Marked for Tikhon Anisimov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
A fracture rules Shota Ananidze out for 137 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zugdidi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match29 Aug 2026
2‑8 to Torpedo Kutaisi, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match29 Aug 2026
4 matches without a win for Zugdidi
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Zugdidi are no longer polite ones.
Match29 Aug 2026
10 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Zugdidi and Torpedo Kutaisi in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Market31 Aug 2026
Kolkheti pay $120.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Match29 Aug 2026
Zugdidi are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Nika Tsitaishvili 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Aug 2026
Chastening afternoon for Zugdidi
A 2‑6 beating by Kolkheti was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match12 Aug 2026
The cup run ends for Zugdidi
0‑2 against Torpedo Kutaisi, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 27 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Market17 Aug 2026
Shukura come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Zugdidi did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Jaba Ananidze among the goals in a wild afternoon
8 goals in one match, Jaba Ananidze on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Zugdidi and Kolkheti.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
The game went through Jaba Ananidze — 7.48
Marked 7.48 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad17 Aug 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Aug 2026
“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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market10 Aug 2026
Sapovnela come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Zugdidi did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Shota Ananidze and Zugdidi agree another 1 years.
Squad10 Aug 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mamuka Mchedlidze is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match8 Aug 2026
A 2‑0 win over Shukura, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market10 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Shukura have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jaba Okriashvili. The answer from Zugdidi has not changed — yet.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 7.79 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jaba Ananidze and Zugdidi agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tikhon Anisimov 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Guram Kashia has come up in conversations Zugdidi were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Mamuka Mchedlidze falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match1 Aug 2026
A 2‑2 draw with Guria leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Zugdidi has been clear about where Archil Chakvetadze stands, which is more than many ever get.