Marked for Giorgi Gvelesiani
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Sapovnela, and it could have been more.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.55, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A brace, and Tornike Chakvetadze takes the afternoon — 9.50
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tornike Chakvetadze provided it, and the 9.50 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market7 Sep 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 The request is on a desk at Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgi Gvelesiani 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Lasha Kvaratskhelia 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 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Shota Mikautadze
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Shota Mikautadze has come out of that comparison in the side, and Zugdidi have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Market7 Sep 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Ruslan Zubkov may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
Sioni arrived with $45.0K 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Tornike Chakvetadze takes the afternoon — 8.88
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tornike Chakvetadze provided it, and the 8.88 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Zugdidi sell a favourite for $45.0K
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Lasha Mchedlidze was one of the reasons people came, and $45.0K does not replace that by itself.
Market24 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Ruslan Zubkov 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The name of Revaz Kvaratskhelia has come up in conversations Zugdidi were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgi Gvelesiani 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
The goal that put Dinamo Batumi ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Zugdidi equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match1 Aug 2026
Zurab Shengelia wins it after the whistle should have gone
91 minutes played. Zurab Shengelia found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Guria went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A brace, and Zurab Shengelia takes the afternoon — 8.10
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Zurab Shengelia provided it, and the 8.10 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Match1 Aug 2026
It finished 3‑2, and it was Zurab Shengelia’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Zugdidi.
Market3 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Goga Okriashvili again, and this time the name on the line is Lokomotivi. Zugdidi are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lasha Zivzivadze and Zugdidi agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgi Gvelesiani 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.36, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
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 Zugdidi, and both men came out saying it was fine.