The owner of Urartu Football Club Jevan Cheloyants not often give big interviews, but this time we had a rather long conversation with him. Cheloyants not only summed up the performance of the team and talked about upcoming plans, but also touched on many other topics that are significant in Armenian football.

 

FOR ME, THE FACT THAT THE ACADEMY IS NOT WORKING AT THIS PERIOD IS A BIG PAIN

 

- The season for Urartu ended not in a good way. As the owner of the club, how would you rate the performance of the team?

- If we talk about the results of the season, then the season was extremely unsuccessful for us, we failed this season, we must admit it honestly and frankly. Nobody is to blame here except us. I will not talk about the reasons, but the results of the first team are extremely unsatisfactory. The second team is also not yet at the level at which we expected. I won’t talk about the rest of the teams, because all the Youth Championships are stopped. But again, our first two teams had a very unsatisfactory season.

- What did the team lack for more successful performances?

- There were many factors here: firstly, the summer preparations for the beginning of this season were not at the level at which we planned; secondly, a change of coach, it was necessary, in our opinion, but this doesn't go unnoticed; and many other reasons that influenced the sports component. I want to say one thing: the first and second teams are just two teams from the whole club. Yes, they are the main ones, yes, by them we judge the club’s sports results for the season, but these are just two teams. Unfortunately, the Academy has stopped work, which I consider to be a greater loss than if we had stopped the professional Championship. The championship continued, but the Academy, unfortunately, doesn't work. I understand the motives for this stop, but I'm not sure that in this case they work correctly. I’m not sure that these children are sitting at home, that they don’t communicate with anyone, and so on. I do not call, of course, for the restoration of children's trainings, for this, certain specialists should analyze the situation and say, but for me personally, not the work of the Academy is a big pain.

- So you think that there is need to take some measures so that the children begin to train?

 - Yes, I think so. For six months now, as children don't play football. Many of them will never play in it on a professional level, this must be understood.

 

THERE IS POSITIVE PROGRESS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE CLUB STADIUM

 

- During a press conference after the match against Pyunik FC, the head coach of the team, Aleksandr Grigoryan, said that he had a conversation with the club’s management and conclusions were drawn. Can you tell us a little more in detail what conclusions were made and what we can expect in the future?

- Grigoryan is in his place and will continue to train the team. We always need to analyze how the season went, whether it was successful or not: what we did, what we did not, where and what pros and cons we got - we analyzed all this and made appropriate decisions. I won’t talk about them now, but I hope everyone will see these decisions already implemented.

- The season in terms of results can be considered a failure, if there are any positive moments that were this season?

- From the point of view of the result - yes, the season was a failure, but from the point of view of the club - no. For the club, of course, there were positive moments. Firstly, we continued to grow as a club. I’m not afraid of words, but we are the first club in the whole country to stand on professional road. I’m not saying that we set aside sports results, so they are what they are, no. But I consider one of the main points that we have completed the formation of the administrative structure of the club. There are a couple of details left, but I hope that we have come close to its formation. We also continued to improve our infrastructure. We came close to solving the issue of building a club stadium, and for the first time in many years I saw an understanding from the authorities. It pleases me. It is still far from the allocation, as such, of land, but there is understanding. I don’t know if it’s real, or it’s in words, further events will show it. We reconstructed our third field, where the second team holds their home matches, it now began to look very good, a roof was made and other stuff were held. We settled the administration building and the Academy. So we used this pause, which was made because of the coronavirus, in full. We did everything we needed to do at this stop.

 

WE CAN'T BLAME CORONAVIRUS FOR EVERYTHING

 

- In any case, did the coronavirus affect the club?

- Coronavirus has affected the whole world, I'm not talking about the club. But I want to say that, of course, there were certain difficulties with transportation: people left first, then we returned them with difficulty, by the way then the Federation helped us with the issue of returning people to Armenia, thank them very much for that. But I want to note that I don't think that coronavirus spoiled the Championship, this would not be true from my point of view. The championship was ruined when it was planned in this form. Because those people who made this format of the Championship knew my position a year ago, when the Championship hadn't yet begun, and they know it now - it has not changed a gram. I believe that a huge mistake has been made. Coronavirus has affected the whole world. What will be its consequences so far I am at a loss to say, and not only me. Many people do not know yet what the consequences of coronavirus threaten in the future. But life goes on, we must move, we must live - that’s all.

- But in the Federation they say that before choosing this format, they informed all clubs about it, but not a single club opposed it.

- It is not true. When the Federation says that no team objected, this is not true. At the very beginning, we were against holding the Championship in this format. I do not want to go into details, but this is not so.

- In Your last interview, You said that it is necessary to change the regulation of the Federation. What did You mean?

