The summer of 2019 is a fascinating one in world football, for a wide variety of reasons.
But for the newly established team of Ararat-Armenia, it is even more exciting. After they won their first-ever domestic title, the team was ready for their European debut in the Champions League qualifiers. Although that dream came to a quick end, the new Armenian side can still make history this week.
As an unseeded team in the UCL qualifiers, they were drawn to play a strong opponent, the 2018 Swedish champions, AIK. The first leg was played in Yerevan. No one thought that Ararat has any chance to do something against the experienced rivals, but an early penalty after 3 minutes changed it all. Petros Avetisyan scored Ararat's first goal and later added his second. It was an upsetting 2-1 win in their season opener.
Unfortunately for them, Ararat lost the second leg 3-1, which dropped them into the Europa League qualifiers. Now, a few weeks later, with a bit of luck and an advantage from the first leg, Ararat is playing at the playoff stage vs last years' surprise package, F91 Dudelange. Shall they complete this mission, they would be the first Armenian team to reach the group stage. So what has brought an anonymous team to be so close to a sensation?
The original idea of the club was to give a chance for locally trained players that didn't reach the senior level in other Yerevan clubs. Under the name Avan Academy FC, the club was registered in 2017 to the Armenian Second Division. They struggled and weren't a real contender to promote.
In January 2018, only six months after the team started to play, it was suddenly taken over by Samvel Karapetyan, a Russian-Armenian businessman, who was already a president of another club, Russian side Ararat Moscow. His team has played in the PFL, the third division in Russia, and he decided to invest heavily in his teams, including purchasing former Russian international footballers, Roman Pavlyuchenko & Marat Izmailov, to his Moscow side.
Karapetyan is not an ordinary businessman that decided to own a football club. He is one of the wealthiest people in the world, ranked 568th in the 2019 Forbes’ Billionaires List. He owns Tashir Holding, a real estate company, and also one of the biggest power plants in Armenia. Moreover, one of his significant deals was a long term partnership with Gazprom. As a result, Karapetyan was included in a list of the US Treasury Department, as a person that has close ties with Vladimir Putin.
The first step he made was to change the team’s name, from Avan Academy to Ararat. In the beginning, he wanted that both teams would be linked to each other, so the official name of the Armenian club would also be Ararat-Moskva. Later, the name was disallowed, and the club was renamed again as Ararat-Armenia.
By the end of the 2017-18 season, Ararat-Armenia managed to secure their promotion. Before their first season in the top tier, the whole squad changed. With 28 newly signed players, Ararat-Armenia made a tremendous season, which ended with their first-ever championship, only one point ahead of Pyunik.
Now, they are on their way to make another great achievement. After being knocked out by AIK from Champions League qualifiers, Ararat found some luck with relatively easier draws in the Europa League qualifiers. They defeated Lincoln Red Imps from Gibraltar and Saburtalo from Georgia, becoming the first Armenian team to play at the playoff round of any European competition.
They retained their luck from previous draws, as the last team they are facing before the group stage is Dudelange, the champions of Luxembourg. Dudelange made their own Europa League group stage debut last year, and they hope to play in that stage once again. For Ararat-Armenia, it is a chance to create history.
Last week, both teams played at the Republican Stadium in Yerevan. A winning goal by Ilja Antonov in the 93rd minute gave a 2-1 win for Ararat against Dudelange and an essential advantage before the second leg in Luxembourg.
The quick rise by Ararat is leading Armenian football to new heights. Reaching the Europa League for the first time can be another step for the club to become a new domestic powerhouse, and who knows, maybe also a dominant team in the European competitions.