UEFA European Futsal Championship qualifiers: Armenia coach lauds historic achievement

Armenia national futsal team head coach Ruben Nazaretyan lauded his team’s “historic” achievement of qualifying for the main round of the 2026 UEFA European Futsal Championship.

“I want to congratulate our entire nation for this historic event,” the coach told reporters after the Armenian team defeated Kazakhstan 4:2, becoming the first Armenian national team ever to qualify for the main round of the European Championship.

“This is a historic event for Armenia. Not a single national team had previously qualified for the main round, but the futsal team did,” the coach said.

“I had always said that this day would come, and today is that day. I’ve been head coach since 2002, and it took us 23 years to enter the main round. But we lost 15 of the 23 years, we hadn’t paid enough attention to futsal, but now we have this result thanks to several devoted people,” he added.

Nazaretyan credited Armen Melikbekyan, the president of the football federation, for renewed attention and care for futsal.