From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 43. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.95, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match12 Aug 2026
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Tskhinvali scored in the 115th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Market17 Aug 2026
Merani come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Tskhinvali did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Lasha Kashia could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.29
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.29, 0 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Davit Zivzivadze has gone, the accounts have $1.1M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Market17 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Mikheil Kiteishvili had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Dinamo Tbilisi, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer from Dinamo Tbilisi for Bachana Mikautadze 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Tskhinvali have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Bachana Mikautadze and Tskhinvali agree another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Bachana Mikautadze 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
It finished 3‑1, and it was Bachana Mikautadze’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Tskhinvali.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Dato Zivzivadze
“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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.43 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Aug 2026
Chastening afternoon for Tskhinvali
A 0‑3 beating by Torpedo Kutaisi was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Bachana Mikautadze and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Dato Zivzivadze 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 dugout3 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Shota Kobiashvili, and the manager let it.
Market3 Aug 2026
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Jaba Gvelesiani has come up in conversations Tskhinvali were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The formation has left Luka Nozadze behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Tskhinvali will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Tskhinvali 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Bachana Arveladze and Tskhinvali agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.