Marked for Davit Zivzivadze
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match14 Aug 2027
David Kokoev had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Sochi 2 were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Market16 Aug 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 Rubin Yalta can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
A brace, and David Kokoev takes the afternoon — 8.28
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. David Kokoev provided it, and the 8.28 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Davit Zivzivadze: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rubin Yalta have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match14 Aug 2027
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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rubin Yalta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Alexandr Smirnov 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.
The terraces16 Aug 2027
At 20 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.
Squad16 Aug 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Mar 2027
A fracture rules Aslanbek Kumykov out for 59 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rubin Yalta will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market29 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 Rubin Yalta can pretend not to have heard.
Market29 Mar 2027
Only the photograph left for Grigory Tarnov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Grigory Tarnov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rubin Yalta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Mar 2027
A fracture rules Aslanbek Kumykov out for 66 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rubin Yalta will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market22 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rubin Yalta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Jan 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 Rubin Yalta, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market25 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Danila Polshikov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rubin Yalta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad25 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rubin Yalta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrey Koltakov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rubin Yalta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market18 Jan 2027
“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.
Boardroom18 Jan 2027
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Danila Polshikov has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Danil Polyakh 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Rubin Yalta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Smirnov 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.
Market18 Jan 2027
Davit Zivzivadze is 20, and Rubin Yalta have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
Khvicha Kakabadze damages knee ligaments — 18 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tskhinvali will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market7 Dec 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
José Hernandez 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Tskhinvali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lev Zotkin 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.
Market7 Dec 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Tskhinvali know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
Benito Yllaconza: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tskhinvali have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market9 Nov 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Oct 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 Tskhinvali can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Oct 2026
José Hernandez 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.
Loan watch12 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 Tskhinvali, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match9 Sep 2026
Dila go through and Tskhinvali go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.77 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad14 Sep 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.
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
José Hernandez 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Otar Kobiashvili. 2‑1 against Dinamo Tbilisi, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Tskhinvali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lev Zotkin 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.