Turkey and Georgia agree friendly

The Georgian Football Federation (GFF) has passed up the chance of a friendly against Estonia and opted to play Turkey in Trabzon on 21 August.

Two years of trying
The GFF said that they were delighted to be playing the team that finished third at the FIFA World Cup finals in Korea/Japan. "We have been trying to arrange this game for two years and we started trying even harder after Senol Günes took charge of the Turkish team. He was a coach of our Arveladze brothers at Trabzonspor several years ago," GFF general secretary Valeri Cholaria said.

Estonia dropped
Georgia were scheduled to play Estonia in Tallinn on the same date, but the GFF ruled that a match against Turkey would offer better preparation ahead of Georgia's first EURO 2004™ qualifier against Switzerland on 7 September. "We agreed [the fixture] with Turkey and we sent our apologies to the Estonians. I hope they understand," Cholaria concluded.

First match
Turkey and Georgia, two neighbouring countries, have never faced each other before and Turkey have not played any home international matches in Trabzon for the past ten years.