Leisure firm guilty over footballer electrocution

A company is to be sentenced over the death of a five-a-side footballer who was electrocuted at a leisure centre in 2016.

Albert Xhediku, 34, received the fatal shock from a floodlight when he went to retrieve a football at the Mountbatten centre in Portsmouth.

Parkwood Community Leisure Ltd, which operated the pitch at the time, indicated a guilty plea to a health and safety offence at Portsmouth Magistrates' Court.

The firm has been ordered to reappear for sentencing on 16 June.

Taxi driver Xhediku was playing with friends on 17 January 2016 when the ball went out of play and he climbed a fence to collect it.

While climbing, he touched a floodlight which delivered the shock, an inquest previously heard.

Xhediku's friends, who also suffered electric shocks as they pulled him down, attempted to resuscitate him but he was pronounced dead in hospital later the same evening.

In November 2025, the Health and Safety Executive said it had charged the leisure firm with failing to ensure public safety.

In a previous statement, Xhediku's family said: "Albert was a guy who did everything with all his heart.

"Even when he was just playing football with his friends, he played like it was the championships.

"He was our big brother and a loving son."

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