for foreign teams to come and train in Albania. I believe that Korça can be the first on this new road, with these new developments to offer optimal opportunities for European teams to spend their preparatory period here, bringing an added economic and financial value to the city". said Prime Minister Edi Rama.
He added that children will also be in focus, emphasizing that sports grounds will be added so that they can be accessible to everyone, from rural to urban areas. For this, he said that finances are not a problem, but a good coordination between institutions is needed.
"The first element is the financing, together with the Federation, of all the football support infrastructure, which are exactly those training fields or football playing fields for the little ones. Here I believe that with the closing of the local elections and with the resumption of the work of all municipalities, a better coordination will be needed and a closer cooperation will be needed because in this case we do not have a problem with financing, we have a problem with coordination with the local government for to make available suitable grounds that make sense in terms of the entire networking of the system to cover all of Albania and to cover all communities with this infrastructure that is accessible to all children of Albania, wherever they are , regardless of whether they are in the middle of the city or in a peripheral administrative unit.
This is very important in view of our entire project of sports in schools, sports for children, where with the Albanian Football Federation we really have a great potential for development and progress to unite all forces", continued Prime Minister Edi Rama
Rama made this statement at the final of the International Competition for the "Skënderbeu" Stadium Project, for a New Center of Korça, where the 3 finalists were presented.