The FFA Refereeing Committee has issued an official statement regarding referee Samvel Hovsepyan's post. We present it below:
"Dear football-loving public,
There have been various posts and criticisms about Armenian refereeing on social platforms and in the media.
The FFA Refereeing Committee has never addressed them, as international football structures do not welcome public discussions on refereeing issues. However, this time, an extraordinary phenomenon occurred: referee Samvel Hovsepyan made a public statement, making several unfounded, untrue claims. Therefore, the FFA Refereeing Committee has decided to address that post.
S. Hovsepyan started refereeing in 2016, not 2017, as he claims. During these years, he has mainly refereed games of the youth, amateur, and RA First Group championships. He has refereed only once, and that was during this season, a match in the Armenian Premier League.
At the end of the season, he attempted to disrupt the referees' everyday work and raise a wave of protest against the FFA Refereeing Committee and the FFA leadership. Hovsepyan has refused to officiate the scheduled matches several times, and since January 8 of this year, when the FFA referees started training, Hovsepyan, without giving any reasons, boycotted the training and refused to undergo the annual mandatory medical examination. After that, Samvel Hovsepyan was not included in the group going abroad for a training camp by the FFA Refereeing Committee, after which he was dismissed from work. I wrote a resignation letter and made a Facebook post.
It should also be noted that officials serving the Armenian Premier League games will attend the meeting mentioned above: 12 male referees, 14 male assistant referees, two female referees, and three female assistant referees, as well as international-level referees.
Samvel Hovsepyan claims that the FFA does not protect referees. Such a claim also does not correspond to reality. The FFA has always supported the referees, and the FFA has always protected them. As in the whole world, there have been unpleasant cases in Armenia when various people—spectators, fans, coaches, or parents—have insulted referees or used or attempted to use violence against referees. However, these are few cases. All the instances the FFA was informed about did not remain without consequences, and the guilty parties have suffered their respective sanctions.
Much more noticeable is the progress in the number and quality of referees. In 2019, Armenia had only 6 international-level male referees, including 2 head referees and 4 assistant referees, 2 international-level female referees, and 3 assistant referees. This year, Armenia already has 12 international-level male referees, including 4 head referees, 8 assistant referees, 2 VAR referees, 2 international-level female referees, 3 assistant referees, and 1 futsal referee.
Considering the work done by the FFA in the refereeing field and the growth recorded by Armenian referees, UEFA has begun to trust Armenian referees more. A vivid proof of this is that this season, for the first time in history, the Armenian refereeing staff in full, including VAR referees, officiated the group-stage matches of the UEFA Conference League. In addition to the matches mentioned above, our referees have officiated various international matches this season and tournaments, including the UEFA Nations League group stage match and the UEFA U-19 Championship Final Round matches.
Samvel Hovsepyan claims that referees' salaries have never increased. This is a complete lie. In 2019, a referee serving a match in the Armenian top flight received 120 thousand drams, and the refereeing fee for serving 1 match was 390 thousand drams (referee, 2 assistant referees, 4th official, referee, and 2 additional assistants). Currently, the head referee receives 160 thousand drams per match, and referees receive 616 thousand drams for serving 1 match. Refereeing fees for serving First League and youth matches have also increased significantly. The same Samvel Hovsepyan served 60 games during the four months of the season that started in 2024 (mainly youth and First Group championship games) and received a salary of 1,717,000 AMD.
The FFA Refereeing Committee wanted to address this only in connection with referee Samvel Hovsepyan's post. We are confident that this clarification will help football fans distinguish truth from falsehood."
It should be noted that referee Samvel Hovsepyan posted on his Facebook page and expressed dissatisfaction with the changes implemented by the current FFA leadership.
