PLAN and ACTION
For seven months while in Sydney, Dikran planned a business strategy, which would work. He also included a five year plan for his Club.
In October 2004, Dikran returned to Yerevan with a well planned mission. First on the agenda was the registration of the club, 'Yerevan United Football Club' (YUFC), a name that would come to mean something to all Armenians around the world, not just in Armenia.
Dikran found and appointed the Head Coach, Albert Sargsyan and the Team Manager, Sevak Makaryan. During this same trip, Dikran had a meeting with the Executive Director of the Football Federation of Armenia (FFA), Mr. Armen Minasyan, who was very excited to hear Dikran’s ideas and plans for football in Armenia.
Dikran returned to Australia, leaving behind specific and strict guidelines for his Head Coach and Team Manager to work with.
Three months of regular communications with his two employees in Yerevan resulted in the recruitment of a team of elite football players. They launched pre-season training on 20th December, 2004.
Season 2005 LAUNCH
Dikran returned to Armenia in February 2005 with his wife Rose-Leah and two young children Nune` (4) and Haroutig (2) to live in Armenia and to be instrumental in the running and success of Yerevan United Football Club.
Upon his return to Armenia, he was extremely satisfied and greatly impressed with the team that the Head Coach and Team Manager had worked hard to put together.
As part of the FFA's conditions, any new team entering the Armenia football competition, must start in 1st League and earn promotion to Premier League for the following season. Therefore Yerevan United FC became one of 15 teams, to participate in 1st League championship in 2005. They also chose to take part in the Armenia Independence Cup 2005. All teams from both leagues are eligible to participate in the Independence Cup, which usually kicks-off in March, before the regular season.
Armenia Independence Cup 2005
Yerevan United FC rocked the football community in Armenia when, in the Independence Cup 2005, they won against Premier League 2004 runners-up and triple Cup winners, MIKA FC 1-0 in their return match. Never in Armenia’s Football history, had a 1st League team beaten a Premier League team in any competition.
Yerevan United played four matches in Armenia's Independence Cup 2005. In the qualifying round, they recorded a 1-0 away and 7-0 at home wins (8-0 on aggregate), against 1st League team, FIMA. They advanced to round of 16’s where they lost 0-2 away and a 1-0 home win, (1-2 on aggregate), against Premier League giants and eventual 2005 Cup winners, MIKA FC, before exiting the Independence Cup.
Armenia First League Championship
As the popularity of the Club was growing rapidly, so was the anticipation of the entire Armenian Football community. There were many who welcomed the Club and its progress and also, as with most new concepts, there were the critics. Dikran embraced them both.
The Club's main objective, in 2005, was to obtain promotion to Premier League (highest league in Armenia's Football) by the end of the season.
Championship Opening Match
The stage was set for Yerevan United, to kick-off its Championship campaign. The first opponent was last year's 1st League title holders, Pyunik-2, at Pyunik's home ground. This was the test everyone was waiting for.
Yerevan United sent a strong message to the rest of the teams in 1st League, by beating the title holders, Pyunik-2, 4-1.
Why Yerevan United was so different...
While many football experts in Armenia were trying to advise Dikran how hard it would be for a new football club to succeed in Armenia and not to expect positive reaction from the public, he was always very positive and optimistic whenever he was interviewed on television stations, radio stations and sports newspapers. Dikran believes that just like any great change, Armenian Football requires FAITH and PATIENCE. As YUFC is a brand new football club, it is literally 'HISTORY IN THE MAKING'.
In some of his interviews, Dikran explained his simple logic for success “In any business, in order to succeed, you need customers; there is no business in the world that can survive without customers. Football is a business and customers in football are called fans. In order to create fans, you need to win people’s hearts. First you must treat them like gold, hear them, identify their needs, provide them with fun and a sense of belonging to your team and of course you must also have a plan and strategy to achieve all that….”
No club had realized the real power of the Armenian football lovers in Armenia and in the Diaspora world wide, or had found a way to tap in to their passion. Dikran envisioned a way, via a dynamic and informative website, tourism, connecting to the enthusiasm of youth in Armenia including university students and school kids, players’ involvement in local charity work, close connection with the Diaspora fans all over the world and most importantly providing fun atmosphere for the fans.
