Prime Minister Edi Rama awarded the Grand Star of Public Gratitude Medal to seven Albanian talented sportsmen and sportswomen, world and European champions, who have represented Albania with highest degree of dignity in various sport disciplines, including skiing, weightlifting, wrestling, boxing, billiard and bodybuilding, in a sign of respect and gratitude for the hard work and commitment to sport.
PM Rama hosted the group of distinguished sportsmen in a special ceremony at the Maps Hall at the Prime Minister’s office, where he conferred the Grand Star of Public Gratitude Medal to weightlifters Briken Calja and Erkand Qerimaj and wrestler Zelimkhan Abakarov. The Premier also awarded the Star of the Public Gratitude to Eklent Kaçi, alpine skier Lara Colturi, boxer Alban Beqiri and bodybuilder Gentiana Beqa.
PM Rama noted in his remarks that government allocates financial support to medal winners in various sport disciplines, practically ranking elite sportswomen and sportsmen in par with their European peers and counterparts in terms of the financial assistance and remuneration, underlining that an additional payment will be also allocated to this category of sportsmen for the special training period to allow them train in optimum conditions together with their coaches and training staff.
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Hello everyone and allow me to welcome the President of International Weightlifting Federation, also my friend Mohammed (Jalood ), who is in love with Albania and will become an Albanian citizen soon, because what he thinks only is how to come back to Albania since he set foot in Albania for the first time and he finds all sorts of excuses to do so, and this for a good strong reason, as Albania hosted the world junior weightlifting championship and he deserves not only an applause for this, but also an expression of respect and admiration for the outstanding work Elez does as the head of the Federation.
It is an honour and a pleasure that in the course of an already established tradition with its cornerstone laid by our most incredible champion, Luiza, we honour through a family ceremony several other sports champions, who following the traces of a new tradition, we have decided to consolidate step by step, have raised our national flag and have made possible our national anthem be listened at the international and European sport arenas.
And I would avail myself of this opportunity to add that we also are determined to further deepen support for the elite sportsmen, in tandem with the sports movement in schools across the country. These are two paths through which we have decided to move sports forward, taking into consideration the needs of the elite sportsmen, not only the champions, but also the needs of those with the potential to become champions.
We will finally forward the online sports betting bill to parliament after the proposed piece of legislation will go through a public consultation process and approval by the government. The legislation will represent a significant step towards formalizing an aspect of this betting activity that, as experience shows, we are not the only ones to fail in our efforts to ban it, but this is the case with every country, including the countries with a broader authoritarian control, because it is an activity that takes advantage of incredibly infinite online opportunities.
So instead of letting this activity remain an informal one, most likely also fed by the illegal money, it will become a formalized activity that will provide access to the biggest international companies, an activity that would offer guarantees to players in all aspects, something they currently lack, and as stipulated by law all the revenue generated through this activity will be earmarked for sports, culture and technology. By technology I mean more support mostly for the youth digital education, but unlike previously the law clearly stipulates that the generated revenue will in no way be used to cover the government’s other needs, but instead will be allocated to support sports, culture and technology only. A new structure will be established, tasked with management and overseeing the whole functioning of this nascent industry. In the meantime a national board will become operational, with its members including government representatives, the head of the Olympic Committee, the President of the Albanian Football Federation to periodically decide about funding allocations according to projects and the needs of sport federations, the sector of culture, groups and various entities interested in developing cultural projects, as well as to support young people involved in the domain of technological development, in terms of their education and the launch of start-ups. It is a significant fund that we project conservatively and it will be a very necessary, but also very productive, new support for sports so that the sports movement continues and further strengthens.
Together with the sport federations, we have been focusing on women and men volleyball and basketball games, working in the meantime with other federations to create and provide opportunities so that more schoolchildren and students become involved in sports in schools across and notice the possible talented players and young sportsmen in various disciplines.
