Marked for Zurab Gvelesiani
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 44. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 2026
147 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tskhinvali lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match12 Aug 2026
A 1‑0 win over Shukura, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.51 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match15 Aug 2026
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad17 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 Tskhinvali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match15 Aug 2026
A 3‑1 win over Samtredia, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Dato Kvaratskhelia has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 35. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match8 Aug 2026
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Tskhinvali scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.28 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market10 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 The request is on a desk at Tskhinvali, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Levan Kvilitaia and Tskhinvali agree another 3 years.
Squad10 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 Tskhinvali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Tskhinvali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khvicha Kiteishvili 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
Three points for Tskhinvali, 2‑1 the final word against Sapovnela in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bachana Kashia, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Aug 2026
Levan Kvilitaia 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Torpedo Kutaisi left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Bachana Kashia 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jaba Chakvetadze and Tskhinvali agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vakhtang Gvelesiani, and the manager let it.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market3 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Khvicha Kvaratskhelia has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Tskhinvali.
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 Tskhinvali, another week without a signature from Zurab Kvaratskhelia.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
He was not in the side at half past three and he had settled it before five. Half an hour, and Tskhinvali had a different afternoon.