Klubi Futbollit Laçi

Klubi Futbollit Laçi is an Albanian football (soccer) club based in Laç. Its home ground is "Laçi Stadium", which has a capacity of 5,000.
Founded in 1965 under name Industriali Laç, itsfirst participation in the Albanian First Division was in 1992. In the 2006-07 season, the club played in the Albanian Second Division. Currently in top position in Albanian First Division 2008/2009 season.

History

Altin Cuko is the KF Laçi player to have won the Albanian Superliga Golden Boot whilst still playing for the club.^[1] This was achieved in the 1995-1996 season where KF Laçi finished in 12th place, out of 18. Cuko had already scored 5 goals for KS Tomori Berat before moving to KF Laçi in January 1996, where he netted another 16 times to give him the Golden boot with a total of 21 goals throughout the entire season with both Tomori and Laçi.^[2]

Management

The club appointed current manager Stavri Nica on 7 July 2006, ahead of the 2006-2007 season in the Albanian First Division. The owner of the club Pashk Laska revealed the new manager at the club's Stadiumi Laçi in front of a considerable number of fans.^[3] Nica has guided the club to promotion to the top tier of Albanian football and along with it has managed to win the Albanian First Division title in the 2008-2009 season. Laçi made the best finish in Superliga as 4th in 2009-10 season and qualified for UEFA Europe League once.

Stadium

The club currently play their home games at the Stadiumi Laçi which has a capacity of around 5000 people. Following a very impressive 2009-2010 campaign the club's directors turned to reconstructing the current stadium in hope of gaining the UEFA licence to stage their Europa League games at their home ground. The club installed 1500 plastic seats into the "Karshi" stand.^[4]

Europe

Laci have only ever competed in Europe just once in 2010 in the Europa League, they achieved this through their very good 2009-2010 campaign in which they finished 4th and earned a place in Europe for the first time. The club's first ever European game was played on 1 July 2010 at the Stadiumi Niko Dovana in Durres. They played FC Dnepr Mogilev of Belarus in the Europa League 1st qualifying round and their first ever match finished 1-1. Although Laçi had the lesser of the chances and only had 2 goal attempts in the match, they still managed to lead for much of the second half through a goal by youngster Bledar Marashi in injury time in the first half. However Dnepro equalised in the 92nd minute through Dmitri Turlin which ruined a dream European debut for Laçi.^[5]