"Armenian First Front" (FAF) has issued a statement regarding today's canceled match between "Pyunik" and "West Armenia".
"We would like to refer to "West Armenia", one of the HPL clubs that supported Armen Melikbekyan.
As it became known, the owner of "West Armenia" has not paid the salaries of the team's players and staff for several months, but also has not made the payments for the stadium and other needs of the club.
In the previous season, the football society talked a lot about the fixed matches or the so-called "ghumar" with the participation of "West Armenia" in the HPL, "Hetk" news agency published several extensive articles.
"West Armenia" remained unpunished. FFA did not send any report to UEFA regarding questionable matches, no criminal cases were initiated and the club owners had the opportunity to successfully sell the club or carry out a handover process, of course after securing a vote in the FFA presidential election.
At the beginning of this season, the team acquired Australian businessman Robert Bassil.
The latter declares within the club that the construction process of the national stadium is entrusted to him, he even talks about holding the home games of "West Armenia" in the national stadium in the future.
After a short time, Bassili, presumably realizing that the start of the national stadium project is not a matter of days and that he is wasting a lot of money senselessly for himself, decides not to pay the salaries and various payments, confronting the club's players and the FFA.
"West Armenia" football players regularly visit the football federation, where the FFA management urges from the beginning, and then gives an ultimatum to participate in all games until January, the middle of the season, on the condition that the football players' salaries be compensated with UEFA solidarity funds in January, and otherwise, they threaten not to pay a penny
The point is that if a club leaves the league without playing 50% or more games, according to the regulations, the results of all games played until then are canceled, this can have a serious effect on the teams' standings and undermine the reputation of the Premier League.
As of now, the players of "West Armenia" club have not trained and did not play against "Pyunik" today. This will be the 2nd technical defeat of "West Armenia", in case of one more the club will be automatically removed from the championship.
We demand a quick solution to this issue and pay the salaries of the players and staff.
The current leadership of the FFA is responsible for this shameful situation, whose prolonged tenure will bring irreversible consequences. In this period, there are many alarms and raised issues, which we will address in the near future.
