2023–24 Kategoria Superiore

Kategoria Superiore

Season	2023–24
Dates	26 August 2023 – 26 May 2024
Champions	Egnatia 1st title
Relegated	Erzeni Kukësi
Champions League	Egnatia
Conference League	Partizani Vllaznia Tirana
Matches played	184
Goals scored	418 (2.27 per match)
Top goalscorer	Bekim Balaj (18 goals)
Biggest home win	Laçi 6–1 Teuta (15 September 2023) Vllaznia 5–0 Skëndërbeu (22 December 2023)
Biggest away win	Egnatia 0–5 Tirana (24 December 2023)
Highest scoring	Egnatia 4–3 Erzeni (14 September 2023) Laçi 6–1 Teuta (15 September 2023) Partizani 4–3 Kukësi (8 October 2023) Tirana 3–4 Skënderbeu (28 January 2024)
Longest winning run	6 matches Partizani
Longest unbeaten run	12 matches Partizani Vllaznia
Longest winless run	16 matches Kukësi
Longest losing run	8 matches Kukësi
← 2022–23 2024–25 → All statistics correct as of 26 May 2024.

The 2023–24 Kategoria Superiore was the 85th official season, or 86th season of top-tier football in Albania (including three unofficial championships during World War II) and the 24th season under the name Kategoria Superiore. The season began on 26 August 2023 and ended on 26 May 2024. Egnatia won the league title on 26 May 2024, beating Partizani in the final match.

The winners of this season's Kategoria Superiore earned a place in the first qualifying round of the 2024–25 Champions League, with the second and third placed clubs earning a place in the first qualifying round of the 2024–25 Conference League.

Teams

Two clubs have earned promotion from the Kategoria e Parë, Dinamo City and Skënderbeu (both promoted after a one-year absence). Bylis (relegated after only one year in the top flight) and Kastrioti (relegated after three years in the top flight) were relegated to Kategoria e Parë at the conclusion of last season.

Locations

Dinamo
Partizani
Tirana

Egnatia

Erzeni

Kukësi

Laçi

Skënderbeu

Teuta

Vllaznia

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2023–24 Kategoria Superiore teams.

Team	Home city	Stadium	Capacity	2022–23 season
Dinamo City	Tirana	Various		Runner-up (Kategoria e Parë)
Egnatia	Rrogozhinë	Egnatia Arena	4,000	3rd
Erzeni	Shijak	Egnatia Arena	4,000	8th
Kukësi	Kukës	Kukës Arena	6,322	7th
Laçi	Laç	Laçi Stadium	8,000	5th
Partizani	Tirana	Arena e Demave	4,500	Champion
Skënderbeu	Korçë	Skënderbeu Stadium	12,343	Champion (Kategoria e Parë)
Teuta	Durrës	Niko Dovana Stadium	12,040	6th
Tirana	Tirana	Various		2nd
Vllaznia	Shkodër	Loro Boriçi Stadium	16,000	4th

Stadiums

Dinamo City	Egnatia	Erzeni	Kukësi	Laçi
Various	Egnatia Arena	Egnatia Arena	Kukës Arena UEFA stadium category	Laçi Stadium
	Capacity: 4,000	Capacity: 4,000	Capacity: 6,322	Capacity: 8,000
Partizani	Skënderbeu	Teuta	Tirana	Vllaznia
Arena e Demave	Skënderbeu Stadium	Niko Dovana Stadium	Various	Loro Boriçi Stadium UEFA stadium category
Capacity: 4,500	Capacity: 12,343	Capacity: 12,040		Capacity: 16,000

Personnel and kits

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players and Managers may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Team	President	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Dinamo City	Ardian Bardhi	Dritan Mehmeti	Rustem Hoxha	Macron	Durrës Yachts & Marina
Egnatia	Agim Demrozi	Edlir Tetova	Renato Malota	Joma	Spitali Amavita
Erzeni	Elton Arbana	Alfred Deliallisi	Nehar Sadiki	Macron	Sinani
Kukësi	Safet Gjici	Bledar Devolli	Angelo Tafa	Suzmar	Kevin Construction
Laçi	Pashk Laska	Armando Cungu	Ajdi Dajko	Uhlsport
Partizani	Gazmend Demi	Orges Shehi	Alban Hoxha	Macron
Skënderbeu	Ardjan Takaj	Ivan Gvozdenović	Dean Liço	Uhlsport	Caffè Quaranta
Teuta	Edmond Hasanbelliu	Edi Martini	Blerim Kotobelli	Macron	Klinika 4-D
Tirana	Refik Halili	Bledi Shkëmbi	Filip Najdovski	Joma
Vllaznia	Alban Xhaferi	Thomas Brdarić	Bekim Balaj	Suzmar	Sigal

