Marked for Zurab Mikautadze
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match12 Sep 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Zugdidi and Torpedo Kutaisi, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Zurab Mikautadze, and the manager let it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.51 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“I watch every Zugdidi game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Saburtalo runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 2‑4, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Zugdidi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mamuka Kvilitaia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 2 in, 7 out at Zugdidi
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 7 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Zugdidi asked and Ferro Carril Oeste said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tempers went at Zugdidi this week. Nothing a hard session and a quiet word cannot repair, though the story got out all the same.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Vakhtang Shengelia is the division's best young player this month
At 17 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Zugdidi will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Squad7 Sep 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
Zugdidi have let the market know Aleksandre Lobjanidze can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. Zugdidi would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
Lokomotivi arrived with $1.1M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Match29 Aug 2026
1‑4 to Dinamo Batumi, 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.
Market31 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Zurab Qazaishvili has gone, the accounts have $1.1M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Market31 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.
Squad31 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.
Transfer targets31 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 dugout31 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.
In brief
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Boardroom
Inquest at Zugdidi
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Squad
Mamuka Kvilitaia falls out with a teammate over standards
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad17 Aug 2026
5 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match15 Aug 2026
Shukura will want this one forgotten quickly: 10‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Zugdidi were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Match12 Aug 2026
Zugdidi out of the cup
Torpedo Kutaisi ended it 0‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market17 Aug 2026
Zugdidi say no — this time
The offer from Dinamo Batumi for Jaba Lobjanidze 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Aleksandre Lobjanidze provided it, and the 8.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Zugdidi are taken apart by Torpedo Kutaisi — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-3. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Zugdidi say no — this time
The offer from Sapovnela for Aleksandre Lobjanidze 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The deal with Tskhinvali is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Guram Chakvetadze and Zugdidi agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Zugdidi
Aleksandre Lobjanidze 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
Zugdidi asked and Dinamo Batumi 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
A row about effort at Zugdidi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giorgi Mikautadze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giorgi Mikautadze, and the manager let it.
Match8 Aug 2026
A bad afternoon for Zugdidi against Guria
0‑1 to Guria, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match1 Aug 2026
6‑1, and Guram Chakvetadze took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Zugdidi tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The match ball belongs to Guram Chakvetadze, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Vakhtang Shengelia could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.94
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.94, 0 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Saba Gvelesiani, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.03
A mark of 8.03 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Zurab Mikautadze and Zugdidi agree another 2 years.
Squad3 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Zugdidi asked and Torpedo Kutaisi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.