Marked for Jaba Qazaishvili
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 May 2027
11 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market10 May 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market10 May 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mikheil Janelidze will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zugdidi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 May 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Revaz Lobjanidze and Zugdidi agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 May 2027
Words exchanged at Zugdidi
Nika Kvaratskhelia and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match8 May 2027
Dinamo Batumi left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout10 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Saba Ananidze
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout10 May 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Giorgi Gamsakhurdia after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout10 May 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Mar 2027
Lasha Gvelesiani damages knee ligaments — 27 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 27 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Marked 7.64 at 15, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market29 Mar 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zugdidi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match27 Mar 2027
The wait goes on for Zugdidi
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Zugdidi
Nika Kvaratskhelia and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match27 Mar 2027
It needed Aleksandre Kiteishvili to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Merani, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Giorgi Gamsakhurdia chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Tornike Kakabadze
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Mar 2027
10 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Lasha Gvelesiani
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zugdidi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Mikheil Ananidze, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.72
A mark of 7.72 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market15 Mar 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mikheil Janelidze will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zugdidi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Nika Kvaratskhelia was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jaba Qazaishvili commits to Zugdidi for another 3 years.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match13 Mar 2027
It needed Mikheil Ananidze to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Dinamo Tbilisi, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Lasha Gvelesiani
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zugdidi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market8 Mar 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zugdidi can pretend not to have heard.
Market8 Mar 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Aleksandre Kiteishvili will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zugdidi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Giorgi Mikautadze and Zugdidi agree another 3 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Zugdidi
Nika Kvaratskhelia and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
Graduation day at Zugdidi
1 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Market8 Mar 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Saba Mchedlidze has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Marked 7.21 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Zugdidi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bachana Tsitaishvili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Jaba Qazaishvili is the month’s best young player
At 19 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Zugdidi will try not to make too much of it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Davit Mchedlidze has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Loan watch5 Oct 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Zugdidi, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Zugdidi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Market5 Oct 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Zugdidi know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Jaba Qazaishvili at 19 — 8.31
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jaba Qazaishvili did not need any: 8.31, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match26 Sep 2026
The drought breaks for Zugdidi
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Lokomotivi were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Nika Kvaratskhelia was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Revaz Lobjanidze has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match26 Sep 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Tornike Chakvetadze’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Zugdidi.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.19 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Loan watch28 Sep 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Zugdidi, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Vakhtang Kiteishvili and Zugdidi agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.