Marked for Nika Tsitaishvili
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
Shota Ananidze breaks a bone — 122 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 122 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A brace, and Nika Tsitaishvili takes the afternoon — 8.40
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nika Tsitaishvili provided it, and the 8.40 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market14 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
The wait goes on for Zugdidi
6 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Zugdidi leaking at the back
6 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Market14 Sep 2026
The Shukura deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Archil Chakvetadze reports back to Zugdidi with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Match12 Sep 2026
3‑5 to Samtredia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.97, and 2 involvements.
Match12 Sep 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Zugdidi and Samtredia, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Shota Ananidze out for 130 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A brace, and Giorgi Okriashvili takes the afternoon — 8.98
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Giorgi Okriashvili provided it, and the 8.98 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market7 Sep 2026
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Shota Ananidze reports back to Zugdidi with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Levan Ananidze, 15, plays like he has been here for years — 7.61
A mark of 7.61 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 15-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.15 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market7 Sep 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
5 matches without a win for Zugdidi
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Zugdidi are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match5 Sep 2026
Zugdidi are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 Aug 2026
Saburtalo 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.
Market24 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Davit Mchedlidze 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Zugdidi and Dinamo Batumi, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match22 Aug 2026
Dinamo Batumi left with the points after a 2‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Mamuka Mchedlidze's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
One lapse, one goal, and ninety minutes of honest work counting for nothing. That is the job at Zugdidi, and it is a cruel one.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kakha Chakvetadze and Zugdidi agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.