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Vllaznia	Goce Sedloski	End of contract	31 May 2023	Pre-season	Migen Memelli	6 June 2023
Teuta	Edi Martini	Mutual consent	3 June 2023		Diego Longo	16 June 2023
Partizani	Giovanni Colella	Resigned	7 June 2023		Zoran Zekić	12 June 2023
Dinamo City	Dritan Mehmeti	Mutual consent	1 August 2023		Luigi Di Biagio	1 August 2023
Laçi	Stavri Nica	Sacked	29 August 2023	5th	Skerdi Bejzade	31 August 2023
Kukësi	Rrahman Hallaçi		4 September 2023	10th	Stavri Nica	4 September 2023
Teuta	Diego Longo	Mutual consent	24 September 2023	8th	Edi Martini	25 September 2023
Laçi	Skerdi Bejzade		29 September 2023	7th	Mirel Josa	30 September 2023
Tirana	Orges Shehi	Sacked	5 October 2023	4th	Julian Ahmataj	5 October 2023
Partizani	Zoran Zekić	Signed by Osijek	10 October 2023	5th	Arbër Abilaliaj	10 October 2023
Dinamo City	Luigi Di Biagio	Resigned	22 October 2023	10th	Dritan Mehmeti	25 October 2023
Vllaznia	Migen Memelli	Mutual consent	29 October 2023	7th	Qatip Osmani	30 October 2023
Partizani	Arbër Abilaliaj	End of caretaker spell	26 December 2023	2nd	Orges Shehi	26 December 2023
Kukësi	Stavri Nica	Resigned	31 January 2024	9th	Emiliano Çela	31 January 2024
Erzeni	Alfred Deliallisi	Mutual consent	8 February 2024	8th	Skerdi Bejzade	8 February 2024
Kukësi	Emiliano Çela	Resigned	17 February 2024	10th	Bledar Devolli	17 February 2024
Tirana	Julian Ahmataj	Sacked	20 February 2024	4th	Erbim Fagu	20 February 2024
Laçi	Mirel Josa	Mutual consent	3 March 2024	7th	Armando Cungu	3 March 2024
Erzeni	Skerdi Bejzade		4 March 2024	9th	Alfred Deliallisi	4 March 2024
Vllaznia	Qatip Osmani		25 April 2024	2nd	Thomas Brdarić	26 April 2024

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Egnatia (C)	36	18	9	9	51	38	+13	63	Qualification for the Final four round
2	Partizani	36	17	12	7	51	29	+22	63
3	Vllaznia	36	16	11	9	41	34	+7	59
4	Skënderbeu	36	15	6	15	37	39	−2	51
5	Tirana	36	13	11	12	56	49	+7	50	Qualification for the Conference League first qualifying round
6	Teuta	36	13	11	12	36	35	+1	50
7	Dinamo City	36	13	8	15	42	43	−1	47
8	Laçi (O)	36	10	16	10	37	31	+6	46	Qualification for the relegation play-off
9	Erzeni (R)	36	7	11	18	29	57	−28	32	Relegation to the 2024–25 Kategoria e Parë
10	Kukësi (R)	36	6	9	21	31	56	−25	27

Source: Albanian Football Association
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head goals scored; 5) Goal difference; 6) Goals scored; 7) Draw.
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated
Notes:

Results

Clubs will play each other four times for a total of 36 matches each.

First half of season

Home \ Away	DIN	EGN	ERZ	KUK	LAÇ	PAR	SKË	TEU	TIR	VLL
Dinamo	—	1–2	1–0	2–1	2–0	1–3	2–1	2–3	2–3	1–1
Egnatia	3–0	—	4–3	2–1	2–1	1–1	0–1	0–1	0–5	3–0
Erzeni	2–1	0–1	—	0–0	0–0	1–2	1–2	0–0	1–0	2–2
Kukësi	0–0	0–4	2–1	—	1–0	1–1	2–2	0–0	1–2	1–0
Laçi	0–1	0–2	3–3	1–1	—	0–1	2–0	6–1	2–2	2–1
Partizani	0–0	1–1	1–2	4–3	1–0	—	1–1	1–1	2–1	4–1
Skënderbeu	1–0	1–1	1–0	0–1	0–1	1–0	—	3–1	1–1	0–2
Teuta	1–2	2–2	0–1	0–0	1–1	0–1	1–0	—	2–2	0–1
Tirana	1–1	2–3	0–1	3–2	0–3	1–1	3–1	2–0	—	0–1
Vllaznia	3–1	0–2	1–1	3–1	0–0	0–0	5–0	2–0	0–1	—

