FC Noah
Also written as Noah.
The club
Noah are a young club with a short and unusually steep history. They were founded in 2017 as FC Artsakh and played their first match, a goalless draw with Banants, on 2 June 2017. After finishing second in the 2017-18 Armenian First League they were promoted, finished eighth in their first Premier League season, and were then sold to Karen Abrahamyan, who rebranded the club as FC Noah in 2019 after the biblical Noah, whose ark is traditionally held to have come to rest on Mount Ararat. Vardges Vardanyan is the current owner; the club's registered address is on Bryusov Street in Yerevan.
Noah play in Abovyan, at the Abovyan City Stadium named after Vahagn Tumasyan, which holds 3,946 and has been their home since 2023-24. Before that they moved repeatedly: the Mika Stadium, the Pyunik Stadium and the Dzoraghbyur training centre in 2018-19, the Alashkert Stadium in 2019-20, the Yerevan Football Academy Stadium and then Armavir City Stadium in 2021-22. As Artsakh the colours were red and white; since the 2019 rebrand they have been black and light green.
Recent seasons
Second in 2019-20, second in 2020-21, sixth in 2021-22, eighth in 2022-23, second in 2023-24 with 80 points from 36 matches. In 2024-25 they won their first Armenian Premier League title and completed a domestic double, taking 75 points from 30 games with 24 wins, 3 draws and 3 defeats, scoring 92 and conceding 20. In 2025-26 they finished second with 56 points from 27 matches, 16 wins, 8 draws and 3 defeats, 61 goals scored and 19 conceded, and won the Armenian Cup again.
Honours and landmarks
Armenian Premier League: winners once, 2024-25. Armenian Cup: winners three times, 2019-20, 2024-25 and 2025-26. Armenian Supercup: winners twice, 2020 and 2025. The club's first trophy was the 2019-20 Armenian Cup, won on penalties against Ararat-Armenia on 10 July 2020 after trailing 4-1 at half-time in the final.
Their landmarks are mostly European and recent. In 2024 Noah became the first club in Conference League history to come through all four qualifying rounds into the league phase. In 2025-26 they became the first Armenian club to reach the main stage of a European competition in successive seasons, and the first Armenian club to reach a European knockout round.
Notable scorelines
No all-time club record win or defeat was confirmed from the sources read here. The widest results on the European record are the 7-0 home win over Sliema Wanderers in the 2024-25 Conference League second qualifying round, which stood as the aggregate score as well, and the 0-8 defeat away to Chelsea in the 2024-25 Conference League league phase. Noah also beat Olimpija Ljubljana 7-3 on aggregate in the 2025-26 Conference League play-off, winning 4-1 at home and 3-2 away.
European record
Noah have played 36 matches in UEFA competition, winning 14, drawing 9 and losing 13, scoring 53 and conceding 58. Twenty-nine of those matches have been in the Conference League.
Their first European tie was a 1-4 defeat by Kairat in the 2020-21 Europa League. In 2021-22 they beat KuPS 1-0 at home in the Conference League first qualifying round and lost 5-0 in Finland.
The 2024-25 run is the one that made their name: past Shkëndija 4-1, Sliema Wanderers 7-0, AEK Athens 3-2 and Ružomberok 4-3 into the league phase, where they finished 31st with a 2-0 home win over Mladá Boleslav, a 0-0 home draw with Víkingur Reykjavík, and defeats to Rapid Wien, Chelsea, APOEL and TSC.
In 2025-26 they beat Budućnost Podgorica 3-2 in Champions League qualifying, lost to Ferencváros 6-4, went out of the Europa League to Lincoln Red Imps on penalties after two draws, then beat Olimpija Ljubljana 7-3 to reach the Conference League league phase, where they finished 19th: 1-0 at home over Rijeka, 1-1 at Universitatea Craiova, 1-2 at home to Sigma Olomouc, 1-1 at Aberdeen, 2-1 at home over Legia Warsaw and 0-2 at Dynamo Kyiv. In the knockout play-off they beat AZ Alkmaar 1-0 in Armenia and lost 4-0 in the Netherlands.
Quotes
No directly quoted material was confirmed from the sources read here. Noah's official news items from this window, including the report of the Sion first leg on 6 August 2026 and the appeal for travelling support on 7 August, are written in the third person and carry no attributed speech; the club's open letter to the Football Federation of Armenia of 1 August 2026 is issued in the club's name rather than any individual's.
Right now (2026/27)
Sandro Perković, a Croatian, is the head coach, with a largely Croatian backroom staff. The forward Hélder Ferreira, who joined in the summer of 2024 and has 27 goals and 26 assists in 88 appearances, extended his contract on a two-plus-one deal on 3 August 2026. Daniel Figueira, Stone Mambo, Mario González, Brian Oddei and Marko Lazetić all made their debuts in the opening European tie of the season.
Noah entered the Conference League at the second qualifying round and beat Zimbru Chișinău 3-2. They drew 1-1 in Chișinău on 23 July 2026, Ștefan Bîtca putting Zimbru ahead on 43 minutes and the substitute Gor Manvelyan setting up Valentin Costache to equalise on 88; they then won 2-1 in Abovyan on 30 July, Manvelyan scoring on 31 minutes and Gustavo Sangaré on 47 before Jonathas pulled one back on 76.
The tie they are in now is the third qualifying round against Sion of Switzerland, and it is finely balanced. The first leg in Abovyan on Thursday 6 August 2026 finished 2-2 in front of 3,000. Hélder Ferreira scored from the penalty spot on 5 minutes and Gor Manvelyan made it 2-1 on 20 after Winsley Boteli had equalised on 13; Sion's Nias Nefti was sent off for a second booking on 26 minutes, but Ilyas Chouaref levelled for the ten men on 57, and Noah's defender Stone Mambo was then sent off on 64 for denying a goalscoring opportunity. The second leg is at the Stade Tourbillon in Sion on Thursday 13 August 2026 at 20:15 CEST, refereed by David Šmajc of Slovenia; Noah are giving away-end tickets to their supporters free of charge. The winners meet the winners of Ajax against Shelbourne in the play-off round.
Domestically, Noah opened the Armenian Premier League on 2 August 2026 with a win over Syunik in Abovyan, three players scoring their first goals for the club, and visited Shirak at the Gyumri City Stadium on 9 August.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Noah https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Conference_League_qualifying_(first_and_second_round_matches) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Conference_League_qualifying_(third_and_play-off_round_matches) https://noah.am/en https://noah.am/en/media/draw-in-the-1st-leg-against-sion https://noah.am/en/media/noah-need-the-support-of-their-fans-in-switzerland https://noah.am/en/media/helder-s-story-continues https://noah.am/en/media/everything-will-be-decided-at-home https://noah.am/en/media/noah-won-zimbru https://noah.am/en/media/official-statement
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.