Marked for Shota Qazaishvili
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Aug 2026
Zugdidi bow out of the cup
Torpedo Kutaisi go through and Zugdidi go home, 0‑5 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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 Zugdidi people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
0-5. Going out of a cup is one afternoon; going out like that is a week of phone-ins, and the manager will hear every one of them.
Market17 Aug 2026
Shukura 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Alan Caruaru 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
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Samtredia have kept their man, and Zugdidi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Zugdidi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nika Mchedlidze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 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
Upbeat
Match8 Aug 2026
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Market10 Aug 2026
Dila 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.01 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 8.08 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.14, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Shota Qazaishvili and Zugdidi agree another 2 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Zugdidi
Shota Qazaishvili 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
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 terraces10 Aug 2026
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
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
Dato Gamsakhurdia 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.” Beka Kobiashvili and Zugdidi agree another 2 years.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Samtredia have kept their man, and Zugdidi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Zugdidi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nika Mchedlidze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Sioni have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Aleksandre Arveladze. The answer from Zugdidi has not changed — yet.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The formation has left Alan Caruaru behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Zugdidi will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Zugdidi, another week without a signature from Alan Caruaru.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Dinamo Batumi have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.