FC Urartu

Banants

Full name	Football Club Banants
Nickname(s)	Proud Eagles
Founded	January 20, 1992 (1992-01-20)
Ground	Banants Stadium Yerevan
Capacity	6,000
Chairman	Sargis Israelyan
Manager	Rafael Nazaryan
League	Armenian Premier League
2011	Armenian Premier League, 4th
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Football Club Banants (Armenian: Բանանց Ֆուտբոլային Ակումբ) is an Armenian professional football team, playing in the capital, Yerevan. The club plays in the Armenian Premier League and has won the Armenian Cup twice, in 1992 and 2007.

History

Banants Kotayk

FC Banants was founded in 1992 in the city of Abovyan, and represented the region of Kotayk. For this reason, from 1992 to 1995, the club was referred to as Banants Kotayk. During the 1992 season, the club won the first Armenian Cup. At the end of the 1995 transitional season, Banants went into financial crisis. The club owners decided that it was better to merge the club with the other Abovyan club, Kotayk Abovian, rather than disband it. In 2001, Banants demerged from Kotayk Abovian, and was moved from Abovyan to the capital Yerevan. Banana Boys!

Banants Yerevan

In the beginning of 2003, Banants merged with 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 of Spartak's players, including one of its top players, Samvel Melkonyan. After the merger, Banants took a more serious approach and has finished in high ranks 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. In season 2010 FC Banants played really good and had a really good chance to become the champion of Armenian League, but white-blue eagles could not stand till the end. Last 5 games were really difficult for the team and in the end FC Pyunik became the champion, but the difference with FC Banants was only 1 point. However, in 2010 eagles made a good turn in the history. There is another significant fact in 2010: FC Banants finally got his fan Club (Proud Eagles) and now FC Banants can be proud of it, because this fan club is the best one in Armenia so far. Club has motivation to win Armenian Championship in 2011, that is why they had very good training period before the start of the season.However, in the season 2011 "Banants" had very bad start.

Achievements

• Armenian Cup: 2
  • 1992, 2007

Banants in European Cups

As of July, 2011.

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

Season	Competition	Round	Club	1st leg	2nd leg	Aggregate
2003/04	UEFA Cup	Q	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
		2Q	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	2 - 4	0 - 4	2 - 8
2006/07	UEFA Cup	1Q	Ameri Tbilisi	1 - 0	1 - 2	2 - 2*
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

• Home results are noted in bold

Current squad

As of 22 April 2012.

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

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
1	GK	ARM	Artur Toroyan
3	DF	ARM	Gagik Daghbashyan
4	MF	ARM	Aram Shakhnazaryan
5	DF	ARM	Artashes Arakelyan
6	MF	ARM	Argishti Petrosyan
7	MF	ARM	Artak Dashyan
8	DF	ARM	Valter Poghosyan
10	FW	ARM	Sargis Karapetyan
11	MF	ARM	Narek Gyozalyan
12	MF	ARM	Artur Hakobyan
13	FW	ARM	Khachatur Avetisyan
14	MF	ARM	Davit Sujyan
15	DF	ARM	Andranik Kocharyan

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
16	DF	ARM	Grisha Khachatryan
17	MF	ARM	Benik Hovhannisyan
18	DF	ARM	Sipan Davtyan
19	MF	ARM	Hovhannes Hambardzumyan
20	FW	ARM	Gevorg Karapetyan
21	MF	ARM	Nairi Minasyan
22	GK	ARM	Stepan Ghazaryan
23	GK	ARM	Tigran Davtyan
24	MF	ARM	Ararat Poghosyan
28	GK	ARM	Nikolay Sargsyan
—	DF	ARM	Ararat Arakelyan
—	FW	BUL	Andrey Atanasov

Notable players

Ararat Arakelyan Gevorg Ghazaryan Razmik Grigoryan Ara Hakobyan Aram Hakobyan Yegishe Melikyan

Samvel Melkonyan Rafael Nazaryan Vahe Tadevosyan Aram Voskanyan Arthur Voskanyan Tigran Yesayan

Plamen Krumov Marko Markov Yevgeni Matyugin Eugene Ssepuuya Oleksandr Kucher Dmytro Vorobeyev

Managers

• Varuzhan Sukiasyan (1992–94)
• Oganes Zanazanyan (2001–05)
• Ashot Barseghyan (2005–06)
• Nikolai Kiselev (2006–07)
• Jan Poštulka (2007)
• Nikolay Kostov (July 2007–April 2008)
• Nedelcho Matushev (April 2008–June 8)
• Kim Splidsboel (2008)
• Armen Gyulbudaghyants (Jan 2009–Dec 09)
• Ashot Barseghyan (assistant) (2009)
• Stevica Kuzmanovski (Jan 2010–Dec 10)
• Rafael Nazaryan (Jan 2011–present)

External links

• Official Website Template:Hy icon Template:Ru icon
• Fans' site Template:Ru icon
• Fans' site Template:Hy icon
• Banants at FFA.AM Template:En icon
• Banants at UEFA.COM Template:En icon
• Banants at EUFO.DE Template:De icon
• Banants at Weltfussball.de Template:De icon
• Banants at Playerhistory.com Template:En icon
• Banants at Transfermarkt.de Template:De icon
• Banants at National Football Teams.com Template:En icon
• Banants at Football-Lineups.com Template:En icon