Armenia awaits league roll call
Wednesday, 22 March 2006
by Khachik Chakhoyan
from Yerevan
The new Armenian season will start on 25 March with
the opening games in the Armenian Cup but league
matters are still shrouded in mystery.
Big guns
Twelve sides will compete in this season’s Armenian
Cup, with big guns FC Pyunik, FC Banants, FC MIKA and
FC Kilikia not joining until the quarter-finals in
early April. By then it is hoped that more will be
known about who will compete in the Armenian Premier
League when it starts in mid-April.
Promoted sides
Last season, the Premier League kicked off with nine
clubs but ended with eight following the withdrawal of
FC Lernayin Artsakh. Three more sides were set to join
the division this season – FC Ararat-2 Yerevan, FC
Yerevan United and FC Gandzasar Kapan – but there have
already been problems.
Clubs dissolved
FC Dinamo-Zenit Yerevan and Yerevan United have
already been forced to dissolve following the
departure of their Australian backers, Hakob
Djambazyan and Tigran Hovivyan respectively, while FC
Kotayk, FC Shirak and FC Lernagorts are all
experiencing varying levels of financial problems.
Kotayk concern
Kotayk in particular are not out of the woods despite
resolving their initial problems with unpaid wages to
players and staff. The club are only just beginning
their preparations for the new campaign, but their
Iranian owners are showing a worrying lack of urgency
in paying off Kotayk’s debts.
Name swap
In an unusual move, newly promoted Ararat-2 have
swapped names with their senior side FC Ararat
Yerevan. Ararat-2, originally the reserve side of
Ararat, won promotion to the top division at the same
time as the senior side were being relegated. The
original Ararat will now play in the second division
as Ararat-2.
Four Brazilians
The new Ararat have inherited much of the old Ararat’s
squad, and have brought in Marcos Pizeli to add to
their Brazilian trio of Emilio Kalsani, Renato De
Moraes and Renato Gabriel. However, Levon Kasaboglyan
has joined Kilikia along with Shirak midfielder Ararat
Harutyunyan.
Pyunik campaign
Among the title contenders for 2006, reigning
champions Pyunik have yet to make any new additions,
although Russian Boris Melkonyan and Eduard Partsikyan
are expected to sign. Mika, meanwhile, have signed
Ukrainian Vadim Gospodar, Russian Aleksei Semenov and
two Brazilians, Alex and Kleber.
Banants reinforcements
Banants have appointed Nikolaj Kiseljev as their new
coach and have brought in goalkeeper Nikolay
Galiguzov, defender Andrei Cherevko, midfielders
Sergei Sizikhin and Andrei Burdian along with striker
Ivan Zabolotskiy on one-year contracts.
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