FC Ararat Moscow (, ) was a Russian football team based in Moscow that represented the Armenian diaspora in Russia. It was founded in 2017 and joined the Russian Professional Football League replacing FC Vityaz. The club was named after the Armenian club FC Ararat Yerevan.
History The club was founded in 2017 with the support of the Armenian Youth Association of Moscow. On 30 May 2017, the club received the Russian Football Union license for participation in the 2017–18 Russian Professional Football League season and signed a former Russia international forward Roman Pavlyuchenko. Pavlyuchenko was soon joined at Ararat by two more former national team players, Marat Izmailov and Aleksei Rebko.
On 30 July 2017, Sergei Bulatov resigned from his position as manager, Arkadi Imrekov taking over as caretaker manager. On 16 August 2017, Aleksandr Grigoryan was announced as Ararat's new permanent manager.
On 31 August 2017, the club announced that the club president Valeri Oganesyan has resigned and left for Georgia, and the financial audit conducted by the club discovered that Oganesyan transferred 20 million rubles (approx. €292,000) of club's funds to his personal accounts before leaving. The club lodged a complaint with the police to open criminal investigation into the matter. A week later, the media businessman Ashot Gabrelyanov (of Life news agency) who is involved in the management in the club, announced that the financials of the club are stable and the financial dispute with Oganesyan is settled, and the club is sponsored by billionaire Samvel Karapetyan and businessman Kamo Avagumyan.
On 26 October 2017, Grigoryan resigned as the manager despite Ararat leading the league decisively at the moment.
On 17 November 2017, Samvel Karapetyan was appointed the president of the club and Igor Zvezdin as the head coach. Dmitri Beznyak is officially registered with the league as the head coach and Zvezdin as senior coach-analyst. On 12 April 2018, Zvezdin left the club and was replaced by Maksim Bukatkin.
On 28 April 2018, Ararat secured first place in the Centre Zone of the PFL and the right to promotion to the second-tier Russian Football National League. Ararat initially were refused a license for the FNL, but appealed the decision. The appeal was declined on 30 May 2018.
On 9 January 2019, Ararat Moscow announced their return to Russian football, entering the Russian Professional Football League for the 2019–20 season. On 5 February 2020, Russian Football Union excluded Ararat from RPFL once again for failing licensing. The club was 8th in the table at the time.
League and cup history Season League Russian Cup Top goalscorer Manager Div. Pos. Pl. W D L GS GA P Name League2017–183rd1st261961491563Round of 16Roman Pavlyuchenko 9 Sergei Bulatov Arkadi Imrekov (Caretaker) Aleksandr Grigoryan Poghos Galstyan (Caretaker) Igor Zvezdin Maksim Bukatkin2018-19no participation------------2019-203rd8th (excluded)17728343623Forth round2020-presentno participation------------
Statistics Top goalscorers
NameYearsLeagueRussian CupTotal1 Roman Pavlyuchenko20172 Taymuraz Toboyev2017–Present3 David Khurtsidze2017–Present4 Igor Lebedenko20175 Viktor Zemchenkov20175 David Davidyan2017–Present7 Aleksandr Katsalapov2017–Present8 Marat Izmailov20178 Yegor Tarakanov2017–Present8 Aleksei Rebko20178 Aleksei Kurzenyov2018–Present
Managerial Information correct as of match played 26 May 2018. Only competitive matches are counted. NameNat.FromToPWDLGSGA%WHonoursNotesSergei Bulatov30 July 2017Arkadi Imrekov (Caretaker)30 July 201716 August 2017Aleksandr Grigoryan16 August 201726 October 2017Poghos Galstyan (Caretaker)26 October 201717 November 2017Igor Zvezdin17 November 201712 April 2018Maksim Bukatkin12 April 201830 May 2018
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