Source: Albanian Football Association
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Second half of season

Home \ Away	DIN	EGN	ERZ	KUK	LAÇ	PAR	SKË	TEU	TIR	VLL
Dinamo	—	0–1	2–0	3–2	0–0	2–1	2–0	1–0	2–3	0–1
Egnatia	1–1	—	3–2	1–0	0–0	2–1	1–0	0–0	0–3	0–1
Erzeni	0–4	1–0	—	3–3	0–0	0–4	0–3	0–3	0–2	0–1
Kukësi	1–1	1–4	1–2	—	1–0	0–1	0–2	0–2	2–3	2–0
Laçi	1–1	1–2	0–0	2–0	—	1–1	0–1	1–1	1–0	1–1
Partizani	2–0	1–1	4–0	3–0	1–2	—	1–0	1–0	2–1	0–0
Skënderbeu	0–1	2–0	1–0	1–0	1–1	1–0	—	0–1	0–0	0–1
Teuta	1–0	1–0	3–0	1–0	0–1	1–0	3–0	—	2–2	0–0
Tirana	3–2	1–1	1–1	1–0	1–1	1–2	3–4	1–2	—	0–0
Vllaznia	1–0	2–1	1–1	1–0	1–2	1–1	1–5	2–1	3–1	—

Source: Albanian Football Association
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Final four round

A draw was conducted in order to decide the semi-finals. Seeding of teams was based on their league ranking, with two seeded teams and two unseeded. In the semi-finals, in case of a tie after 90 minutes, the team with the higher league ranking will qualify to the final.

Bracket

	Semi-finals				Final
	17 May
	Partizani	1
					26 May
	Skënderbeu	0
					Partizani	0
	19 May
					Egnatia	1
	Egnatia (b.p.)	0
	Vllaznia	0
					Third place play-off
					24 May
					Skënderbeu	3
					Vllaznia	2

Semi-finals

17 May 2024

20:00

Partizani	1–0	Skënderbeu
Bintsouka 47'

Arena Kombëtare, Tirana

Referee: Enea Jorgji

---

19 May 2024

20:00

Egnatia	0–0	Vllaznia

Arena Kombëtare, Tirana

Referee: Juxhin Xhaja

Egnatia qualified to the final as the team with the higher ranking in the regular season.

Third place play-off

24 May 2024

20:00

Skënderbeu	3−2	Vllaznia
Nikaj 11' Liço 16' Rashica 33'		Mala 42' (pen.) Balaj 81' (pen.)

Arena Kombëtare, Tirana

Referee: Eldorjan Hamiti

Final

26 May 2024

19:00

Partizani	0–1	Egnatia
		İbrahimoğlu 35'

Arena Kombëtare, Tirana

Referee: Anthony Taylor (England)

Relegation play-off

19 May 2024

16:00

Laçi	3–1 (a.e.t.)	Flamurtari
Cordeiro 45+4', 109' (pen.) Mjaki 116'		Dajko 63' (o.g.)

Laçi Stadium, Laç

Referee: Erjon Bastari

Season statistics

Scoring

Top scorers

As of 24 May 2024

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Bekim Balaj	Vllaznia	18
2	Kristal Abazaj	Tirana	11
3	Archange Bintsouka	Partizani	10
	Florent Hasani	Tirana
5	Klejdi Daci	Teuta	9
	Luis Kaçorri	Dinamo City
	Nnamdi Ahanonu	Skënderbeu
	Raphael Dwamena	Egnatia
	Ronald Sobowale	Laçi

Hat-tricks

Main article: List of Kategoria Superiore hat-tricks

Player	Club	Against	Result	Date
Raphael Dwamena	Egnatia	Erzeni	4–3 (H)	13 September 2023
Archange Bintsouka	Partizani	Kukësi	4–3 (H)	8 October 2023
Ildi Gruda	Vllaznia	Skënderbeu	5–0 (H)	22 December 2023

Notes

(H) – Home team
(A) – Away team

Discipline

Player

• Most yellow cards: 12
  • Albano Aleksi (Egnatia)
  • Ardit Krymi (Vllaznia)
  • Artan Jazxhi (Teuta)
  • Blerim Kotobelli (Teuta)
  • Geralb Smajli (Vllaznia)

• Most red cards: 2
  • Albano Aleksi (Egnatia)
  • Bakary Goudiaby (Dinamo City)

See also

• Kategoria Superiore

External links

• Official website (in Albanian)
• Kategoria Superiore at uefa.com