Football Club Urartu (, translated ''Futbolayin Akumb Urartu''), commonly known as Urartu, is an Armenian professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

team based in the capital

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , ; ; sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia, as well as one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerev ...

that currently plays in the

Armenian Premier League The Armenian Premier League (, known as the Armenian Fastex Premier League for sponsorship reasons) is the top association football, football competition in Armenia. From 1936 to 1991, the competition was held as a regional tournament within th ...

. The club won the

Armenian Cup The Armenian Cup () is the main football cup competition of Armenia. In its original form as the Armenian Cup, it started in 1939, when Armenia was a republic of the Soviet Union. It served as a qualification tournament for the Soviet Cup, and it ...

four times, in 1992, 2007, 2016, and 2023. In 2013–2014, they won the Armenian Premier League for the first time in their history. In early 2016, the Russia-based Armenian businessman Dzhevan Cheloyants became a co-owner of the club after purchasing the major part of the club shares. The club was known as FC Banants until 1 August 2019, when it was officially renamed FC Urartu.

History

Kotayk

Urartu FC were founded as FC Banants by Sarkis Israelyan on 21 January 1992 in the village of Kotayk, representing the

Kotayk Province Kotayk (, ), is a provinces of Armenia, province (''Administrative divisions of Armenia, marz'') of Armenia. It is located at the central part of the country. Its capital is Hrazdan and the largest city is Abovyan. It is named after the Kotayk c ...

. He named the club after his native village of ''Banants'' (currently known as ''

Bayan Bayan may refer to: Educational institutions * Bayan Islamic Graduate School, Chicago, IL Places *Bayan-Aul, Pavlodar, Kazakhstan *Bayan Mountain, an ancient mountain name for part of Tarbagatai Mountains at Kazakhstan in Qing Dynasty period *B ...

''). Between 1992 and 1995, the club was commonly referred to as Banants Kotayk. During the

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

season, the club won the first

. At the end of the

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

transitional season, Banants suffered a financial crisis. The club owners decided that it was better to merge the club with

FC Kotayk FC Kotayk () was an Armenian football club based in the town of Abovyan, Kotayk Province. History Founded in 1955, Kotayk was one of the oldest football clubs in Armenia. After playing several years in the Armenian SSR League as well as the S ...

Abovyan Abovyan or Abovian ( ) is a town and urban municipal community in Armenia within the Kotayk Province. It is located northeast of Yerevan and southeast of the province centre Hrazdan. As of the 2022 census, the population of the town was 46,434 ...

, rather than disband it. In

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

, Banants demerged from FC Kotayk, and was moved from Abovyan to the capital

Yerevan

In 2001, FC Banants was relocated to Yerevan. At the beginning of 2003, Banants merged with

FC Spartak Yerevan Spartak Yerevan FC () was an Armenian professional football club based in Yerevan. The club competed in the Armenian Premier League. History The club was founded in late 2000 as ''FC Araks-Impeks'' in the Armenian capital city of Yerevan. After ...

, but was able to limit the name of the new merger to FC Banants. Spartak became Banants's youth academy and later changed the name to Banants-2. Because of the merger, Banants acquired many players from Spartak Yerevan, including

Samvel Melkonyan Samvel Melkonyan (, born on 15 March 1984 in Yerevan, Armenian SSR, Soviet Union) is an Armenian former footballer who played as a winger. Samvel was also a member of the Armenia national football team, participated in 29 international matches ...

. After the merger, Banants took a more serious approach and have finished highly in the league table ever since. The club managed to lift the

in 2007. Experience is making way for youth for the

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

and 2009 seasons. The departures of most of the experienced players have left the club's future to the youth. Along with two Ukrainian players, Ugandan international, Noah Kasule, has been signed. The club headquarters are located on Jivani Street 2 of the

Malatia-Sebastia District Malatia-Sebastia (, ), also nicknamed colloquially as Bangladesh, is one of the 12 districts of Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, located in the western part of the city. As of the 2022 census, the district has a population of 141,700. Malatia-Se ...

, Yerevan.

Domestic

European

Stadium

The construction of the

Urartu Stadium Urartu Stadium () is an all-seater stadium, all-seater association football, football stadium in the Malatia-Sebastia District of Yerevan, Armenia. The stadium is home to FC Banants, Urartu FC and has a capacity of 4,860 seats. It was known as Ba ...

was launched in 2006 in the

of Yerevan, with the assistance of the FIFA goal programme. It was officially opened in 2008 with a capacity of 3,600 seats. Further developments were implemented later in 2011, when the playing pitch was modernized and the capacity of the stadium was increased up to 4,860 seats (2,760 at the northern stand, 1,500 at the southern stand and 600 at the western stand).

Training centre/academy

Urartu Training Centre Urartu Training Centre, is the training ground and academy base of the Armenian football club Urartu. It houses the club's main stadium, 3 additional full-size training pitches, mini football pitches as well as an indoor facility. The current te ...

is the club's academy base located in the

. In addition to the main stadium, the centre houses 3 full-size training pitches, mini football pitches as well as an indoor facility. The current technical director of the academy is the former Russian footballer Ilshat Faizulin.

