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AGBU ARARAT was founded in the year 1984, by a group of people-members of the AGBU Nicosia chapter passionate with sports and football. The 11 a-side team soon joined the amateur league in order to stay alive and very soon it started having a leading role in the league which was the beginning of its bright future.
In 1985, ARARAT participated for the first time, in the Pan-Armenian (Navasartian) games which was held in Geneva and took the third place of the FUTSAL tournament, and this was the first time that a Cypriot team participated in such a tournament. the then so called , 5-a-side, as this was completely unknown to Cyprus.
In 1987 in the same tournament in Geneva ARARAT , took the highest rank on the podium, as champions of the tournament.
ARARAT has visited many countries and participated in many tournaments both in football and mainly in futsal. Australia, Argentina, Armenia, Bulgaria, Greece, Lebanon, Switzerland, England , USA, France and later Belgium, Finland, Hungary and Holland are some of the places visited by our team over the years.
For the next coming years ARARAT continued to play football, in the amateur 11a-side league, but in the minds and hearts of the people of ARARAT, Futsal, has made its roots and in 1998-1999, when the first official league of University based Futsal was created ARARAT was the first team to register and join a league of 9 teams and from the first year took the 2nd place in the championship and runner-up in the cup competititon.
In this same year ARARAT again won the championship title of the Pan-Armenian Futsal games In Sydney, Australia.
The time had arrived for the Cyprus Football Association to get organized and create the Futsal Association and the Futsal championship of Cyprus in 1999-2000.
In the same year ARARAT took the 3rd place in the final standing and won the cup title.
The following year 2000-2001 was the ignition of the glory to follow for ARARAT , as the team won the championship and represented Cyprus in European (UEFA) champions league for futsal, as the first ever representative of Cyprus in such a prestigious tournament. The event was held in Belgium as the host country, and ARARAT took the second place after ACTION 21/CHARLEROIA / champions of BELGIUM, and in front of the champions of the CZECH republic HAVLICUK and TEAM IBERIA of GEORGIA.
2001-2002 was again the year of ARARAT as the team again won the championship in Cyprus, with an overall result of 26 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats. The representation in Europe (in Finland), now was not so impressive as in the group was the team of SHAKTIOR Donetsk /of Ukraine/ who won the first place of the tournament, but ARARAT had gained high standard of experience.
In 2002-2003 local championship, with 18 games played, ARARAT were the UNBEATEN Champions and on top of the ladder with 17 wins - 1 draw, goals scored 123, and the desire of the whole team is to stay there for many years to come.
The year 2002-2003 can be named the GOLDEN year for ARARAT as the team also won the Futsal Cup of Cyprus, making the double for the first time in the History of Futsal in Cyprus.UEFA FUTSAL CUP of 2002-2003 was the 3rd European participation of ARARAT and this time the team was drawn to play in Hungary against the Champions not only of Spain but of EUROPE in 2001/2002 and 2002/2003, the team of PLAYAS DE CASTELLON, which is considered to be the best team in EUROPE in all aspects.
Another golden year for ARARAT, is the season 2003-2004 during which the team won again the Championship title of the Cyprus Futsal Association, UNBEATEN, and with more than 20 points difference from the runner-up team, and goals scored 200.
During October 2004, ARARAT again for the 4th time represented Cyprus in the UEFA FUTSAL CUP, this time Holland was our destination and played against FC Marlene (Holland), El Pozo Murcia (Spain) and Karaka Mostar (Bosnia Herzegovina).During this tournament ARARAT, although had only 6 players to field due to injuries, performed excellently and everybody mentioned, a 'heroic performance'.
During 2004-2005 season ARARAT wins again the title of the Cyprus Futsal Association, unbeaten three rounds before the end of the season.This is the 5th championship title for ARARAT.The season 2004-2005 will be written as another golden year for the superteam of Cyprus as ARARAT wins also the cup by beating 4-1 Parnasos at the final.This is the second double for ARARAT.
In October 2005 Hungary was again drawn to be our 5th european destination. In Hungary ARARAT met with Armenian champions 'TAL GRIK' and a draw 3-3 was the result. Probably this game was the only meeting of two Armenian teams one representing the diaspora and Cyprus and the other Homeland Armenia.It was a historic game under the auspuices of UEFA.
The season 2005-2006 started with huge problems for the team which saw ARARAT finishing as runner-up in the league.This was the first time in our history that ARARAT would not participate in UEFA Cup.
During the season 2006-2007 AGBU ARARAT wins again the Championship title proving once more that the team is synonymous with Cyprus Futsal. For the 7th UEFA FUTSAL CUP competition ARARAT travelled to Paris to play in the preliminary round of the cup. A win over Albanian champions ALI DEMI by 6-3 and two defeats against Plevia Montenegro and ISSY Paris was the result. Season 2007-2008 is the season where ARARAT lost the championship with one point, although having scored 25 more goals than the champion team and also demolishing their rivals in the last game by 7-2. Winning championship titles - unbeaten, has become a tradition for ARARAT which is the proof of the complete DOMINATION in Cyprus. Over the years many outsiders and even ''insiders'' tried to harm the team unsuccesfully in various ways and ignore its existance but AGBU ARARAT was there to teach lessons to the above mentioned both inside and outside the pitch.
Overall, AGBU ARARAT has won 6 championship titles and 3 cups and twice won the double.
By reaching such high standards in Cypriot Futsal, ARARAT is deeply respected and widely accepted as the best Futsal team in CYPRUS. The aim of the whole team is one day to shine also in Europe,and reach the peak of mount ARARAT.
HISTORY OF CYPRIOT FUTSAL
Last updated 07-04-2008 |
