FC Pyunik
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| Full name | Football Club Pyunik | |||
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| Founded | 1992 | |||
| Ground |
Yerevan Football Academy Stadium, Yerevan | |||
| Capacity | 1,428 | |||
| Owner | Samvel Aleksanyan | |||
| Chairman | Rafik Hayrapetyan | |||
| Manager | Sargis Hovsepyan | |||
| League | Armenian Premier League | |||
| 2014–15 | 1st | |||
| Website | Club home page | |||
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Football Club Pyunik (Armenian: Ֆուտբոլային Ակումբ Փյունիկ), commonly known as Pyunik, is an Armenian professional football club based in Yerevan. Pyunik is one of the most popular football clubs in Armenia.[1]
The club headquarters are located on Masis street 7, Yerevan.[2] The Pyunik Training Centre is located in the Kentron District of Yerevan.
The owner of the club is the Armenian businessman Samvel Aleksanyan.[3]
History
Founded in 1992 as Homenetmen Yerevan, the club won the first Armenian Premier League competition held in 1992 (shared with Shirak). In 1995, Homenetmen Yerevan was renamed FC Pyunik (Armenian for "Phoenix").
The new era of Pyunik began in 2001, when they absorbed the newly promoted club FC Armenicum and automatically gained position in the Armenian Premier League without playing a single game in the lower leagues. The new owner of the club Ruben Hayrapetyan, took serious approach to develop the team bringing star players from other Armenian clubs. Pyunik had significantly improved after the arrival of foreign players from Mali, Cameroon, Argentina and later from Romania. Thus, Pyunik won the Armenian Premier League title the same year and the Armenian Cup in 2002. Later, for the first time in independent Armenian club history an Armenian club advanced to the second round in the Champions League. Afterwards, the club won the Armenian Premier League title ten times in a row.
In general, Pyunik has won a record 13 Armenian Championships, along with 7 Armenian Cup titles and 8 Armenian Supercups. The club is among the most popular Armenian football clubs.
Stadiums
Between 1992 and 1999, the club used the Hrazdan Stadium as a home ground. In 1999, after the renovation of the Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium, the club moved here and used it regularly as a home ground until 2013. During 2008, due to large-scale renovation works at the Vazgen Sargsyan Stadium, Pyunik were forced to play their home games at their own Pyunik Stadium, which was opened in 2004 as part of the Pyunik Training Centre (formerly known as Kilikia Sports Complex).
Since April 2013, FC Pyunik is using the Yerevan Football Academy Stadium as a home venue for the domestic competitions. It has a capacity of 1,428 seats.
Rivalry
Pyunik's main two rivals are Ararat and Banants, however, the rivalry with Ararat is a lot more fierce than that of Banants. The reason for that is because Ararat is known to be the most loved club of Yerevan because of its Soviet accomplishments, and Banants was originally based in the region of Kotayk, and was only moved to Yerevan in 2001. Another category Banants and Pyunik compete is their youth academies, which are considered to be the two best academies in the country.
Youth academy
FC Pyunik run their own youth training academy in Yerevan. Many of the Armenian national team players are graduates of the club's academy including Edgar Manucharyan, Robert Arzumanyan, Gevorg Ghazaryan, Karlen Mkrtchyan and Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Many of them were members of the Armenia U-19 national team who participated in final tournament of the 2005 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship.[4]
Honours
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Winner (14) – 1992, 1995–96, 1996–97, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2014–15 -
Runner-up (2) – 1994, 2011
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Winner (8) – 1995–96, 2002, 2004, 2009, 2010, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15 -
Runner-up (3) – 1992, 1996–97, 2006
- Winner (9) – 1998, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2015
- Runner-up (6) – 1997, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2013, 2014
Pyunik in European cups
As of 30 June 2015.
Overall
| Competition | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | +/- |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UEFA Champions League | 32 | 7 | 6 | 19 | 29 | 52 | (−23) |
| UEFA Europa League | 10 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 11 | 20 | (−9) |
| Total | 42 | 10 | 8 | 24 | 40 | 72 | (−32) |
Matches
Current squad
- As of 27 January 2016[5]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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FC Pyunik-2 (reserves)
FC Pyunik's reserve squad play as FC Pyunik-2 in the Armenian First League. Pyunik Stadium is their home ground.
- As of 1 August 2015
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Manager: Ashot Avetisyan
Managers
Levon Yablukyan (2000–01)- Samvel Darbinyan (2001–02)
Oscar López (2002–03)
Mihai Stoichiță (2003–04)- Vardan Minasyan (2004–05)
Henk Wisman (2005–06)- Samvel Petrosyan (2006–07)
- Armen Gyulbudaghyants (2007–08)
- Vardan Minasyan (June 1, 2008 – Dec 31, 2011)
- Suren Chakhalyan (Jan 1, 2012 – Nov 8, 2012)
- Vardan Minasyan (interim) (Nov 9, 2012 – Jan 14, 2013)
- Rafael Nazaryan (Jan 16, 2013 – Nov 10, 2013)
- Varazdat Avetisyan (interim) (Nov 14, 2013–1?)
- Sargis Hovsepyan (Dec 30, 2013–)
References
- ↑ "Armsport: Amenian Football". Archived from the original on May 3, 2010.
- ↑ Armenia, clubs
- ↑ ՇԱՌԻՑ-ՓՈՐՁԱՆՔԻՑ ՀԵՌՈՒ
- ↑ 2005 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship fixtures and results., from uefa.com
- ↑ "Qualifying Phase". http://www.uefa.com/. UEFA. Retrieved 1 July 2015. External link in
|website=(help)
External links
- Official website (Armenian)
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