Marked for Lasha Qazaishvili
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Feb 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 Tskhinvali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Tskhinvali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lachezar Ivanov 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
9 new faces, and Tskhinvali are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market18 Jan 2027
Samtredia come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Dinamo Batumi did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Stanislav Kritsyuk 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 Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Revaz Chiteishvili 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
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Dinamo Batumi will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Aaron Icaza and Dinamo Batumi agree another 3 years.
Squad18 Jan 2027
When it matters, Uerdi Mara plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad26 Oct 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.
Loan watch26 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Merani to sit and watch. I want to come back to Tskhinvali and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 11 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Luka Rekhviashvili did not need any: 7.68, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tomáš Kučera 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Guus Joppen 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 terraces31 Aug 2026
At 19 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
David Button gets it from the manager
“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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Three points for Sapovnela, 1‑0 the final word against Merani in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market31 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sapovnela, another week without a signature from Jonny Milla.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Aug 2026
The small margins put Tskhinvali out
Out, 0‑2 to Dinamo Batumi, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market24 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Konyaspor for Lasha Qazaishvili 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Dato Mikautadze 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Sioni left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Beka Zivzivadze 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Giorgi Chakvetadze and Tskhinvali agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.