From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 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 Rustavi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Luís Soares 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 178% of the Rustavi 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
No hiding place for Rogério
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rogério, and the manager let it.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Rustavi will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
Leandro Quiroz 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Giorgi Vekua 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
Manuel Pami 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Rustavi are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Giorgi Vekua 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Rustavi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luís Soares 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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Luís Soares
“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.
Loan watch19 Oct 2026
“I watch every Rustavi game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Gonio runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Giorgi Vekua 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 Giorgi Vekua is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Nathan Palafoz 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Rustavi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giorgi Vekua was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad12 Oct 2026
21 new faces, and Rustavi are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I watch every Rustavi game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Meshakhte Tkibuli runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Nathan Palafoz has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Rustavi 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes Rogério a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Rustavi. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Steady
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 Rustavi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The decline has begun for Avto
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Rustavi is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Rustavi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giorgi Vekua was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages swallow 202% of the Rustavi 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.
Squad5 Oct 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 Rustavi know it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Lucas Ferreira has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Rustavi 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
Irakli Iakobidze 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
Time is catching up with Rogério
Everybody at Rustavi saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Rustavi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luís Soares was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Rustavi
Irakli Iakobidze 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Luís Soares 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
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Rustavi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giorgi Vekua was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Rustavi
Leandro Quiroz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“I watch every Rustavi game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Gonio runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Nathan Palafoz has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Rustavi 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 dugout14 Sep 2026
Manuel Pami knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Manuel Pami trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad14 Sep 2026
His past walked in ahead of him. Players who have been where he has been get a hearing in a dressing room before they have earned one, and he has it for as long as his form does.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
Šamorín come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Rustavi did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 28 signed and 13 gone
That is the business done at Rustavi until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
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 Rustavi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Rustavi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luís Soares was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Rustavi asked and Tristán Suárez said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Manuel Pami knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Manuel Pami trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Aug 2026
Rustavi bow out of the cup
Kolkheti-1913 Poti go through and Rustavi go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Market31 Aug 2026
Rustavi say no — this time
The offer from Sioni for Papuna Beruashvili 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Horizonte keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Iberia 1999 wanted more than $26.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Rustavi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luís Soares was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Papuna Beruashvili, and the manager let it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Rustavi are still strangers to each other
19 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $25.3K — a club that wants Giorgi Gogsadze enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Rustavi had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Guarani, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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 Rustavi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The offer went to Iberia 1999 this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets24 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Rustavi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giorgi Vekua was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Horizonte, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Rustavi
Irakli Iakobidze and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Aug 2026
15 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$35.0K was the most the club would pay and Dinamo Tbilisi were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Rustavi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luís Soares 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 targets17 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Rustavi know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market17 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Guarani: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Lucas Ferreira arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Lucas Ferreira has, at Rustavi, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Omar Patarkatsishvili commits to Rustavi for another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Irakli Iakobidze 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$34.0K on the table at Iberia 1999. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Tamaz Babunadze has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Rustavi have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Batumi have kept their man, and Rustavi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Giorgi Vekua 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Giorgi Lobjanidze has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Guram Shengelia 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Irakli Iakobidze and Rustavi agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 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 Rustavi know it.
Market3 Aug 2026
The shirt still fits. Kakhaber Kakashvili is back at Rustavi, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
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 Rustavi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Rustavi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giorgi Vekua was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Gonio have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Alexandre Kutateladze. The answer from Rustavi has not changed — yet.