Armen Melikbekyan: 'I was there for our first competitive goal!'
Monday, October 20, 2025
Article top media content
Article body
As a lifelong fan and then a sports journalist before first joining the national association 20 years ago, Football Federation of Armenia (FFA) president Armen Melikbekyan knows just what football means to the people of his country.
FFA president since 2019, earlier this year Melikbekyan became the first Armenian ever elected to the UEFA Executive Committee.
Here, he discusses the privilege, as well as some of the challenges, of leading one of Europe's youngest national associations and outlines their aims for an exciting future.
Armen, can you tell us about your journey to the FFA?
I have been a football fan since my childhood. I always played at youth level and spent a lot of time as a ballboy at our former national stadium.
I was present at the early games of our national team when we first started in 1992, and I am still extremely proud that, as a ballboy, I was there for our very first goal in an official game, for the EURO '96 qualifiers. You can even see me behind the goal on the replays!
As a 19-year-old, I began work as a sports journalist for national television, joining the association in 2005 as deputy chief executive. After leaving in 2009 and working as an investigative journalist focusing on human rights, I returned to the FFA in 2018 and was elected president in 2019.
How proud were you to be elected to the UEFA Executive Committee earlier this year?
I was very proud but not just for me – for Armenian football. It's important because it is the first time the nation has been represented on the Executive Committee, and it shows that we are working well as a national association.
Our influence is slowly increasing across European football, with more delegates, committee members and referees, and it means we're doing a good job. It's an important achievement for the country and the FFA.
Armenia's FC Noah have qualified twice in a row for the league phase of the UEFA Conference League – how beneficial is that for the domestic game?
I like the Noah project very much. The club's owner, Vardges Vardanyan, is a huge enthusiast and is fully devoted to his club and the game.
He has invested a lot, but for me, the results of the team are not as important as what they are doing in Vagharshapa, close to Yerevan, where they are investing in amazing infrastructure that will help our players develop and serve our nation. This is very important.
Our domestic league is competitive. We would still like to have a professional league, which would help the development even more, but in Europe, we have risen in coefficients and may have the possibility to do so again. This is not only down to Noah's achievements, because we were scoring some useful points before that with FC Pyunik's achievements.
We are speaking during the men's international window, which means a busy period of matches and travel – what's this like for a national association president?
There is always adrenaline when you are travelling with the national team, and of course it is still exciting to see everything from the inside, and we have a very good team spirit.
For a small association like the FFA, it's constant work and a lot of stress, because our expectations are high and everybody wants the national team to win.
For me, the most important thing is the quality of the game – the result is extremely important, but the quality of the performance for smaller teams is crucial. In this period, I'm happy, because we have a new coach, we are building a new team, and the quality of football is not bad.
How beneficial has the introduction of the UEFA Nations League been for smaller nations like Armenia?
The Nations League has been very positive for us. In 2020, we won League C so we were promoted to League B, where we played against Scotland, the Republic of Ireland and Ukraine. It was an excellent experience for us.
Last season, it was wonderful to see San Marino gain promotion to League C after waiting so long for a competitive victory. For smaller nations like us, the Nations League is a fantastic competition.
Are there other smaller associations setting an example for growth and development?
Yes, of course – we are extremely good friends with the Georgian Football Federation and follow them closely.
For many years, we were neighbours but relationships were just normal. Now, we are very close, and I am also colleagues on the UEFA Executive Committee with their president, Levan Kobiashvili. So, we see and follow what they are doing, and some of their work is amazing.
They are investing money the right way and establishing a strong system, which saw them qualify for UEFA EURO 2024. It is an inspiration for us and the other smaller nations.
More on Georgia's growth
As vice-chair of the UEFA HatTrick Committee, you also see first hand how the programme can drive football development across Europe…
I love working on the HatTrick Committee, because you can feel how important it is for developing European football.
Its impact is clear, especially in the smaller associations, and speaking on behalf of Armenia, it's extremely important for helping us develop our infrastructure.
HatTrick allows us to demonstrate our projects to the government and involve them in our processes. We built three small stadiums using a combination of HatTrick funding and our own resources, and seeing this, the government then invested in building four more academies in different cities. This is a very good example of how HatTrick becomes a driving force for investment and development where we otherwise lack capacity.
We are extremely happy with this government cooperation, and they have just announced a new project, expanding the stadium in our third-largest city, Vanadzor, to 12,000 seats. That would give us another stadium where the men's national team can play, and the first opportunity in many years to play outside Yerevan.
The women's national team and men's Under-21s have started to play outside the capital city, and this is a very good opportunity to expand the geography of football in Armenia and inspire more people to see the teams and get involved with the sport.
You've also used the UEFA Grow pitch-mapping tool to great effect in Armenia. How does that help you?
We work very closely with the UEFA Grow team, and for us, the pitch mapping programme is very important.
It allows us to analyse infrastructure across the country, see statistics and understand which regions are underdeveloped and what we need to expand. We can then share this data with local government in each region to help make the case for further investment. The more people who can access pitches, the better for the future of the game.
Can you tell us about your work to rebuild the women's national team?
Our women's national team is still a new project for the association. In 2020, we reestablished the women's team, starting completely from zero after eight years without a team.
We didn’t have organised women's football at all, but now we have a league system in place. The team is still very, very young. We have a lot of players born around 2006, 2007, even 2008 playing for us, with only a couple born before 2000.
I am very proud that in the last couple of years we have been able to get some positive results, and we can see that in a few years, with more experience, we will be stronger.
For too long, people in Armenia have underestimated the power of women's football. We still need to invest more, but for me, it's a priority. We have a great group of people who are working hard to establish women's football in Armenia and I feel very positive that the game will develop a lot in the coming years.
One of your girls' clubs received a UEFA Grassroots Award for their development work last year – how important is this?
That was the GOALS club, and they really are doing great work. They work in a lot of regions in the country, tackling difficult situations. What they are doing in women's football is a very good example to show how it is possible to achieve so much when you are enthusiastic and when you believe in your purpose.
This Grassroots Award was very important, not only for GOALS but also for Armenian football and Armenian women's football. It was very inspiring. These achievements don't always make headlines, perhaps not many people knew about it, but for the team and for us at the association, it was extremely important to receive this recognition from UEFA, and it shows us that we are doing the right things.