Lori FC () was an 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 based in

Vanadzor Vanadzor (, ) is an urban municipal community and the third largest city in Armenia, serving as the capital of Lori Province in the northern part of the country. It is located about north of the capital Yerevan. As of the 2011 census, the city h ...

Lori Province Lori (, ) is a provinces of Armenia, province (''Administrative divisions of Armenia, marz'') of Armenia. It is located in the north of the country, bordering Georgia (country), Georgia. Vanadzor is the capital and largest city of the province. ...

. Originally founded in 1936, Lori has participated in the domestic football competition of Soviet Armenia. After retiring from professional football in 2002, the club was revived in 2017 winning the

2017–18 Armenian First League The 2017–18 Armenian First League season was the 26th since its establishment. The season was launched on August 7, 2017, and concluded on May 28, 2018. FC Banants#Banants-2, Banants-2 were the defending champions from the 2016–17 Armenian Fir ...

competition.

History

The club participated in the first ever Armenian football competition after the split-up from the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. After the regular competition, they did not qualify for the championship stage, but were forced to play in the relegation stage. Here they finished in the seventh position, which forced them to play 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 ...

(second level) for the 1993 season. In that season they finished first in their group (the league was split up into two groups) which gave them promotion to 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 ...

. Lori then became a

yo-yo A yo-yo (also spelled yoyo) is a toy consisting of an axle connected to two disks, and a string looped around the axle, similar to a spool. It is an ancient toy with proof of existence since 440 BC. The yo-yo was also called a bandalore in th ...

team referring to their up-and-go history of promotion and relegation. In 2002 they played their last season in the Premier League before being disbanded. The reestablishment of Lori FC was officially announced on 2 March 2017, by Tovmas Grigoryan; a native businessman of the city of

. The club made its debut at professional football through the

competition. The club used the

Vanadzor Football Academy The Vanadzor Football Academy (), is a modern football training school-academy located in Armenia's third largest city of Vanadzor, Lori Province. It is the 3rd-largest football academy in Armenia. Overview The construction of the academy was lau ...

as their training ground. The academy was temporarily being used as a home ground for their official matches in the

competition, as the Vanadzor City Stadium was (currently) being reconstructed and set to be ready during summer 2019. On 18 June 2019, David Campaña was appointed as the new manager of Lori on a contract until the summer of 2020. On 2 June 2020, Lori announced that manager David Campaña and his assistants Francisco Compan, Jorge Gomez, Agustin Perez and Enrique Gil had all left the club as their contracts could not be extended due to travel restrictions in returning to Armenia due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Later the same day, Armen Sanamyan was announced as Lori's caretaker manager. On 4 August 2020, Armen Sanamyan left Lori to become manager of Sevan, with Lori announcing Albert Solomonov as their new manager on 5 August 2020, with Solomonov signing a one-year contract. Following a disagreement with the administrative decision to awarded

FC Urartu Football Club Urartu (, translated ''Futbolayin Akumb Urartu''), commonly known as Urartu, is an Armenian professional association football, football team based in the capital Yerevan that currently plays in the Armenian Premier League. The club ...

a 3–0 victory over Lori due to Lori being unable to field a team for their match due to COVID-19, Lori walked off at the start of their match against

Ararat Yerevan Football Club Ararat Yerevan (), commonly known as Ararat Yerevan, is an Armenia, Armenian professional Association football, football club based in Yerevan that plays in the Armenian Premier League. Since 1999 the club has been owned by the Sw ...

on 16 March 2021. Lori later submitted their resignation from the Premier League on 5 April 2021.

League and cup

Lori FC league record since 1987:

Last squad

Personnel

*Owner: Tovmas Grigoryan *President: Robert Grigoryan *Vice President: Vahan Danielyan *CEO: Artur Hovhannisyan *General Manager: Spartak Petrosyan *Head coach: Albert Solomonov *Assistant coach: Vitaliy Starovik *Assistant coach: Sergei Chikishev *Goalkeepers Coach: Slavik Sukiasyan *Fitness coach: Roman Chupryna *Doctor: Hovsep Petrosyan *Physiotherapist: Arshak Tumanyan

Former players

* Danny El-Hage

Managerial history

Managers of Lori FC since the club revived in 2017:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lori Football clubs in Armenia Sport in Vanadzor Association football clubs established in 1936 1936 establishments in Armenia