Our Man in Tirana

Greetings from wet and cold Belfast. With flights on British Airway's new London-Tirana route having begun, the British newspapers are featuring Tirana in their travel sections. The Times , The Independent and The Observer have covered the city in recent editions. Whether this will translate into a rush of adventurous travellers remains to be seen, though the Daily Telegraph did report that BA are claiming that there is 'considerable demand' for the flights. We will be sampling BA's service for ourselves when we return to Tirana in a little while, when normal blog service will be resumed.

I watched the Champions League quarter finals on the big screen at the Sheraton. As expected, most of the crowd were cheering for Milan in their games against Lyon. Unexpectedly, most of the crowd were cheering for Arsenal against Juventus. Why is this so? Are Albanians particularly hostile to Juventus? Or are they particularly fond of Arsenal? Is the English Premiership more popular than Serie A? Or - my best guess - was I in a room full of Milan supporters? Meanwhile, it has been some time since I updated you on the coaching situation at Dinamo. Ivan Katalinić had been in charge last time I commented, but he was sacked after the team lost to Partizan and was replaced by non-other than Luka Bonačić. This was the man who resigned earlier in the season saying 'The team has no discipline. There is no work ethic in this team and in Albanian football as well. Without that it is impossible to work and in such work conditions there is no chance to achieve your objectives.' When re-a