Marked for Jaba Kvilitaia
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
Luís Carlos decides it from twelve yards
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match19 Aug 2026
Saburtalo march on in the cup
Dila are out and Saburtalo go through, 1‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Beka Dartsmelia pops up at the right end — 7.53
7.53, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
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 Saburtalo can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market24 Aug 2026
Tskhinvali did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $270.0K for Jaba Kvilitaia, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Squad24 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 Saburtalo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match22 Aug 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market24 Aug 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Tskhinvali have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Goga Arveladze and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market24 Aug 2026
Saburtalo pay $270.0K, 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Revaz Kashia ran the middle of the pitch — 6.78
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 13 combined actions and a mark of 6.78, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Tbilisi have kept their man, and Tskhinvali go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 45. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match12 Aug 2026
A 1‑0 win over Guria, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Saburtalo and Tskhinvali have settled on $270.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Jemal Tabidze 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Saburtalo asked and Cruzeiro said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 14-year-old it feels ownership of. Goga Mchedlidze 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.
The dugout17 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Dinamo Batumi left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad17 Aug 2026
This league is too small for Filipe Alves
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Saburtalo will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Tskhinvali people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market17 Aug 2026
Saburtalo come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Tskhinvali did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Tornike Kobiashvili could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.40
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.40, 0 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 7.98 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Goga Arveladze 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
At 21 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.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Danilo Milani
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Beka Dartsmelia delivers — 7.56
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Beka Dartsmelia scored, was marked 7.56, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Jemal Tabidze and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Saburtalo asked and Tskhinvali said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Saburtalo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filipe Alves 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
Kolkheti left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Khvicha Okriashvili 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Otar Kvilitaia has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Shota Okriashvili is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Irakli Kvaratskhelia 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Goga Arveladze 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
Add another name to the list: Shukura have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Archil Zivzivadze. The answer from Tskhinvali has not changed — yet.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Temur Mikautadze and Tskhinvali agree another 2 years.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Gimnasia y Tiro have kept their man, and Tskhinvali go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Tskhinvali
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jaba Kvilitaia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match1 Aug 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Umut Ucar
“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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Temur Mikautadze had Tskhinvali level again within 4 minutes, and Dinamo Batumi never got to play with a lead at all.