Albanian Rutherball

Rutherball (or ackneela if you speak Albanian) is by far and away the second most popular sport in Albania.

There will be a traveling group of professional ackneelans traveling to Wisconsin in the spring for a series of exhibition. Green Bay Packer Bret Farve is sponsoring the trip in a sort of homage to his Alabanian grandfather.

The rules of ackneela are somewhat murky. There is a ball, a fish, a goat, a razor, a referee on a unicycle, and some cheese (feta preferably). I don’t understand the rules but I’m sure it will be televised on ESPN9. As long as they provide an analyst we’ll all be fine.

Catch the game (I think it’s a game) and you’ll see some high-flying action like this:

and like this:

www.ackneela.com is the link if you are interested.