Although playing in 1st League, Yerevan United elected to play their home games at ‘Republican’ Stadium (the premier football venue in Armenia).
All Yerevan United players had their surnames written on the back of their team jerseys. No team in Armenia has done that, not even the Armenia National team.
While it was free for the public to attend and watch matches in both leagues in Armenia, fans required to purchase tickets to watch Yerevan United play at home. During one of his interviews, Dikran was asked about his expectation on charging entry fee to their home games, while as is, no more than 100 people make the attempt to attend matches in Armenia. His reply was “I would rather see 10 paying spectators, who truly appreciate and value their team and the hard work that the players are putting in, than 100 or 1000 who are there because it is free”.
There was a close bond between the players and Dikran. He treated them well.
Late in April, two weeks into the season, television advertizing were seen, Radio station announcements were heard, large posters on several shop fronts, newspaper ads, all promoting Yerevan United FC’s spectacular opening celebrations at Vazgen Sargsyan’s ‘Republican’ Stadium, to be held on May 7, before their scheduled 1st league match against Vagharshapat FC.
Official Opening Celebrations
15,000 INVITATIONS were distributed in a form of tickets. It was publically advertised everywhere that tickets were required in order to attend the opening celebrations and where people could obtain those invitations from. This was the Club’s first step to make the public aware, that they needed a ticket to attend future games. This strategy was very unclear to most people, but on the back of every invitation, there was an offer to attend the next match for half the normal entry price, by simply presenting the invitation while purchasing a ticket for the next game.
Many had doubts to the number of people would attend the opening on May 7, even if there was no cost involved.
Yerevan United hosted well over 7,000 people on that day. There were food and drinks available for purchase, music being played through specially fitted loud speakers while the crowds were gathering in the stadium. Many people attending that day as well as the media and the so called football experts, were shell shocked to see the response by the general public. Yerevan United broke another record in the Armenian football, by attracting that many people to a match. Never before had such numbers attended a 1st League game in Armenia.
The entire opening, as well as the full 90 minutes of the game that followed, was televised live on National Television, alternatively it was televised live world wide through satellite. 15 minutes before the official program started, Dikran Hovivian was seen entering the stadium through the gates amongst the crowd. A few hundred already seated spectators greeted him with standing ovation.
The president of the Football Federation of Armenia, Mr. Ruben Hayrapetyan, who accepted Hovivian’s personal invitation, was witnessing the unthinkable.
The program started with the introduction of 220cm tall, Yerevan United’s lion mascot, named after the legend of ‘Aryutz Mher’, which was greeted with enthusiasm and cheers by the crowd. He danced; jumped around and got the crowd to go wild with his performance. This was followed by performances by Emmy and ‘Hayer’ group, Arsen Safaryan and also Hyusis Dance group. Then it was time for the Founder and President of Yerevan United Football Club, Dikran Hovivian, to make the Club’s opening speech, which he gave in Armenian.
Founder’s Opening speech, translated:
“Honorable President of the Football Federation of Armenia, Mr. Ruben Hayrapetyan, distinguished guests and dear football lovers who are present here and everyone who is watching us live on television in Armenia and the whole world. I salute you and welcome you all. Today, after 14 months of long and hard work I officially open our newly created Yerevan United Football Club.
I would like to express my deepest appreciation to the Football Federation of Armenia, for their warm acceptance to our football ideas and plans. Without the Football Federation’s help, it was not going to be possible to realize our dream, which was to have a European standard football club in Armenia.
Dear football lovers, you are demanding the improvement of football in Armenia, you are demanding highest results from our National Team. They are good demands and those are our wishes too. For our National team to achieve great heights, first the football clubs in Armenia must be strengthened. And Armenia’s football Clubs’ only power is you dear football lovers. Join your favorite teams, worship them, and overwhelm the players, value their hard work with your presence, tighten your ties with Armenia’s football. You are the energy suppliers to the players.
Today, Yerevan United Football Club, in its four months of existence, has already created and has fans in Armenia, Los Angeles, New York, Montreal, Paris, Sydney and in Moscow.
