Nikoghosyan: FFA’s 2026–2030 strategy is ready but will be presented after public discussion

Armen Nikoghosyan, Vice President of the Football Federation of Armenia (FFA), summarized the results of the implementation of the FFA’s 2020–2025 strategy during a meeting and also spoke about the readiness of a new strategic plan for 2026–2030, which will not yet be officially presented.

According to Nikoghosyan, the strategy was approved in 2019, before Armen Melikbekyan became FFA President. He emphasized that at that time it was impossible to foresee the COVID-19 pandemic, the 44-day war, as well as the Russia–Ukraine conflict with all its economic and geopolitical consequences. The document included six key areas: national teams, youth football, grassroots and amateur football, professional football, women’s football, and infrastructure.

Unfulfilled objectives of the 2019–2025 strategy

During the speech, several goals that were not achieved were outlined, including:

• Qualification of the Armenia national team for the final stage of the European Championship or the FIFA World Cup.

• Qualification of Armenia’s U17, U19 and U21 teams for the final stages of the European Championships.

• Qualification of Armenia’s women’s national teams for the final stages of international tournaments.

• Construction of 10 football academies across the country.

• Implementation of a unified player development program across all academies and teams — in practice, only 2–3 clubs work under a common program.

• Increasing the total number of people involved in football to 80,000 — currently this figure stands at around 40,000.

• Construction of a UEFA Category 4 stadium with a capacity of over 30,000 spectators — the project is currently only at the government planning stage.

Achieved objectives

At the same time, Nikoghosyan highlighted several successfully implemented points, including:

• Preparation of players in youth national teams for the senior national team — many U-team players have received call-ups to the main squad.

• Success of the Armenia futsal national team — the team qualified for EURO 2026, and for the first time will begin qualification for the 2028 World Cup from the elite round.

• Increase in the number of youth academies: clubs are required to have between 7 and 10 age-group teams. Nikoghosyan noted that not all academies are fully operational.

• Growth in the number of footballers aged 6 to 18 to 10,000.

• Significant increase in the number of qualified coaches in the regions — instead of the target of 150 specialists, the number has reached 789.

• Use of the Double Pass talent development program across all clubs.

• Introduction of an amateur football league.

• Hosting Armenian Championship matches exclusively at stadiums of at least UEFA Category 2.

Speaking about the future, Armen Nikoghosyan stated that the FFA’s 2026–2030 strategy is almost ready, but the federation considers it important to submit it for public discussion. The official presentation of the document will take place at the next assembly.

In conclusion, he noted that overall about 55 percent of the objectives of the previous strategy were fulfilled, out of a total of 21 goals.