Marked for Levan Tsotsonava
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad30 Nov 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 Sioni this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
Levan Tsotsonava: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sioni have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Sioni
Davit Jikia 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Sioni know it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 36. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Sioni
Davit Jikia 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Sioni and Chikhura cancel each other out
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Chikhura came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Squad28 Sep 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 Sioni, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market28 Sep 2026
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Ivan Uzunov is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Luka Avaliani is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Match19 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Alexandr Verulidze’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Sioni.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Sioni
Paata Kiteishvili 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
7.98, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Sioni had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market14 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Levan Tsotsonava scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Merani, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Givi Mukbaniani, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The plan did not have a place for Giorgi Ubilava
Nobody at Sioni is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
The substitution nobody applauded turned out to be the whole story. Sioni were going nowhere until he came on.
Squad14 Sep 2026
At 36 he has made the position his own, and the man he took it from has to find something to say about it. Sioni have a decision that made itself.
Market14 Sep 2026
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Mikheil Bezhashvili leaves Sioni the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Sioni — 7.32
1 for Varlam Kilasonia, marked 7.32, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Match22 Aug 2026
Three points for Sioni, 1‑0 the final word against Tskhinvali in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 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 Sioni this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 7.51. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad24 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 Sioni, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad24 Aug 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Sioni have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A season on the outside for Michał Bojdys
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Sioni has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Aug 2026
A hiding for Sioni
Beaten 0‑4 by Dila, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 22 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Sioni
Davit Jikia 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 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.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Sioni dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sioni, another week without a signature from Levan Tsotsonava.
Market10 Aug 2026
48 months and counting on Adam Huskić
Still no offer on the table, and Adam Huskić’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 1 saves does not settle it either way.