Marked for Zurab Kvaratskhelia
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match12 Aug 2026
A 2‑0 win over Shukura, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Market17 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Nika Kvaratskhelia did not need any: 7.69, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Age has not caught Dato Daraselia yet — 7.96
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.96 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match15 Aug 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Tskhinvali have 4 straight wins of it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. 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 Tskhinvali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match15 Aug 2026
A 1‑0 win over Samtredia, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad17 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.69, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer from Samtredia for Avtandil Gvelesiani was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market10 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 The request is on a desk at Tskhinvali, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Irakli Kvilitaia and Tskhinvali agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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 Tskhinvali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match8 Aug 2026
Sapovnela made Tskhinvali work for it, but the scoreboard read 4‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Sioni have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Zurab Kvaratskhelia. The answer from Tskhinvali has not changed — yet.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market3 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Irakli Kvilitaia 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Giorgi Chakvetadze and Tskhinvali agree another 2 years.
The terraces3 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
A 1‑0 win over Torpedo Kutaisi, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Saba Kvaratskhelia was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.19. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Zurab Kobiashvili 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.
Squad3 Aug 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 Tskhinvali, and both men came out saying it was fine.