Iliria Fushë-Krujë

Shkëlzen Rustami's name still comes up whenever the 1994 promotion play-off against Kastrioti Krujë is mentioned. It lasted one campaign: bottom of the table in 1994–95, straight back down.

Fushë-Krujë sits a few kilometres from Krujë, and the derby between the two towns' clubs carries the name Derbi i Krujës. That single top-flight season, brief as it was, still frames how the fixture is talked about locally — Iliria as the side that once got there and Kastrioti as the one they beat to do it.

The years after were harder than the single relegation suggests. The club's finances had rested heavily on Abaz Ulliri, a benefactor whose death left Iliria without the backing that had carried them into the Superliga, and they spent long stretches in the lower divisions as a result.

Games there are played at Stadiumi Redi Maloku, a 3,000-capacity ground in blue and white, the colours the team has kept through the lean years. Promotion out of Kategoria e Dytë came twice more: in 2013–14, ending the longest of those spells in the lower reaches, and again in 2024–25. Neither return matched 1994 for consequence, but each has kept Iliria moving between the second and first tiers rather than settling in either.

The 2024–25 title leaves the club in Kategoria e Parë, the second division, with the same question it has answered twice before and failed to hold onto once: whether a promotion can be turned into more than a single season.