NOAH, FC ARTSAKH AND ARMENIA:SOME NEW FACTS FOR YOU!!

The club, from, Yerevan, located in central Armenia, was founded as FC Artsakh in 2017 and played its first match in a goalless draw against FC Banantas on 2 June 2017. Noah played its first competitive season in the 2017-18, in the Armenian First League finishing second and achieving promotion to the Armenian Premier League. In that season they met EVERTON in the UEFA  Europa League........

2017–18	UEFA Europa League	First qualifying round	Vojvodina Novi Sad	2–0	1–2	3–2
		Second qualifying round	Brann	0–1	2–0	2–1
		Third qualifying round	Everton	0–1	0–1	0–2

During their brief existence they have also changed ownership and moved stadium - and even city - more than once.

After a disappointing 8th-place finish in the 2018-19 league season, the club was sold to Karen Abrahamyan, who rebranded the club FC Noah in 2019. The name, of course, references the biblical Noah, whose Ark came to rest on Mountains of  Ararat, traditionally identified with Mount Ararat in Armenia.

Noah won the 2019-20, Armenian Cup, on, 20 July 2020, defeating Ararat-Armenia on penalties.They won the Super Cup the Following season. They have never gone through a European round before this season. Of the 50 clubs in the first qualifying round they were the only one to make the play-offs - and they went one step further by reaching the tournament proper. And now they visit Chelsea at Stamford Bridge for the Conference League phase tie - with a team who have only been together a few months - for one of the biggest games in Armenian football history.

Despite finishing second last season, only two points behind champions FC Pyunik, ambitious businessman Vardges Vardanyan changed manager - bringing in Portuguese Rui Mota - and a mostly new squad.

In an overhaul that even Chelsea could only dream of, they signed 16 players this summer and another three in the first half of 2024. Nobody has been at the club for longer than two years.

Mota, despite only being 45 years old, has already worked in Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Greece, Belgium, Brazil, Turkey, Iran, Croatia and Georgia.

"Being in the Conference League is a spotlight for the club, to show ourselves to European football, because now everybody knows who Noah is!!" he said. "The Chelsea game is a special moment because it means playing one of the best teams in European football. It's an honour to have this game."

"It's a very special game for us, for Armenian football, for our fans, for our club."

In 2024 they qualified for the UEFA Conference League after defeating Ruzomberok, 4-3 on aggregate in the play-off round, becoming the first club in Conference League history to successfully navigate all four rounds of qualification. They had beaten Shkendija, Sliema Wanderers and the Greek powerhouse AEK Athens, in the previous qualifying rounds.

Competition	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
UEFA Europa League	1	0	0	1	1	4	–3
UEFA Conference League	12	7	1	4	21	12	+9
Total	13	7	1	5	22	16	+6

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
2020–21	UEFA Europa League	1QR	Kairat	—	1–4	—
2021–22	UEFA Europa Conference League	1QR	KuPS	1–0	0–5	1–5
2024–25	UEFA Conference League	1QR	Shkëndija	2–0	2–1	4–1
		2QR	Sliema Wanderers	7–0	0–0	7–0
		3QR	AEK Athens	3–1	0–1	3–2
		PO	Ružomberok	3–0	1–3	4–3
		League phase	Mladá Boleslav	2–0	—
			APOEL		—
			Chelsea	—
			Rapid Wien	—	0–1
			Víkingur Reykjavík		—
			TSC	—

The Mica Stadium

And the biblical name of the club?

Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia, as well as one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities.

The Old Testament says Noah’s Ark landed on Mount Ararat - which is just over their border, in modern Turkey and dominates the Yerevan horizon. Armenia was the first country in the world to adopt Christianity as its official religion in the fourth century.

A significant part of Armenia is located in the Ararat Valley, so the themes of Ararat, Noah and his Ark have sacred meaning for Armenians. The map below shows regions of Armenian Viticulture in the south of the Ararat Plain, yellow region 1.