The Sports titles system of Albania was based on a government decree of 1967, which replaced prior legislation on sports titles as recognized by the Albanian Government. It was based on government decree Nr.4259, as of 11 April 1967 (On the creation of titles Merited Master of Sports, Master of Sports, Champion of the People's Republic of Albania, and Distinguished Sports Executive).
Athletes
The classification was established in Nr.4259, on 11 April 1967, and replaced the law number 3957 dated 18 January 1965 that gave the Distinguished athlete title, and instituted the four following titles:
This system was popular in Albania and was copied from the Soviet system of the Unified Sports Classification System of the USSR and Russia, as well as from Soviet satellite states and was used in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Poland, and Romania until the breakup of the USSR in 1991. Russia continued the system, and former Soviet republics Belarus, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan also maintain a similar or identical ranking system.