Urartu Training Centre, is the

training ground A training ground is an area where professional association football teams prepare for matches, with activities primarily concentrating on skills and fitness. They also sometimes form part of a club's youth system, as clubs consider it important ...

and

academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

base of the Armenian

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 ...

club

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 ...

. It houses the club's main stadium, 3 additional full-size training pitches, mini football pitches as well as an indoor facility. The current technical director of the academy is the former Armenian footballer

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 ...

History

Urartu Training Centre was officially opened on 23 May 2003 on the grounds of the former Malatia Football School named after Eduard Grigoryan, located in 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 ...

of the capital Yerevan. The opening ceremony was attended by then-presidents of

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

Sepp Blatter Joseph Sepp Blatter (born Josef Blatter; 10 March 1936) is a Swiss former association football, football administrator who served as the list of Presidents of FIFA, eighth president of FIFA from 1998 to 2015. He has been banned from participatin ...

, then-president of Armenia

Robert Kocharyan Robert Sedraki Kocharyan ( ; born 31 August 1954) is an Armenian politician. He served as the President of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic from 1994 to 1997 and Prime Minister of Nagorno-Karabakh from 1992 to 1994. He served as the second Presiden ...

, and then-president of the

Football Federation of Armenia The Football Federation of Armenia (FFA) (, ''Hayastani Futboli Federats’ia'') is the governing body of association football in Armenia. Its headquarters are located in Yerevan. The Federation organizes the Armenian Premier League, the Armeni ...

Ruben Hayrapetyan Ruben Rafiki Hayrapetyan (, born 9 March 1963 in Yerevan, Armenia), also known by his nickname Nemets Rubo (''Rubo The German''), is an Armenian football official, a former member of the Armenian Parliament and a businessman. Between 2002-2018, ...

. The centre was renovated and completed as part of FIFA's ''Goal'' development programme. Occupying an area of 65,000 m², the centre is used for youth and senior teams training. On 16 October 2007, Sepp Blatter along with then-presidents of the

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

Michel Platini Michel François Platini (; born 21 June 1955) is a French association football, football Administrator (business), administrator and former player and manager. Regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time, Platini won the Ballon d'O ...

, visited the centre during their 2-day official visit to Armenia. On 7 October 2015,

Fabio Capello Fabio Capello (; born 18 June 1946) is an Italian former professional association football, football manager (association football), manager and player. As a player, Capello represented SPAL, AS Roma, Roma, AC Milan and Juventus FC, Juventus. H ...

visited the training centre. Admired by the club facilities, Capello told the journalists that "Banants has a great base for training and work". In November 2016, the centre hosted the training sessions of the

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

and the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

under-19 teams, participating in the

2017 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification The 2017 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualifying competition was a men's under-19 football competition that determined the seven teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Georgia in the 2017 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final to ...

, group 7. Impressed by the centre, the Swiss team manager

Gérard Castella Gérard Castella (born 2 May 1953) is a Swiss football manager and former player who played as a midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily i ...

told the journalists that the "conditions here are simply fantastic". On 15 December 2017, a new artificial pitch was installed in the centre with the financial assistance of the

. As of April 2017, the academy runs 6 youth teams with ages ranging between 13 and 17.FC Banants academy
/ref> The directing coach of the academy is Artashes Adamyan. The centre frequently hosts local and foreign football clubs for periodic training camps and friendly matches.

Facilities

With a total area of 65,000 m², Banants Training Centre is the largest football academy in Armenia owned by a club and the 2nd largest football training base in Yerevan following the

Yerevan Football Academy Officially, the Technical Center-Academy of the Football Federation of Armenia (), commonly known as the Yerevan Football Academy or Avan Football Academy, is a modern football training school located in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. The pur ...

. It is home to a large number of training facilities including: *

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 ...

with a capacity of 4,860 seats, is the home stadium of

. * 2 full-size artificial pitches, with the first pitch having a seating capacity of 600 seats, used by Banants-2; the reserve team of the club. The first artificial turf was installed in 2007 with the assistance of the

and the

Goal Programme. * 1 full-size natural grass pitch. * 2 natural grass and 1 artificial turf seven-a-side training pitches. * 1 artificial turf five-a-side training pitch. * 1 indoor mini football training hall. * Service centre with swimming pool and gymnasium. The club headquarters are located at the 2nd floor of the building.

References

External links

Training Centre page at Banants official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Urartu Training Centre FC Urartu Football training grounds in Armenia