FC Ararat-Armenia
Also written as Ararat-Armenia.
The club
Football Club Ararat-Armenia are a Yerevan club founded in 2017, and they are not FC Ararat Yerevan. This matters, because the two are separate clubs in the same city with almost the same name. Ararat Yerevan were founded on 10 May 1935, won the Soviet Top League in 1973 and the Soviet Cup in 1973 and 1975, and play at the Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium. Ararat-Armenia have no share in any of that. When the younger club took the name in 2018, Ararat Yerevan released a statement against it on 16 July 2018. Nothing in this dossier refers to the 1935 club except this paragraph.
Ararat-Armenia were founded in 2017 as FC Avan Academy by Ruben Hayrapetyan, using young players drawn from the Yerevan Football Academy and from Pyunik. The first match was in July 2017, a 3-1 win over Erebuni. In early 2018 the club was taken over by the Russian-Armenian businessman Samvel Karapetyan, who renamed it Ararat-Moskva, from Mount Ararat, and then renamed it again to Ararat-Armenia on promotion to the Armenian Premier League. Karapetyan remains the owner and Poghos Galstyan is director general.
The home ground is the Yerevan Football Academy Stadium in the Avan District of northern Yerevan, capacity 1,428. It is far too small for European football, so the club moves those ties elsewhere: the 2026/27 Champions League first qualifying round first leg was played at Abovyan, and every European home tie since has been at the Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium, capacity 14,403, which is also Ararat Yerevan's ground. The club's playing colours were not established consistently from the sources read here; one description has the first-choice kit as white and the change kit as black, another has white with blue and a predominantly blue change kit.
The head coach is the Portuguese Tulipa, appointed on 3 June 2025 and given as Manuel Tulipa in Romanian coverage, where his age is put at 54. He follows Vardan Minasyan, who was in charge from 17 June 2023 to 28 May 2025 and had an earlier and longer spell from 1 October 2018 to 17 July 2020 covering both league titles. Between those Minasyan spells came David Campaña of Spain, Anatoly Baidachny, Dmitri Gunko and Vardan Bichakhchyan. Gunko, in charge from June 2021 to June 2022, has the best record of any of them, 24 wins from 34 competitive matches.
Armen Ambartsumyan holds the appearance record with 250 matches since 2018. The leading scorer is the Nigerian Tenton Yenne, 47 goals in 114 matches between 2022 and 2025.
Recent seasons
Ararat-Armenia finished third in the second tier in 2017-18 with 46 points, then won the Premier League at the first attempt in 2018-19 with 61 points from 18 wins, 7 draws and 7 defeats, and retained it in 2019-20 with 52 points from 15 wins, 7 draws and 6 defeats. They then fell away, fifth in 2020-21 on 38 points, before a long run of near misses: second in 2021-22 with 74 points, third in 2022-23 with 76, third again in 2023-24 with 72, second in 2024-25 with 66 despite scoring 75 goals. In 2025-26 they were champions again, 60 points from 18 wins, 6 draws and 3 defeats, 50 scored and 25 conceded.
Honours and landmarks
Armenian Premier League champions three times, in 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2025-26. Armenian Cup winners in 2023-24 and runners-up in 2019-20 and 2024-25. Armenian Supercup winners in 2019 and 2024, runners-up in 2020 and 2025, the second of those lost to Noah on penalties after a 1-1 draw.
The landmark is the compression of it: a club founded in 2017 in the second tier, champions of Armenia inside two years of promotion, and back in the Champions League qualifying rounds in 2026 having reached a third qualifying round for the first time.
Notable scorelines
The biggest European result is the 6-1 aggregate over Zimbru Chișinău in the second qualifying round of the 2024-25 Conference League, 3-1 at home and 3-0 away. The wildest is the 4-4 away leg against Egnatia in the 2023-24 Conference League first qualifying round, which made it 5-5 on aggregate after a 1-1 at home and was settled 4-2 on penalties. The heaviest defeat is 4-1 away to Sparta Prague in the third qualifying round of the 2025-26 Conference League. The club's record domestic win and record domestic defeat were not established from the sources read here.
European record
Ararat-Armenia first played in Europe in 2019-20 as champions, and were beaten 4-3 on aggregate by AIK in the Champions League first qualifying round after winning 2-1 at home. Dropping into the Europa League they had the best run of their history: Lincoln Red Imps beaten 4-1, Saburtalo Tbilisi beaten 3-2 on aggregate after losing the home leg 2-1, and then a play-off round against F91 Dudelange that finished 3-3 and went to penalties, which Dudelange won 5-4.
