Guide to Albania

BBC Sport Online's Simon Austin offers a quick guide to the country of Albania, who meet England at Newcastle.

Albania has often been described as the most obscure country in Europe.

Few westerners seem to know much about the small country in the Balkans, even though it was brought to international attention by the Kosovan war.

Before that, it was known mainly for having been ruled by King Zog in the 1930s before becoming a surreal communist state.

Albania is a country of about three-and-a-quarter million people, situated west of the Balkan peninsula in south-east Europe.

  Albania factfile

Population: 3.75m

Location: South-east Europe, west of Balkan peninsula.

Capital: Tirana

Climate: Wet and cold in winter; dry and hot in summer.

Geography: Mountainous - 70% of land surface covered by mountains.

National food: Lamb

It is one of the world's poorest nations, a problem made worse by recent conflicts and the subsequent influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees.

About 50% of Albania's population lives in the countryside. The country is very mountainous and its altitude is twice as high as England's on average.

Albanian winters are cold and wet, fairly similar to England's, while the summers are dry and hot.

Former Communist regime

The capital city is Tirana, where England won 3-1 in March.

Tirana has a population of about 500,000 and is a city of ramshackle industry and crumbling blocks of flats.

There is little to visit in the city. There are still impressive buildings, built during the communist regime, but the huge statues of Lenin and Stalin that once stood on the main avenue have been pulled down.

The centre of Albania's capital, Tirana

Albania was a communist republic for 45 years up until 1992.

Westerners that did venture there found it a pretty bizarre place.

For example, any foreigners arriving at the country's only international airport had to have a severe haircut from the state barber if they had long locks.

Balkan conflict

But there was also a sinister side. During the years of communism, 10% of the population was either imprisoned or sent into exile.

Religion was abolished and intellectual and cultural life stunted.

Then it became a democracy, but rather than instilling peace and harmony, this seemed to spark mass protests and internal conflict.

Hundreds of thousands fled the country on illegal boats in search of a better life in Italy and Greece.

Then in the late 1990s came the Kosovan war, which led to further problems.

Conflict threatened to call March's game between England and Albania into doubt but it was subsequently deemed safe for the crucial World Cup qualifier to go ahead.