Fans

The most active group of fans is the ''South West Ultras'' fan club, mainly composed of residents from several neighbourhoods within the

of Yerevan, since the club is a ''de facto'' representer of the district. Members of the fan club benefit from events organized by the club and many facilities of the Banants training centre, such as the mini football pitch, the club store and other entertainments.

Honours

** Winners (2): 2013–14,

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

** Runners-up (5):

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, 2017–18 *

** Winners (4):

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

** Runners-up (7):

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

, 2021–22, 2023–24 *

Armenian Supercup The Armenian Supercup is a match that is played between the Armenian Premier League The Armenian Premier League (, known as the Armenian Fastex Premier League for sponsorship reasons) is the top association football, football competition in Ar ...

** Winners (1): 2014 ** Runners-up (5): 2004, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2016

Current squad

Out on loan

Personnel

Technical staff

Management

Urartu-2

Urartu has also the second team, Urartu-2 which plays in the

Armenian First League The Armenian First League () is currently the second level association football, football competition in Armenia after the Armenian Premier League. The competition exists mostly out of reserve teams of several Premier League clubs; however, other ...

. They play their home games at the training field with artificial turf of the

Managerial history

Varuzhan Sukiasyan Varuzhan Sukiasyan (, ; born 5 August 1956 in Yerevan), is an Armenian football manager and former player. He is the brother of Yervand Sukiasyan. Between 1978 and 1987, Sukiasyan played at FC Kotayk of Abovyan. He managed the Armenia nationa ...

(1992–94) * Poghos Galstyan (July 1, 1996 – June 30, 1998) *

Oganes Zanazanyan Hovhannes Arutyunovich Zanazanyan (, ; 10 December 1946 – 4 October 2015) was a Soviet football player and an Armenian coach. Honours * Soviet Top League winner: 1973. * Soviet Cup winner: 1973, 1975. * Olympic bronze: 1972. International c ...

(2001–05) * Ashot Barseghyan (2005–06) * Nikolay Kiselyov (2006–07) * Jan Poštulka (2007) *

Nikolay Kostov Nikolay Nikolov Kostov (; born 2 July 1963) is a Bulgarian former footballer and current manager. Career Much of his coaching career has taken place in Cyprus. His first coaching role in the country was at Anorthosis, where he won the Cyprio ...

(July 1, 2007 – April 8, 2008) * Nedelcho Matushev (April 8, 2008 – June 30, 2008) * Kim Splidsboel (2008) * Armen Gyulbudaghyants (Jan 1, 2009 – Dec 1, 2009) * Ashot Barseghyan ''(interim)'' (2009) *

Stevica Kuzmanovski Stevica Kuzmanovski (; born 16 November 1962) is a Macedonian football manager and former player. Playing career During his career that spanned from the early 1980s to the early 2000s, Kuzmanovski played for Partizan, Pelister, OFK Beograd (th ...

(Jan 1, 2010 – Dec 31, 2010) *

Rafael Nazaryan Rafael Nazaryan (, born on 26 March 1975 in Yerevan, Soviet Union) is a retired Armenian football midfielder and a current manager. He was a member of the Armenia national team and participated in 23 international matches, scoring 1 goal in an a ...

(Jan 1, 2011 – Jan 15, 2012) * Volodymyr Pyatenko (Jan 17, 2013 – June 30, 2013) *

Zsolt Hornyák Zsolt Hornyák (born 1 May 1973) is a Slovak football manager and a former defender of Hungarian ethnicity. He is the manager of Hungarian team Puskás Akadémia. As a player, Hornyák won the Czechoslovakian championship in the 1991–92 sea ...

(July 1, 2013 – May 30, 2015) *

Aram Voskanyan Aram Voskanyan (; born 26 August 1975) is an Armenian football manager and former player who manages Ararat Yerevan. Playing career A striker, Aram was a member of the Armenia national team, and has participated in 10 international matches s ...

(July 1, 2015 – Oct 11, 2015) * Tito Ramallo (Oct 12, 2015 – Oct 3, 2016) *

Artur Voskanyan Artur Voskanyan (, born 13 August 1976) is an Armenian football coach and former player who is the manager of the academy of Noravank. Club career Artur Voskanyan began his career in Zvartnots Echmiadzin, for which he played 11 games in his fi ...

(Oct 3, 2016 – Aug 11, 2018) * Ilshat Faizulin (Aug 12, 2018 –Nov 24, 2019) * Aleksandr Grigoryan (Nov 25, 2019 –Mar 10, 2021) *

Robert Arzumanyan Robert Arzumanyan (also called Arzoumanian) (, born 24 July 1985) is an Armenian professional football manager and former player who played as a defender. He is currently the Head Coach of FC Urartu. Club career Pyunik Arzumanyan was born in ...

(10 March 2021 – 24 June 2022) *

Dmitri Gunko Dmitri Ivanovich Gunko (; born 1 March 1976) is a Russian professional Association football, football coach and a former player. He is the manager of FC Arsenal Tula, Arsenal Tula. Coaching career He served as caretaker manager of FC Spartak M ...

(27 June 2022–)

References

External links

*
Banants
at Weltfussball.de. . {{Armenian Premier League

Urartu Urartu was an Iron Age kingdom centered around the Armenian highlands between Lake Van, Lake Urmia, and Lake Sevan. The territory of the ancient kingdom of Urartu extended over the modern frontiers of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Armenia.Kleiss, Wo ...