Open news feed Close news feed
A A

LICENSING IS BECOMING OBLIGATORY

Sports

It is already three years Armenian football teams have been taking out patents to participate in the Champion League, UEFA and Intertoto Cup Finals.

In this view A1+ interviewed Arno Sargsyan, the head of Armenian Football Federation Patent Department.

The UEFA introduced license system in 2002. The system has been in force since 2004-2005 and it works on the bases of five criteria - sporting, financial, substructural, legal and administrative. Teams should meet the above-mentioned criteria to be granted licenses. According to the UEFA statute Armenian teams should carry out audit under international criteria.

Do Armenian teams meet the criteria?

A1+ has already covered the process of patent granting. You are aware that “Shirak” wasn’t licensed this year. First of all we study the documents submitted by the teams and then we make sure whether their contents correspond to the reality. “Shirak” wasn’t licensed as the team has reached a deadlock. As you know the club sponsor is already back and I think that the financial problems will soon be recovered.

Currently teams are licensed to partake in European tournaments. Can the license become the main condition for teams’ participation in national championships?

Patent system will be exerted on the national level as well. The procedure will consist of two parts. Firstly, teams must meet four out of the five criteria to participate in a national championship. Secondly, the teams must submit financial records to participate in international tournaments.

We have granted licenses to all participants of the high group. We pursue two aims: to train them for the forthcoming tournament and not to take them unawares by the patent process.

Many clubs opened in Armenia over the past years which survived for a few months. Do you think that the patent system can combat this problem?

I think it will as the teams are to overcome a few stages to be patented. Eventually, when the system was introduced in 2002 we were in a panic. Many believed Armenian would not participate in UEFA tournaments as none of the Armenian clubs would meet the criteria. Nevertheless, the process turned out to be not that complicated. Our teams yield to European clubs by substructural and financial criteria. But we have young and enthusiastic players that any European club lacks.

Arthur Nazaryan