A few days ago, the employees of the Olympic Children’s Sports School of Game Sports in Avan, from guards to cleaners, learned in the news that their workplace will soon be given to another company completely and free of charge.
The government has decided to provide the entire territory of the state-owned school for 25 years to a newly created company to establish a football academy. However, the employees and coaches of the sports school have not yet been told whether they will be transferred to another institution or will lose their jobs.
The State Property Management Committee, which developed this project, openly says that the fate of the existing sports school is still unknown. “At the moment, it is under discussion as to where exactly they will continue their activities. There is no clear information at the moment.”
The school area is not crowded now, the classes have yet to start after the summer holidays. The guards and trainers don’t want to talk in front of the camera, they are waiting for clarifications from the management. The school operates under the Ministry of Education, which has not yet commented on these issues
However, it is clear from the government’s decision that in internal discussions, the ministry did not have any principled objection to selling the sports school to the “Next Gen Sports” company, which was established a few months ago, this February.
What is known about the newly created Next Gen Sports?
Little is known about the newly created “Next Gen Sports”, and there is no information on how to contact them on their official website.
The company will become the owner of almost 10 million dollars worth of property after solving a number of paperwork issues. In return, they promised to invest about 2.5 million dollars in the area and establish an academy of the Italian “Juventus” football club, build stadiums, a gym, a swimming pool, and a hotel. The company promised to present the project with a presentation in the near future.
According to the State Register, the sole owner of the company is Alfred Sadoyan, the son of Ruben Sadoyan, former Republican MP, businessman, former ambassador of Armenia to Georgia, whose activities are also connected with offshore companies. Years ago, Hetk, together with the international consortium of investigative journalists, found his name in Pandora’s wallets and wrote that while still a student, the younger Sadoyan became a co-owner of an offshore company. More than 10 years later, Sadoyan’s business sense brought him to Turin, where he signed a contract with “Juventus”.
Before the decision, everything was checked, assures the Public Relations Officer of the State Property Management Committee, Araks Arakelyan.
“During this period, negotiations were carried out with this company, as presented in the project, they are the only company that has a cooperation agreement with the Juventus club, the agreement, of course, everything was checked and after the positive opinion of the relevant departments, we developed a project and presented it to the government Arakelyan mentioned.
“If the premises are used for other business purposes, the contract will be terminated”
The Avan sports school is only a part of this deal, “Next Gen Sports” also acquires the state-owned “Hrazdan Sports Complex CJSC”, this is the area adjacent to the stadium with a cadastral value of more than 8 million dollars. The actual marzadashat continues to belong to businessman Ashot Aghababyan. Here too, they promised to invest more than 3 million dollars and build football infrastructures within 5 years. – “The handover of the actual territory will be after ten years or maybe sooner if the mentioned company makes the payments sooner. We issued the shares on an installment basis, and the shares with a repayment period of up to 10 years, if it is done sooner, we can consider the privatization process fully implemented.”
The government assures that if these areas are used for other business purposes, the contract will be terminated.
The authorities have promised to build a new gymnastics school named after Albert Azaryan in the area adjacent to “Hrazdan”, they plan to host the European championship there in 2027. So far, there is no indication of the possible start of construction.