- I believe that the Federation should hold some kind of hearings in the football community, make some decisions, discuss them, reject something, accept something, give suggestions, and the clubs will give their suggestions - in general, some work needs to be done. From my point of view, you need to change the regulation. Firstly, in order for the Federation to deal with its issues, it is necessary to create a Professional League, which will deal with professional Championships, this is absolutely not the Federation’s business. There were conversations about the Professional League, but so far this is just talk. I understand that here the coronavirus may just have influenced it, but, as I said, life goes on, we must live and we must try to live right.

- Mister Cheloyants, do you think it is realistic to have a Professional League in Armenia? Do you think the owners of Armenian clubs will easily unite around this initiative?

- And what is easy in life? But it is necessary to overcome these difficulties, it is necessary to negotiate, it is necessary to develop some kind of consensus, and then follow to the rules that are agreed upon. Something which is given easily, in life, in most of its cases, does not live long. In almost all countries, Professional Leagues function normally, and we must understand that everyone should do their own thing. The Federation’s duty is to develop grassroots football, negotiate with FIFA, UEFA, and its government about some kind of football preferences, if we want to get normal football and so on. A professional Championship is a league matter, as in all countries. I’m not inventing anything here, that’s my opinion.

- A year ago, you criticized Armen Melikbekyan, who was then the General Secretary of FFA. Then, when the FFA Presidential elections were held, it was Urartu FC who nominated Melikbekyan. Questions arise: why did you criticize him? Why did the club nominate precisely his candidacy? Why did you change your mind?

- For some reason, many in Armenia think that if you criticized someone, then you are already his enemy, and he is yours. This is fundamentally wrong. If a person is indifferent to me, I will never criticize him, he is no one to me. And if I see that because of his position, because of his desire (this is more important to me), a person wants to bring something, but, from my point of view, he was doing something wrong somewhere, of course I will criticize. And therefore, I will now criticize Melikbekyan. Just because we put him forward doesn't mean anything. You asked a question - I answer it. I was not in Armenia when the elections were held, I was far away, but what the club management reported to me and what I saw in the press, in the situation that arose, I believe that we did absolutely right. If this situation were repeated now, we would have done exactly the same. This is not the case when the lesser of the two evils is chosen. I considered and believe now that if we want to move forward, then, having nominated Melikbekyan, we did the right thing. He is still a young man, he will still make his mistakes. There is another saying “learn from the mistakes of others”, but this is just a saying, basically everyone learns from their mistakes. Criticism is the engine of progress. If  you please a person, it will not lead to anything good for either the person himself or for the cause. And now, I repeat, I am convinced that in that situation we acted absolutely correctly. Yes, I criticized him a lot, I criticize him a lot now, I hope that in the future I will criticize a little less, because he is gaining experience, but if I see something, I will definitely tell him. Frankly, I always tell him what I think about these or those things. You can ask him, he will confirm.

- Recently, in Armenian football there are two topics that are very heatedly discussed: the limit of foreign players and the First League, in which many clubs had unknown origin, and the results of many matches are doubtful.

- Match fixings are not just bad, they are murderous, especially for young players. “Bad” in this case is not the right word. The general director of our club told me that at the last executive committee, they discussed something there on this issue. I am not quite aware of these processes, but this is deadly for young players. A person receives this virus in the form of match fixing at an early age, and no one can tell how anyone will develop this disease. I believe that the Federation should get rid of this. Once again, the question of the Professional League immediately arises. There must be clear criteria for the performance of teams in the Premier and First Leagues, you must understand this. As for the foreign players, it would seem that we are a club that gives the most players, our graduates are in all teams, maybe except the national one, although our graduates are there too. It turns out that the club should have been logically for the limit, but there is never any progress in the limit as a result. There are some temporary things, but no progress. If we are talking about global things, for example, if we take today, of course, our club will be the best in Armenia without foreign players, but in my heart I am against it.

 

IT'S TIME TO CREATE THE FIRST AND SECOND TEAM

 

- We would like to talk about the future. The team has already begun preparations for the new season, are there any specific tasks that you have already set for the team?

- There are goals. I will not name them in numbers and so on. Without a goal, it’s not interesting to live at all. We have come to what we were striving for both in terms of infrastructure, and in terms of organizational component, as well as in terms of developing and creating those services that were not there. It's time to build the first and second teams. How much time it will take, it's hard for me to say, but now the main emphasis will be placed on the development of a professional team. This does not mean that we will forget about everything else and will only deal with this - no, it's not like that. I always said, and I will repeat now, in our club the main link is the Academy. Unfortunately, now boys and girls don't train. But the main thing in the club is the Academy, we will devote more time and money to the first and second teams, but certainly not to the detriment of the Academy.