Armenia faces issue of stadium: UEFA may disqualify the existing one: AFF president

President of Armenia’s Football Federation Artur Vanetsyan asked at the government sitting today to provide territory for building a stadium.

The Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stressed that his position is that building a stadium is very important as it will give an opportunity to conduct international matches in the country.

“The thing is that these stadium must never be built on the account of green territories. There is no place in downtown Yerevan for not only building a stadium but any other building,” the prime minister stressed.

“In reality today for not having a stadium UEFA may disqualify the existing stadium as it does not correspond to conditions and today we have the issue of building a new one,” Artur Vanetsyan said.

He noted that the contemporary stadiums intend big green zone as well.

“I want to say that a modern, big park is being built around the stadium which will occupy 5-6 hectares of territory while the area around will be of 10-15 hectares,” the AFF president said.

As to Hrazdan stadium, Vanetsyan said huge sums are necessary for making it correspond to international standards while again it will not guarantee whether it will be accepted or not.

“The most important issue today is to make the stadiums correspond to safety norms: on one side roads, cars. There is an issue of evacuation that needs to be implemented in 15-20 minutes while in case of Hrazdan it is impossible to ensure it and bring it to these conditions,” Vanetsyan said, adding that in case of having the opportunity they will restore the stadium and use it for organization of local games.

“I have met with the owner twice-thrice, negotiations are being held,” the AFF president said.

Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that the discussions must be intensified.