Everything started from 1999, when journalist Tigran Hovhannisyan received an unexpected letter from St. Petersburg, where it was mentioned that for the first time a football tournament was going to be held among journalists from CIS countries, and Armenian journalists were also invited to participate.
“The letter encouraged us. This tournament was held under the auspices of governor Yakovlev. We used to play before, but after the invitation we began to train regularly and obtained special uniform for the team,” remembers 50-year-old Tigran Hovhannisyan, captain of Armenian journalists’ football team and president of the “Foreign Correspondents’ Association”.
The journalistis’ team left to take part in the tournament. And that was the first, but not the last team play in international tournaments of journaists.
“We did not take part in the next year’s tournament (in 2000-author) for our safety, as it was held in Baku,” says Hovhannisyan.
However, the team was actively involved in the future games. Over 12 years they managed to win one gold and four bronze medals. The recent success of the team was in Lutsk, Ukraine, where the team won the 3rd place in the 14th international mini-football championship “Volin 2011”.
Everything started from 1999, when journalist Tigran Hovhannisyan received an unexpected letter from St. Petersburg, where it was mentioned that for the first time a football tournament was going to be held among journalists from CIS countries, and Armenian journalists were also invited to participate.
“The letter encouraged us. This tournament was held under the auspices of governor Yakovlev. We used to play before, but after the invitation we began to train regularly and obtained special uniform for the team,” remembers 50-year-old Tigran Hovhannisyan, captain of Armenian journalists’ football team and president of the “Foreign Correspondents’ Association”.
The journalistis’ team left to take part in the tournament. And that was the first, but not the last team play in international tournaments of journaists.
“We did not take part in the next year’s tournament (in 2000-author) for our safety, as it was held in Baku,” says Hovhannisyan.
However, the team was actively involved in the future games. Over 12 years they managed to win one gold and four bronze medals. The recent success of the team was in Lutsk, Ukraine, where the team won the 3rd place in the 14th international mini-football championship “Volin 2011”.
Tigran Hovhannisyan is the only one who has been playing and managing the team from the day of its formation until now. And besides, Tigran has succeeded in organizing a similar tournament in Armenia and Karabakh inviting his colleagues from CIS countries.
It is the team captain’s responsibility to involve new players in the team: he assembles the team, encourages, obtains uniforms, and organizes trainings in football stadiums. There is no age limit. The important thing is that they should be from the media field.
“Football requires a movement of personnel. Since our team consists of reporters, it turns out that one of them is no longer a journalist, another one doesn’t play football anymore,” Hovhannisyan mentions.
The list of team members playing for a long period of time is replenished by journalists from the Mediamax news agency, “Yerevan” magazine, “Ararat FM” radio station and from many other media outlets.
“This is not only a sport event. We don’t want to create an impression as if we are spending money for our pleasure. This is a kind of public diplomacy,” says the captain of the team, “We represent Armenia in other countries, get acquainted with mutual issues and exchange information.”
For 25-year-old Samvel Karagozyan, the youngest player of the team, playing football in this team is not only pleasure, but also a great opportunity to communicate with his colleagues out of work.
“I like football very much, this is a hobby for me and an opportunity to establish contacts with my foreign colleagues,” says Samvel.
Samvel is the system administrator of the Mediamax news agency. Since 2008 Samvel has been playing in “Mediamax” football team. There he became prominent and was invited to play in Armenian journalists’ football team. In 2010 Samvel was voted “Best Defender” in the “Football for Equal Opportunities” tournament for journalists.
As for the results of the plays, the captain of the team considers that it is important to win honorable places in tournaments.
“All of us treat seriously these tournaments. CIS countries are used to see Armenia participating. They write about us: “Armenia’s skillful team”,” says Tigran.
This year the team will take part at least in one of the tournaments being held in Poland and in Lithuania.
“We can’t participate in all tournaments; after all we are journalists, not football players to go from one to another tournament. But we try to take part and be present in one of them during a year,” says journalist Tigran Hovhannisyan.
Source: JNews.am