The head of national soccer’s governing body has for the first time since 2002 formally entrusted a homebred coach with management of the national soccer squad, it emerged on Thursday.

The Football Federation of Armenia (www.ffa.am) announced that FFA President Ruben Hayrapetyan had issued a decree appointing caretaker manager Vardan Minasyan as Armenia’s head coach until 2012, meaning that he will coach the team until the end of the Euro-2012 qualifying campaign.

Minasyan has become the 15th national head coach since Armenia joined international football as an independent nation in 1992. The team has had six foreign head coaches before Minasyan took over Denmark’s Jan Poulsen’s duty at the beginning of last year. He stayed in that capacity until his formal appointment today.

All of Minasyan’s foreign predecessors, except Ian Porterfield (2006-2007), were fired by the Armenian federation over the team’s poor performance record. The team achieved its arguably best record and form under the Scotsman, who, however, died of cancer in September 2007.

Armenia is currently ranked 102nd on the FIFA list of over 200 nations. The nation’s rivals in Group B of Euro-2012 qualification are Russia, Slovakia, the Republic of Ireland, FYR Macedonia and Andorra.

It was also reported this week that Armenia will travel to Cyprus to play a friendly on March 3 as part of preparations for the official matches starting in September.