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Georgia search for stability

Why Georgia cannot make it to the finals of a major tournament is a question asked by many observers.

Why Georgia, a team of numerous talents, cannot make it to a FIFA World Cup or UEFA European Championship finals is a question asked by many observers inside and outside the country. 

Continuous conflicts
Some say it is because of the coaches, others, including the coaches, say it is because of the players. Naturally, the story of the Georgian national team is mainly a tale of continuous conflicts between players and coaches. This is especially true of their last two qualifying campaigns.

Ketsbaia row
Georgia made a disappointing start to the EURO 2000™ qualifiers, shut out by Latvia and Greece in 1-0 and 3-0 defeats. After those matches, head coach Vladimir Gutsaev banned his own godson Temuri Ketsbaia from the national team. Ketsbaia had reportedly asked Gutsaev to change the time of a practice session in Riga ahead of the meeting with Latvia.

Strikers dropped
Meanwhile, before the home game against Greece, which Georgians lost 2-1, caretaker coach Jahan Boskamp ejected a pair of strikers from the squad, Zaza Janashia and Georgi Demetradze. Janashia, of FC Lokomotiv Moscow, had refused to join a training session after travelling all the way to Georgia from the Russian capital by car. Demetradze was dropped following his involvement in a car accident after he had left the training ground in the middle of a practice session.

Refused to play
It was not only coaches who excluded players from the squad – some of Georgian stars themselves deserted the team. Gocha Jamarauli and Alexander Iashvili refused to play under the coaching team of Revay Dzodzuashvili and the late David Kipiani, after being dropped.

Rich tradition
Looking at results, it may seem that Georgia’s ambitions have no grounds. But, in a country traditionally in love with football, they cannot help but think differently. FC Dinamo Tbilisi were once a conveyor belt of world-class talent, producing a side which won the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup in 1981.

Lack of stability
The present generation includes gifted players such as Georgi Kinkladze, Kakha Kaladze, Shota Arveladze and Iashvili yet their EURO 2000™ campaign ended miserably, as Georgia finished at the bottom of their group – with just one win and seven defeats from ten matches - behind Norway, Greece, Slovenia, Latvia and Albania. A lack of stability has not helped their cause; they employed four coaches over the two campaigns, as they struggled to find the right man for the job.

Humbled by Hungary
In their 2002 World Cup qualifying campaign, for a short while it seemed that the coaching of Revaz Dzodzuashvili and David Kipiani were on course to build a capable team. But, by the middle of the campaign, they could only boast a 4-0 win at Lithuania and a battling 2-0 defeat against Italy in Ancona, where they lost out to two Alessandro del Piero penalties. After a 4-1 humbling at home to Hungary, the pair were immediately sacked, leaving the national team not only without a head coach, but with no clear candidate for the job.

Chivadze’s return
So the name of Alexander Chivadze - or Chiva – who had coached Georgia for three years in the mid-1990s - came up. Chivadze, a vice-president of the Georgian Football Federation (GFF), was initially reluctant but eventually took the job on an interim basis, at the request of the federation president. Under Chivadze, Georgia’s fortunes improved, as they embarked on a four-game unbeaten run that left them in third place in Group Eight, behind Italy and Romania. They beat Luxemburg 3-0, Hungary 3-1, and Lithuania 2-0, and also claimed a 1-1 draw with Romania to bring renewed hope to players and supporters alike.

Aiming for EURO 2004™
After three months as caretaker coach, Chivadze was officially handed the job in late December 2001. His task will be to build on that promising run in the EURO 2004™ qualifiers when they begin in autumn this year.

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