In Albania, it seems that even the minimum boundary of public shame no longer exists.
On the evening of September 9, Igli Tare appeared smiling on Top Channel’s screen, on “Studio Champions League,” joking with former national team footballers about Altin Lala’s hair, old memories and football stories.
A completely normal scene, as if nothing had happened that day.
But only a few hours earlier, the Special Prosecution Against Corruption and Organized Crime had made public an extremely serious announcement, in which Igli Tare’s name appeared not as a former footballer, not as a sports executive and not as a television pundit, but as a person suspected of the criminal offense of laundering the proceeds of a criminal offense.
According to SPAK, Tare is suspected of having been used by Belinda Balluku to hide a villa in the “Green Coast” complex in Palasa, which the Prosecution claims the minister had in actual ownership.
SPAK goes even further.
According to the official announcement of the Special Prosecution, acts that SPAK considers fictitious are suspected of having been carried out in Igli Tare’s name, initially through a development contract and later through ownership documentation and a 2025 sale contract.
For this reason, SPAK publicly declared that:
“Citizen Igli Tare is suspected of having committed the criminal offense of ‘Laundering the proceeds of a criminal offense or criminal activity.’”
These are extraordinarily serious allegations.
Of course, Igli Tare, like any other person under investigation, is presumed innocent until his guilt is proven by a final court decision.
But the presumption of innocence does not mean suspending every moral, ethical and media standard.
No one is asking television to declare a man guilty without a court ruling.
But it is legitimate to ask:
Was it really normal that, on the very day SPAK published allegations of this weight against Igli Tare, one of the country’s biggest television stations placed him in the studio as if nothing had happened?
No question?
No explanation?
Not a single sentence about what the Special Prosecution had made public only a few hours earlier?
Only Champions League, smiles and jokes?
This is not a football issue.
It is an issue of public standards.
When a public figure is mentioned by the country’s most important anti-corruption investigative body in a case involving corruption, hidden assets and money laundering, we cannot behave as if the news does not exist just because the person in question has a great history in football.
In a normal society, public exposure also brings public responsibility.
Tare had the absolute right to be in the studio.
Top Channel had the right to invite him.
But the public has just as much right to ask how everything can continue with such frightening normality when, on the same day, the name of a television guest appears in an official SPAK announcement for one of the most serious economic offenses in the Criminal Code.
And that is where the biggest problem lies.
In Albania, a culture has been created in which scandal is consumed as news for a few minutes and then life goes on as if nothing had happened.
The politician continues in office.
The businessman continues with business.
The pundit continues on screen.
The public figure continues to smile under the studio lights.
And society is asked to get used to everything.
No.
There are times when a country must still have the ability to be scandalized.
SPAK claims that a villa involving investments of hundreds of thousands of euros was hidden in Igli Tare’s name and that he is suspected of money laundering in cooperation and on more than one occasion.
If these claims are untrue, Tare must refute them and publicly defend his name.
If there is an explanation for the contracts, ownership, payments and the relationship with the villa, the public deserves to hear it.
But what is impossible to accept as normal is the total silence and the direct shift from SPAK’s announcement to television jokes.
Because the problem is not only Igli Tare.
The problem is normalization.
It is the idea that in this country you can end up in the morning in a SPAK announcement about money laundering and in the evening in prime time discussing the Champions League, without anyone needing to ask you even a single question.
This is the real picture of a society that risks losing the reflex of shame.
And when public shame is lost, everything else becomes much easier.
Note: Igli Tare is considered innocent of any accusation until his guilt is proven by a final court decision. The claims mentioned in this article refer to SPAK’s public announcement dated September 9, 2026.