Civilnet
By Emilio Luciano Cricchio
Armen Melikbekyan has been elected as the new head of the Armenian Football Federation on December 23.
The head to head race was between Melikbekyan, the First Vice President and General Secretary of the Football Federation of Armenia, and Tovmas Grigoryan, owner of Lori football club.
The three horse race went down to two on Saturday after Soviet football legend Khoren Hovhannisyan withdrew and endorsed Melikbekyan.
Members of the executive body of the sporting federation have also been elected.
Melikbekyan said upon winning the election, “We should change the system and the management of football should be handed to people and the football community. For the proportional development of football in Armenia a professional Football League should be established.”
Previous elections to the body were considered more a formality than a competitive process, analysts see this election as being more open, democratised and competitive than previous elections.
Though there was a new found competitive nature, analysts did however draw attention to a political tug-of-war between pro and anti government forces within the electoral process.
These political rivalries were played out in the Football Federation election, with a government-preferred candidate in the form of Armen Melikbekyan and Tovmas Grigoryan, a candidate endorsed by the former heads of the Federation, Vanetsyan and Hayrapetyan as well as the old guard of Armenian politics.
The result is being seen as a victory for the government and a defeat for the old guard of the Football Federation as well as old Republican Party (HHK) figures.
The former head of the Football Federation, Ruben Hayrapetyan, former Republican Party (HHK) and National Assembly member held the position between 2002-2018. He resigned in the wake of the 2018 Armenian Revolution, and was replaced by former National Security Service (NSS) chief Artur Vanetsyan.
Due to an apparent rift between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Artur Vanetsyan, the latter resigned as NSS chief in September.
He later resigned from his position as head of the Football Federation after a crushing 9-1 defeat to Italy.
When Vanetsyan resigned in November 2019 as head of the Football Federation, he also challenged the 16-member executive body to resign as well, many of whom had close ties to Pashinyan’s “My Step” parliamentary faction.
Their acceptance of this challenge, led to the resignation of the every member of the body except for member of the National Assembly and Pashinyan aide, Aren Mkrtchyan.
This led to the vacancy of 15 positions on the executive body, as well as the head of the Football Federation, which have all been filled as of yesterday.
Since 1998, the head of Football Federation of Armenia has had close ties to the government. Thus, the Armenian Football Federation has been criticised by some for being too politicized.
Though others have praised this election compared to previous elections which were seen as foregone conclusions.
There was also the case in the Armenian Football Federation pertaining to the participation of “fake clubs.” These clubs which only existed on paper were discussed at the extraordinary session yesterday as well as their deregistration.
Politics and sports were not separated on the occasion of this election, however a promised overhaul of the Football Federation by Melikbekyan was welcomed by some.
Furthermore, some praised the fact that he will be the first head of the Football Federation in many years who has some football expertise compared to previous heads which were mostly political and business figures.
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