The 2020-21 rounds were single matches. Ararat-Armenia lost 1-0 after extra time to Omonia in the Champions League first qualifying round, then beat Fola Esch 4-3 after extra time and Celje 1-0 after extra time in the Europa League, before losing 2-1 to Red Star Belgrade in the play-off round.
Then came a lean spell. In 2022-23 they drew 0-0 with Paide Linnameeskond over two legs in the Conference League second qualifying round and lost 5-3 on penalties. In 2023-24 they got past Egnatia on penalties and lost 2-1 on aggregate to Aris Thessaloniki. In 2024-25 they beat Zimbru 6-1 and then lost 4-3 to Puskás Akadémia, beaten 1-0 at home and drawing 3-3 away. In 2025-26 they knocked out Universitatea Cluj 2-1 on aggregate, drawing 0-0 at home and winning 2-1 in Romania, and were then taken apart by Sparta Prague, losing 4-1 away and 2-1 at home, out 6-2 on aggregate.
Across 33 European matches before the current campaign's later rounds the record stood at 13 wins, 8 draws and 12 defeats, 48 goals scored and 44 conceded.
Quotes
Speaking before the Europa League play-off round against Universitatea Craiova, Tulipa set the two sides against each other in Romanian coverage: "Suntem două echipe diferite: Craiova are un joc vertical, noi vrem să avem posesia", which is to say that they are two different teams, Craiova playing vertically while Ararat-Armenia want possession. He called it "un meci echilibrat, cu două echipe bune, de aceeaşi valoare", a balanced match between two good teams of the same standing, and said of his own approach that "dacă schimbăm prea multe, atunci ne pierdem identitatea", that if they change too much they lose their identity. He also described Craiova as more physical and aggressive than Universitatea Cluj, the Romanian side he had knocked out the season before.
Right now (2026/27)
Tulipa is the head coach. Ararat-Armenia entered the Champions League as Armenian champions and have won every home leg they have played.
They beat Riga 4-3 on aggregate in the first qualifying round, winning 2-0 at Abovyan on 7 July 2026 in front of 2,300 with goals from Hugo Oliveira and França, and losing the return 3-2 with Zhirayr Shaghoyan and Sandro Lima scoring. In the second qualifying round they beat Shamrock Rovers 3-2, winning 2-0 at the Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium on 21 July in front of 3,900 through Sandro Lima and Zidane Banjaqui, then losing 2-1 at Tallaght Stadium on 28 July, Lima scoring again in front of 6,731.
The third qualifying round was against Celje, the Slovenian champions. Ararat-Armenia won the first leg 2-1 in Yerevan on 4 August 2026 in front of 8,110, Artur Serobyan and França scoring after Celje had led through a penalty, but lost the return 2-0 at the Stadion Z'dežele on 11 August with both Celje goals coming after the 80th minute, and went out 3-2 on aggregate.
That dropped them into the Europa League play-off round against Universitatea Craiova. The first leg at the Ion Oblemenco Stadium on 20 August 2026 finished 1-1 in front of 22,712, Alexandros Malis scoring for Ararat-Armenia and Bancu for Craiova, whose first name was not established from the sources read here. The second leg is at the Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium on 27 August 2026, kick-off 18:00 Central European Time, with Donatas Rumšas of Lithuania refereeing and Tomasz Kwiatkowski of Poland on the video assistant. League-phase football is already secured either way, the Europa League for the winner and the Conference League for the loser.
Domestically the expanded twelve-team Premier League has started, with each side playing 23 matches. Ararat-Armenia are second after four games with 10 points, two behind Noah, who have won all four. They won 4-3 away at Gandzasar Kapan on 1 August, Arayik Eloyan, Junior Bueno and Alioune Ndour twice; beat Urartu 2-1 at home on 7 August through Ndour and the Portuguese midfielder listed as Benny; beat Van 2-0 on 15 August through Ndour and Eloyan; and drew 1-1 with Sardarapat on 23 August, Shaghoyan scoring. The summer business was heavily Portuguese and Brazilian, with Luis Felipe, França, Bruno Pereira, João Bravim, Bruno Wilson, Sandro Lima and Maxence Carlier all arriving between 20 June and 5 July, Bernardo Dias on 3 August and the goalkeeper Andranik Martirosyan from Ararat Yerevan on 9 August.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Ararat-Armenia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Ararat-Armenia_in_European_football https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_FC_Ararat-Armenia_season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_FC_Ararat-Armenia_season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Armenian_Premier_League https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Ararat_Yerevan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Champions_League_qualifying_phase_and_play-off_round https://www.prosport.ro/fotbal-extern/europa-league/manuel-tulipa-hugo-oliveira-universitatea-craiova-ararat-armenia-europa-league-20506538 http://law5-theref.blogspot.com/2026/08/202627-uefa-europa-league-play-offs_0867958862.html
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.