FC Banants

Banants

Full name

Football Club Banants

Nickname(s)

Proud Eagles

Founded

January 20, 1992

Ground

Banants Stadium
Yerevan

Capacity

5,010

Owner

Oleg Mkrtchyan & Jevan Cheloyants

Chairman

Karlen Mkrtchyan

Manager

Tito Ramallo

League

Armenian Premier League

2014–15

6th

Website

Club home page

Home colours

Away colours

Football Club Banants (Armenian: Ֆուտբոլային Ակումբ Բանանց, transliterated "Futbolayin Akumb Banants"), commonly known as Banants, is an Armenian professional football team from the capital Yerevan. They play in the Armenian Premier League. Banants won the Armenian Cup twice, in 1992 and 2007. In 2013–2014, Banants won the Armenian Premier League for the first time in its history.

The owner of the club is the Ukraine-based Armenian businessman Oleg Mkrtchyan.

History

Kotayk

FC Banants were founded by Sarkis Israyelyan on 21 January 1992 in the village of Kotayk, representing the Kotayk Province. He named the club after his native village of Banants (currently known as Bayan within Azerbaijan), which was historically part of the Gardman canton of Utik province of Ancient Armenia.^[1] Between 1992 and 1995, the club was commonly referred to as Banants Kotayk.^[2] During the 1992 season, the club won the first Armenian Cup. At the end of the 1995 transitional season, Banants suffered a financial crisis. The club owners decided that it was better to merge the club with FC Kotayk of Abovyan, rather than disband it. In 2001, Banants demerged from FC Kotayk, and was moved from Abovyan to the capital Yerevan.

Yerevan

Banants were relocated in Yerevan in 2001. At the beginning of 2003, Banants merged with FC Spartak Yerevan, but was able to limit the name of the new merger to FC Banants. Spartak became Banants's youth academy and later changed the name to Banants-2. Because of the merger, Banants acquired many players from Spartak Yerevan, including Samvel Melkonyan. After the merger, Banants took a more serious approach and have finished highly in the league table ever since. The club managed to lift the Armenian Cup in 2007. Experience is making way for youth for the 2008 and 2009 seasons. The departures of most of the experienced players have left the club's future to the youth. Along with two Ukrainian players, Ugandan international, Noah Kasule, has been signed.

The club headquarters are located on Jivani street 2, Yerevan.^[3] The Banants Training Centre is located in the Malatia-Sebastia District of Yerevan.

Stadiums

Banants Stadium

The construction of the Banants Stadium was launched in 2006 in the Malatia-Sebastia District of Yerevan, with the assistance of the FIFA goal programme. It was officially opened in 2008 with a capacity of 3,600 seats. Further developments were implemented later in 2011, when the playing pitch was modernized and the capacity of the stadium was increased up to 5,010 seats (2,810 at the northern stand, 1,565 at the southern stand and 635 at the western stand).

Honours

Armenian Premier League:
- Winner (1): 2013–14
- Runner-up (4): 2003, 2006, 2007, 2010

Armenian Cup:
- Winner (2): 1992, 2007
- Runner-up (5): 2003, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010

Armenian Supercup:
- Winner (1): 2014

UEFA Team Ranking 2013

Rank	Team	Points
431	Dundalk	1.525
432	UN Käerjéng 97	1.475
433	NSÍ Runavík	1.425
434	Banants	1.325
435	FK Kruoja	1.300
436	FK Banga Gargždai	1.300
437	Drogheda United FC	1.275

Banants in European Cups

As of 2015

Competition	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
UEFA Cup / UEFA Europa League	20	3	3	14	13	43
UEFA Champions League	2	1	0	1	3	3

Season	Competition	Round	Club	1st leg	2nd leg	Aggregate
2003–04	UEFA Cup	QR	Hapoel Tel Aviv	1–1	1–2	2–3
2004–05	UEFA Cup	1Q	Illychivets Mariupol	0–2	0–2	0–4
2005–06	UEFA Cup	1Q	Lokomotivi Tbilisi	2–3	2–0	4–3
2005–06	UEFA Cup	2Q	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	2–4	0–4	2–8
2006–07	UEFA Cup	1Q	Ameri Tbilisi	1–0	1–2	2–2 (a)
2007–08	UEFA Cup	1Q	Young Boys Berne	1–1	0–4	1–5
2008–09	UEFA Cup	1Q	Red Bull Salzburg	0–7	0–3	0–10
2009–10	UEFA Europa League	1Q	Široki Brijeg	0–2	1–0	1–2
2010–11	UEFA Europa League	1Q	Anorthosis Famagusta	0–3	0–1	0–4
2011–12	UEFA Europa League	1Q	Rustavi Metalurgist	0–1	1–1	1–2
2014–15	UEFA Champions League	1Q	FC Santa Coloma	0–1	3–2	3–3 (a)

Home results are noted in bold.

Current squad

As of 24 January, 2016.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Position	Player
71	GK	Albert Ohanyan
88	GK	Stepan Ghazaryan (captain)

3	DF	Narek Petrosyan
5	DF	Hakob Hakobyan
19	DF	Vlatko Drobarov
	DF	Soslan Kalmanov
	DF	Jasmin Mecinović
	DF	Aram Shakhnazaryan

7	MF	Petros Avetisyan
8	MF	Valter Poghosyan
9	MF	Emil Yeghiazaryan

No.	Position	Player
11	MF	Nairi Minasyan
12	MF	Hovhannes Panosyan
16	MF	Miguel López
17	MF	Zaven Badoyan
18	MF	Vahagn Ayvazyan
	MF	Claudio Torrejón

10	FW	Laércio
	FW	Atsamaz Burayev
	FW	Aslan Kalmanov
	FW	Denis Mahmudov

FC Banants-2 (reserves)

Banants Training Centre in Yerevan

FC Banants' reserve squad play as FC Banants-2 in the Armenian First League. They play their home games at the Banants Training Centre.

As of 1 August 2015