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Mitch
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There were rumours about a trip being run by the club. Does anyone know if this is going to happen?

 

Thinking of just paying the money to minimise the mucking about that is going to need to be done!

 

Deals out there is you do a good bit of planning!

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Fans are being advised in the strongest possible way not to travel to Albania at all next week...

 

The club won't be running a charter for fans as a result I am afraid.

 

http://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/index.php?op...&Itemid=133

 

'Flow

 

Do you know what the reasoning behind this is Flow? The FCO website had said Albania was fine to travel to last week so just curious if there's been some sort of tip off or if they reckon it's normally fine but not so for football fans?

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Got this from Flamurtari's site.

 

'Just 10 days before the match European team Flamurtari following preparations, carried out mainly in the preparation of the scope of annex facilities near the stadium. Seeing the high temperatures of recent days, training sessions are focused mainly in the afternoon hours.'

 

Looks like the weather on Thursday is going to be scorching.

 

http://www.weather-forecast.com/locations/...orecasts/latest

 

When are the team due to go out? We bit of acclimatising needed maybe. Saying that i don't know what the weathers been like back home.

 

Also on the site they mention that there is a problem with ID cards for locals in the Vlore region. Maybe that's what the fuss of not travelling is all about.

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You can get there and back for about £340, travelling all day on the Wednesday (Ryanair Prestwick -> Milan -> Brindisi, then an overnight Ferry to Vlore. The route back is BA Tirana -> Gatwick -> Glasgow on the Friday evening. Basically means you travel all day Wednesday, have all day and night Thursday and Friday afternoon to yourself then you're home before midnight on Friday.

 

What is the deal with match tickets then? Is the club advising us not to travel, or are we being told we're not travelling, and thus not having tickets sold to us from Fir Park?

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I'm inclined to believe this is just typical ignorance on the police's part concerning how dangerous places like Albania really are. I've been to Albania and there's nothing remotely dangerous about it - a few landmines left over from the war in some specific places that are at the opposite end of the country to Vlore and that's about it.

 

Anyway, the easiest and cheapest way that I can see to get to this game is to get a cheap flight out to Corfu (right next to Albania and lots of flights available at this time of year) and then get a ferry to Sarande which is a bit down the coast from Vlore. There's a ferry every day from Corfu to Sarande, it takes 30 minutes and costs about 20 Euros. From Sarande it's simple enough to get a bus or one of the private minibuses everyone uses there (furgons) to Vlore. You don't even need to stay in the place, which is just an industrial port town and can stay in Sarande instead (which is quite nice) or even Corfu itself (many people make daytrips to Albania from Corfu). If you find a cheap flight to Corfu then it won't be that expensive at all.

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I don't think it's ignorance on anyone's part. It's just common sense so that when some fans are robbed or locked up by the local polis for being drunk or whatever, they can't complain that they weren't warned. I know things in Albania have changed in recent years, but there is no guarantee their local plod will have as light a touch as the Lllanelli boys.

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I'm sure I'm right in saying aswell that Flamaturi have one of the maddest sets of casuals/ultras in Albania aswell.

 

To a certain extent I feel that the club are maybe being slightly over zealous in this but I can understand why. Albania has a lot of gypsies/thieves/large mafia also who will look at this as the perfect oppurtunity to fleece.

 

In saying that though this would be a great trip to go on.

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I don't think it's ignorance on anyone's part. It's just common sense so that when some fans are robbed or locked up by the local polis for being drunk or whatever, they can't complain that they weren't warned. I know things in Albania have changed in recent years, but there is no guarantee their local plod will have as light a touch as the Lllanelli boys.

 

Advising all fans to avoid travelling on the off chance (and that's what it is) that some of them get mugged isn't common sense as far as I'm concerned. It's more like rampant scaremongering. The only reason this would make sense is if there were some specific threat to Motherwell fans at the football - like the casuals which have been mentioned.

 

However you're probably correct that the only reason the police are trotting this out is to absolve themselves from any criticism should someone get into a spot of bother - "don't say you weren't warned". They said exactly the same thing when Dundee played in Albania a few years ago and nothing happened.

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This from the Foreign Office site:

 

"According to the Albanian Ministry of the Interior, there were nearly 38,000 entries into Albania by British nationals in 2006. Most visits are trouble-free. The main type of incident for which British nationals required consular assistance in Albania in 2007 was for replacing lost or stolen passports."

 

Full link here:

http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travelling-and-li.../europe/albania

 

 

Seems mad overkill by the club!

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At the end of the day, their job is to provide safety and security measures, obviously they have no power to stop you travelling, but it is their duty to inform you of what their advice is, its up to you if you heed it and if you encounter any problems, then you've been warned it's a possibility.

 

I don't think the advice of the club/police is whats going to stop fans going, the fact it's hardly an easily accessible location is the bigger factor.

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Guys, just to help get the right message from the club, we are not trying to stop anyone from travelling to the match and of course it is your choice to do so. All we want to do and indeed tried to do in both our website updates earlier it to say that there are genuine concerns and to be aware of them. We are not running a club charter this time - the team are going on scheduled flights so for those independent travellers we want you to be aware of all available information before you book.

 

We possibly went out a bit to quick last night with our statement ?? but we wanted to make sure that before flights were booked etc that everyone had the info. Some fair comments and as I have said before we won't hide.

 

To wrap up, there will be more information coming out from the club for those who do decide to go and we'll make this live as soon as we get it.

 

Alan will keep the site updated and as ever, you have my details if you want to rant in person.

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Fair enough. Ill defo be there anyway. Direct flights from Rome booked so thats ok even though they are a few hundred quid and Ill just rent a car and drive down I think. Borther and dad coming as well so should be good. Hopefully tickets shouldnt be a problem!!

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Guys, just to help get the right message from the club, we are not trying to stop anyone from travelling to the match and of course it is your choice to do so. All we want to do and indeed tried to do in both our website updates earlier it to say that there are genuine concerns and to be aware of them. We are not running a club charter this time - the team are going on scheduled flights so for those independent travellers we want you to be aware of all available information before you book.

 

We possibly went out a bit to quick last night with our statement ?? but we wanted to make sure that before flights were booked etc that everyone had the info. Some fair comments and as I have said before we won't hide.

 

To wrap up, there will be more information coming out from the club for those who do decide to go and we'll make this live as soon as we get it.

 

Alan will keep the site updated and as ever, you have my details if you want to rant in person.

 

Who's this Alan guy and whats his role in the Flow of information here ? :thumbup:

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