Have faith and patience, long live Armenia, long live the Football Federation of Armenia and long live Armenian football fans”.
The speech followed by, for the first time in Armenia’s history, the introduction of Yerevan United Cheerleaders, who lined up near the tunnel to greet both teams, who entered the field with Ara Gevorgyan’s ‘Artsakh’ composition and a spectacular fireworks.
The game ended with Yerevan United’s 5-1 victory. One of the most fascinating scenes was to see thousands in the crowd chanting ‘U-ni-ted, u-ni-ted’ throughout the match, as if this team has been around for many years.
The critics were silenced in amazement!
First Rounds and Summary
The first rounds of the season ended on the 13th of July, before the teams went for four weeks mid year break. Yerevan United led the League Table with 32 points and was undefeated, with 10 wins and two draws, scored 43 goals and conceded 9 (not includinge 7-0 and 5-1 wins against Arax FC and Banants-3 respectively, due to those teams pulling out of the competition halfway through the first rounds, the FFA had deducted the championship points and goals that were scored off the teams that played against those two teams).
YUFC home game attendance averaged between 500 and 700 fans, which was more than most Premier League games were achieving at the time.
In 2005, YUFC employed and provided income to over 70 families in Armenia including players, coaching staff, entertainers, office administration, marketing and public relations department, catering and customer service staff and Security personnel.
Turbulent times for the Club
Towards the end of the first rounds, the Club was facing financial problems and it was becoming serious. Most of the staff including the players hadn’t been paid their salaries for two months. This brought forward uncertainty and destabilized the team. Dikran decided to return to Sydney, Australia immediately after the end of the 1st rounds, to try to resolve the investor problem before the second rounds commenced.
While in Sydney, he was able to reach out to a handful of Australian-Armenian investors, who formed a rescue package for Yerevan United. It took over two months to put together this rescue package. During that time the second rounds of the competition had already started and the team was performing poorly, with three narrow wins, two draws and two losses of which one was by forfeit, where three competition points were also deducted from their tally.
Against all doubts in Armenia, Dikran had returned in September. On the day of his arrival in Yerevan, he witnessed his beloved team suffer its biggest loss, 1-4 to ‘Ararat-2’.
Yerevan United played the remaining three games with a draw, followed by two wins. The season ended in October and Yerevan United finished 4th on the League table and missed out on the promotion to play in Premier League in 2006, by one point.
Before returning to Sydney, Dikran met up with the FFA President, Mr. Ruben Hayrapetyan and pleaded to consider granting Yerevan United the right to join the Premier League in 2006. This was the only way the Club could satisfy investors, who had promised to further inject finances and secure the Club’s survival, if the promotion occurred. It was up to the FFA’s Executive Committee to decide to grant Yerevan United the promotion or not. The EC’s next meeting was scheduled for two months later, in December.
Dikran returned to Sydney and faced the worst. Without promotion, no investor was willing to be involved any longer.
Two months after Dikran’s return to Australia, on December 15, he received a congratulatory email from the Executive Director of the FFA in Armenia, informing him of the EC’s decision to increase the number of Premier League clubs in 2006, and therefore granting Yerevan United the promotion to Premier League in 2006.
Whether it was due to the two month wait for a decision from the EC or some other reason, the investors had cooled off and withdrew any offers of a rescue package.
Dikran himself had already invested everything he had into the Club. With no other options available, he made the difficult decision to pull the team out for 2006 and try to work out other ways to raise finances throughout the year to re enter the competition in 2007.
The news wasn’t received well in Yerevan. The players were disheartened, the fans were disappointed and the media had written down Yerevan United as another statistic that joined the long list of football clubs in Armenia who started and were dissolved and never heard of again.
Dikran had different ideas. He knew that the Club did not fail to deliver what he intended from the start. The lack of finance was the only reason for the Club to be put on hold. During good times and challenging times, Dikran never lost his faith in Armenian Football or the passion of the Armenian football fans and the heights Yerevan United can achieve. Dikran kept a handful of the Club’s administrative employees on duty in Yerevan while he is in Sydney and he keeps constant contact. He also kept Yerevan United website to continue operating as normal.
