From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 88 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Varlam Kilasonia 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Sioni
Paata Kiteishvili and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Kuji Beselia
“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 dugout16 Nov 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 Gaprindashvili is on it.
Market16 Nov 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sioni know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sioni lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“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.
Market9 Nov 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sioni they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Sioni
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Varlam Kilasonia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Sioni
Paata Kiteishvili 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.
The dugout9 Nov 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 Bantu Mzwakali is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
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 Sioni this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The captaincy has been taken off Alexandr Verulidze. Sioni will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Oct 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 Sioni, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Sioni
Lasha-Giorgi Titvinidze 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
Words at Sioni training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Varlam Kilasonia 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Sioni
Caio César and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Sioni
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Varlam Kilasonia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Oct 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
The medical room confirms 26 days on the sidelines for Kakha Lobjanidze, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Oct 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tornike Mindiashvili will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sioni the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alexandr Verulidze and Sioni agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Sioni
Caio César 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Revaz Daraselia 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
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mamuka 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
Sioni are still strangers to each other
7 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
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Caio César and Sioni agree another 1 years.
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 Sioni this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Sioni
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Varlam Kilasonia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Sep 2026
4‑1, and Giorgi Gabedava took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Sioni tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A brace, and Giorgi Gabedava takes the afternoon — 8.91
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Giorgi Gabedava provided it, and the 8.91 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market28 Sep 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 Sioni, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Sioni
Givi Mukbaniani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
At 23 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
The drought breaks for Sioni
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Chikhura were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.03 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
Sioni's travelling support get something back at Chikhura
They paid twice — for the ticket and for the journey — and got a 4-1 win for it. Away support is the truest kind precisely because nothing about it is convenient.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Sep 2026
5 matches without a win for Sioni
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Sioni are no longer polite ones.
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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 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 Sioni this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Sep 2026
Zugdidi left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kabelo Setoba, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Davit Okriashvili to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
Chikhura next, and one man in the Sioni dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market14 Sep 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tornike Mindiashvili will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sioni the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match12 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Sioni
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Sioni are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Sioni
Lasha-Giorgi Titvinidze and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market14 Sep 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Jaba Arveladze 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Archil Mikautadze is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Match12 Sep 2026
Sioni come up short against Merani
Merani left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout14 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
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Bachana Okriashvili commits to Sioni for another 3 years.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
A promise honoured at Sioni
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The dugout
When it matters, Bantu Mzwakali plays
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 19 in, 0 out at Sioni
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
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 Sioni this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match5 Sep 2026
Sioni caught on 87 minutes
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Saburtalo scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and Sioni 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Luka Avaliani
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Luka Avaliani has come out of that comparison in the side, and Sioni have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Match5 Sep 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Davit Okriashvili chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Chikhura waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sioni is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market31 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 Sioni, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Sioni had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Saburtalo, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Sioni
Givi Mukbaniani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match29 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Luka Avaliani
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Squad31 Aug 2026
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Sioni are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Looking ahead31 Aug 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Saburtalo in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sioni have done the hard part with Tskhinvali, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad24 Aug 2026
500 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Kakha Arveladze commits to Sioni for another 3 years.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tornike Mindiashvili, and the manager let it.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
Nobody at Sioni 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Sioni will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Aug 2026
The cup run ends for Sioni
1‑1 against Dila, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.67 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sioni have done the hard part with Tskhinvali, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Sioni asked and Zugdidi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Sioni
Givi Mukbaniani 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Lokomotivi made Sioni work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
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 dugout17 Aug 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Davit Okriashvili could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Aug 2026
Sioni say no — this time
The offer from Chikhura for Nikoloz Kharaishvili 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 targets10 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Dila is saying, and nobody at Sioni is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets10 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
Giorgi Gabedava scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Dila, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Sioni
Givi Mukbaniani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Saba Chakvetadze 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
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mamuka Kvilitaia is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Vakhtang Kvilitaia 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.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Adam Huskić
“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
Uneasy
Market3 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 Sioni, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Varlam Kilasonia commits to Sioni for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Sioni
Givi Mukbaniani 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Nikoloz Kharaishvili has come up in conversations Sioni were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market3 Aug 2026
24 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Dila have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Beka Mchedlidze is in the works
Sioni have made the call to Tskhinvali. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Zugdidi have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.