Marked for Aleksandre Kashia
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
Shota Arveladze damages knee ligaments — 36 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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: 5‑2 against Sapovnela, and it could have been more.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.99, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.39, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Aleksandre Kashia, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.17
A mark of 8.17 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market7 Sep 2026
Sapovnela 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.
Market7 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.
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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Beka Daraselia among the goals in a wild afternoon
7 goals in one match, Beka Daraselia on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Zugdidi and Sapovnela.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
Shota Arveladze damages knee ligaments — 45 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 45 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Lokomotivi 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.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Zugdidi sell a favourite for $72.0K
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Vakhtang Qazaishvili was one of the reasons people came, and $72.0K does not replace that by itself.
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.
Match29 Aug 2026
4 matches without a win for Zugdidi
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Zugdidi are no longer polite ones.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Kakha Daraselia 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Tskhinvali paid $72.0K and Zugdidi took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market31 Aug 2026
The name of Irakli Kobiashvili has come up in conversations Zugdidi were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Match29 Aug 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 57. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market10 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Zurab Chakvetadze and Zugdidi agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Kakha Daraselia 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zurab Chakvetadze 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kakha Daraselia. 1‑0 against Shukura, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Davit Kashia, and the manager let it.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.58 on the card, and the Zugdidi support went home talking about one name.
Market10 Aug 2026
The Dato Kashia conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: Sapovnela will make the call about Dato Kashia this week. Zugdidi have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.