On 16 December, the former President of the Football Federation of Armenia (FFA) Ruben Hayrapetyan was charged by the Armenian Investigative Committee under articles of the Criminal Code related to official negligence that carelessly caused grave consequences, embezzlement in large amounts, falsification of documents by a group of people and misuse of powers by commercial or other organizations, reported news.am.

Previously, on 13 December, the Armenian police raided Hayrapetyan’s mansion in Yerevan. Hayrapetyan was reluctant to talk to journalists standing at the entrance to his sprawling compound in Yerevan’s northern Avan suburb when he approached and urged them to disperse after the search. “They are not arresting me,” he said.

Asked what the police officers found in his house, he replied with sarcasm: “One Su-35 fighter jet, one T-90 tank and several BMP and BTR [armored personnel carriers].” Hayrapetian also advised the journalists to ask the FFA’s current deputy chairman, Armen Nikoghosian, about reasons for the criminal investigation. 

Hayrapetyan, has long been considered a controversial figure in the Armenian society resulting from his reportedly violent conduct. In 2015, for example, he avoided prosecution despite admitting that he beat up another entrepreneur. Hayrapetyan strongly supported former President Serzh Sarkisyan and represented the latter’s Republican Party in the Armenian parliament. He had to resign from the parliament in 2012 following a brutal attack on several army medics who dined at his Yerevan restaurant. One of them died while two others were seriously injured after arguing with men working at the restaurant. Hayrapetyan was forced to resign as federation head in September 2018 four months after the “Velvet Revolution” that toppled Armenian’s former leadership. He was replaced by Artur Vanetsian, the new head of the country’s National Security Service (NSS).

The Armenian newspaper Zhoghovurd speculated that the charges against Hayrapetyan could have consequences for the FFA, due to the high politicisation of the body. “Since what happens around the FFA is regularly reported to UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin, it is not ruled out that the FFA will be suspended for two or more years due to politicization,“ the article argued.