Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan together with the Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Arayik Harutyunyan and other members of the government attended the event dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Football Federation of the Republic of Armenia. The event was also attended by FIFA President Gianni Infantino and UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin.

The Prime Minister congratulated those present, the representatives of the football community on the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Football Federation of Armenia.

"We have set the following goal in the transformation strategy of Armenia until 2050: the Armenian national football team should become an award winner of the World or European Championship. In general, how realistic is the solution to this issue? Usually we imagine football and focus on football within 90 minutes of a live broadcast. In fact, the victory on the field during the 90 minutes live broadcast is not conquered, it’s just recorded. It is very important what happened before that and what will happen after that. And it is the work done in these two directions that determines the future of football.

But in these days of football bitterness, I want to assess the state of our football. To give an accurate assessment of this, we need to look at what happens beyond the 90 minutes. Today, this audience is a very strong record of the fact that the Republic of Armenia has acquired very reliable partners in the person of the Presidents of FIFA, UEFA, and thesese organizations. I would like to specially welcome the presence of our partners, the Presidents of FIFA and UEFA, at such an important event for us. But the expression of that friendship, of trustworthy partnership, is not this, so to speak, the 90 minutes of live broadcast, but what happened before that. Over the past three years, with the support of FIFA, the Football Federation of Armenia has created 90 new small stadiums in 7 regions of Armenia, where FIFA will provide about $ 2.5 million. This is a strong contribution to the future of Armenian football, because the fate of that future 90 minutes is decided in those rural fields, which should unite children, unite adults around them, which should harden, fortify, create team spirit, which should lead our country and our football to victories. I would like to express my appreciation for the support provided by UEFA. In particular, the Abovyan city stadium, which was renovated within the framework of the UEFA hat-trick program, will open tomorrow. Vanadzor stadium is being built and reconstructed with the support of UEFA. In the near future we will have the football school after one of the greatest Armenian football players of our time, Khoren Hovhannisyan, which is also being built with the support of UEFA. Lighting systems will be installed at Shengavit Stadium, Gyumri City Stadium, and all these investments, the support of UEFA, will amount to about $ 5 million. The President of FIFA announced today that these 90 small stadiums will soon increase to 300 in the Republic of Armenia. Today we also discussed with the President of FIFA, and also during our previous meeting with the President of UEFA, the possibility of building a new stadium in Armenia that meets all modern standards, a stadium from scratch. I am very pleased that we have such reliable partners as FIFA in the person of President Gianni Infantino and UEFA in the person of President Aleksander Čeferin in the pursuit of all these goals. I am confident that we will achieve our goals.

Dear colleagues, football is very important for us; it has economic, sports, socio-psychological and political significance. The Republic of Armenia, the Armenian people have great success in the field of sports. Usually, when we discuss the success of Armenian sports at friendly discussions, at tables, on festive events, almost everywhere, in all families, the point is that we are more successful in individual sports, less successful in team sports. This is what we are talking about, it has a political significance, because team spirit, team logic is a phenomenon that has a great place to really develop in the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Armenia needs to develop that way of thinking, football has an exceptional significance on the way to achieving this goal. Modern football is an institutional phenomenon, and I hope that through the presented developments in football, institutional thinking will become commonplace in the Republic of Armenia.

Congratulating all of us again on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Football Federation of Armenia, I would like to express my appreciation and gratitude to all the people who have contributed to the development of Armenian football, be they athletes, coaches, investors, organizers, officials. I hope that all of us, using the contribution of these people, will be able to take it to such heights that we can proudly recall and record the past path, increase, double, multiply our past pride.

I want to welcome all the players of the Armenian national team of all times and tell them that we are always standing with them in difficult periods. Many will be by your side in good times, but in difficult times, know that we are always by your side, ready to support you in any way we can. The next important nuance is that we should all stand by our team, our football, not only when they win, but also when they have certain difficulties, because they are our difficulties, they are the difficulties of all of us, we must overcome those difficulties together.

Congratulations to all of us again and thank you for your services.”