From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout12 Oct 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Dila
Shota Shekiladze and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market12 Oct 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Giorgi Chakvetadze has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market12 Oct 2026
One of our own: Nika Shengelia joins the Dila first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nika Shengelia is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Badri Gogoberishvili 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
Alioune Tall gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Alioune Tall is on it.
Market12 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Blankson Anoff’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Davit Kereselidze joins up with his country. Dila lose him for the window and would like him back in one piece.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Shota Shekiladze joins up with his country. Dila lose him for the window and would like him back in one piece.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout5 Oct 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.
Squad5 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 Dila this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Blankson Anoff 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages swallow 130% of the Dila income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Alioune Tall 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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Davit Kereselidze has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Dila will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Pedro Beda asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market5 Oct 2026
The Nikoloz Mali story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nikoloz Mali signs something — a contract at Dila or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Alioune Tall moves up the pecking order
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Dila than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match26 Sep 2026
5 matches without a win for Dila
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Dila are no longer polite ones.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Blankson Anoff 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Dila
15 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Dila
Tray Fuller and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout28 Sep 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Giorgi Tsetskhladze is on it.
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.
Match19 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Dila
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Dila are no longer polite ones.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Dila
Shota Shekiladze and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets21 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Uruguay Montevideo have kept their man, and Dila go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Shota Shekiladze
8 goals and a season average of 7.20 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Badri Gogoberishvili 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Zurab Museliani is on it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Avtandil Gvelesiani after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
A test against the best for Dila
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Dinamo Batumi.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match9 Sep 2026
The small margins put Dila out
Out, 1‑1 to Dinamo Tbilisi, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Match12 Sep 2026
Kolkheti left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Blankson Anoff 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.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Dila
Giorgi Gvasalia and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Lasha Kakabadze is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Ramaric Etou misses from twelve yards
It was his to settle and he did not settle it. A long walk back to the halfway line, and a considerably longer week.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Avtandil Gvelesiani to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Zurab Museliani makes the wrong kind of headline
Dealt with internally, which is the phrase a club uses when it would rather nobody asked twice. He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 17 in, 3 out at Dila
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 17 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Match5 Sep 2026
The run is over for Dila
7 matches without defeat, and then Tskhinvali. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Dila
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Blankson Anoff was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pyunik have kept their man, and Dila go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 Dila this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match5 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Dila will try again when the window opens; Guria may not be selling by then.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match29 Aug 2026
Dila cannot stop winning
7 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Shota Shekiladze takes the afternoon — 9.34
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Shota Shekiladze provided it, and the 9.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market31 Aug 2026
Dila say no — this time
The offer from Ermis for Mohamed Kanté 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Dila and Guria have settled on $37.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad31 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 Dila this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
At 22 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Shota Shekiladze. 2‑0 against Shukura, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
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Match
Dila keep winning on the road
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Squad
Badri Gogoberishvili falls out with a teammate over standards
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Squad
14 new faces, and Dila are still learning each other
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Aug 2026
Giorgi Tsetskhladze wins it after the whistle should have gone
126 minutes played. Giorgi Tsetskhladze found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Saburtalo went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.50 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match22 Aug 2026
Dila cannot stop winning
6 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market24 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Dila have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Dila
Shota Shekiladze and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Market24 Aug 2026
Shukura paid $150.0K and Dila took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match15 Aug 2026
5‑2, and Shota Shekiladze took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Dila tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Match12 Aug 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Lasha Menteshashvili obliged against Sioni. 3‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Dila.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad17 Aug 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Lekso Otinashvili, 17, plays like he has been here for years — 7.69
A mark of 7.69 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$20.0K settles it between the clubs for Giorgi Gvasalia
Dinamo Tbilisi have accepted the money. What Dila do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Match15 Aug 2026
Dila make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Dila have 4 straight wins of it.
Market17 Aug 2026
Dila spend $610.0K to raise the standard
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $610.0K has been paid because Giorgi Kavtaradze is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market10 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Shukura had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Torpedo Kutaisi have kept their man, and Dila go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Dila have gone to Shukura with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$19.0K on the table at Dinamo Tbilisi. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mohamed Kanté commits to Dila for another 4 years.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Match8 Aug 2026
Sioni made Dila work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 8.80 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 37. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match1 Aug 2026
4‑0, and Shota Shekiladze took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Dila tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A brace, and Shota Shekiladze takes the afternoon — 9.26
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Shota Shekiladze provided it, and the 9.26 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.96 for the rest of it.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Dila have gone to Torpedo Kutaisi with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Shota Shekiladze and Dila agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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 Dila this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Dila training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Blankson Anoff 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Dila asked and Pyunik said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.