Levan Kobiashvili: 'If everyone works together, success will come'
Monday, December 15, 2025
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After a playing career that amassed 100 international caps, Levan Kobiashvili was elected Georgian Football Federation (GFF) president in 2015, becoming a UEFA Executive Committee member in 2023.
Under his leadership, the federation has enjoyed a spectacular period of growth, developing a wide range of infrastructure, increasing participation and reaching the knockout stages of UEFA EURO 2024.
In this exclusive interview, he reflects on key achievements in the role, the value of UEFA funding and the importance of former players having their say on the future of the game.
Levan, thanks for joining us. Firstly, how do you reflect on 2025 for Georgian football?
It has been a very significant year, because after participating at UEFA EURO 2024, we reached a new level, a new stage and the attention outside has been huge.
For our men's senior team, it was a mixed year – we managed to stay in League B of the Nations League after winning our playoff against Armenia, but World Cup qualifying brought us an incredibly tough group with Spain and Türkiye.
This year, we qualified for the Under-21 EURO after co-hosting in 2023, and we also qualified for the 2026 Futsal EURO for the second time – this means that Georgia will have appeared at a major tournament finals for five years in a row in different formats, which is a great achievement for us.
What was behind that qualification for EURO 2024?
One thing is clear for me – it wasn’t just luck. It was a result of working hard and performing well, across our entire football ecosystem – from the federation to the clubs, the coaches and the players.
If everyone works together, giving their maximum every day, every week, every month, then I’m convinced that success will come, no matter where you are. Sure, for us it maybe took a bit longer, but I was always confident we would make it because I see every day in Georgia how young coaches and players develop and work hard. And ultimately, we achieved this success together.
Of course, it also helped that we had a very good generation – with all the big names like Kvaratskhelia, Mamardashvili, and other top players. But as we’ve often seen, good players alone aren’t enough. You need everyone – the whole Georgian football family – standing behind it, knowing their role and doing their job. So I say it wasn’t luck, we earned it.
Everyone in Georgia dreamed of the day our national team would play in a major tournament like the European Championship and I’m so happy and proud that we made it happen, and we didn't just participate, we played really good football and advanced from the group stage. We beat Portugal and against Spain, we were leading for almost 40 minutes. It was amazing, and a lot of fun.
Now, we want to take the next steps and be at the next tournament. We’ll do everything to make sure that EURO 2024 isn’t the first and last time.
How important has the UEFA Nations League been for the development of the national team?
The Nations League is a fantastic idea and a very, very important competition which helped us qualify for the European Championship.
I remember the first edition – Georgia was in League D, and now we’re playing in League B. That’s already a big step, and we enjoy facing stronger teams and quality opponents.
More on the UEFA Nations League
On the other hand, there’s always pressure because people want progress. Now we have the ambition to reach League A – and why not? But there is also the risk of dropping back to League C, and we had to play well to beat Armenia in the playoff matches to preserve our position.
We’re excited about the draw coming up in February and which group we’ll be in– the Nations League gives us a lot of joy, and as I said, it’s a lucky competition for us because it gave us the chance to be at EURO 2024, so for us, it’s a very important tournament.
What made you go into administration rather than coaching at the end of your playing career?
I always said I would return to Georgia when I finished playing, and that’s what happened in 2015.
Looking back, we were around 156th in the FIFA ranking – it was a brutally hard time for Georgian football and the national team, but I wanted to bring my experiences and help football at home. I was convinced that we could improve the situation.
It was clear to me early on that I wouldn’t go down the coaching route, I didn’t feel it was my thing, but I completed my licence because I think it's important for officials to understand how coaching works and what the job involves.
I studied football management, and from the start, I felt the role of an official really suited me. After 10 years as president, I’m happy that we’ve achieved so many goals together within the federation.
Just how important is it that former players move into leadership positions like this, helping to shape the future of the game?
I think it’s very important. Every federation and country has its own goals and ideas, but I believe it’s crucial to have former players in key roles.
From my own experience, as a former national team player, you know what the situation was in your time, what was good, what was bad, and understand how players think, which isn’t always easy.
I work on the UEFA National Team Competitions and Football Committees, both of which do very important work for the future of the game, and it's great to have former players alongside me in those discussions.
Not everybody in leadership roles needs to be an ex-player, but when you have such experience in the room, it really helps create ideas about what we can do to become even stronger.
I have great respect for sitting in the same room with these people and discussing football, it's a lot of fun and I'm very happy to contribute to making European football even stronger.
What achievements are you most proud of in your role as GFF president over the past 10 years?
Looking back, it was a very tough, rocky road for us. The first two or three years were extremely difficult.
We started by developing our infrastructure, which was incredibly important – more stadiums, more training grounds, which automatically means more grassroots and youth football. Year by year, we improved and it was a hard path, but an interesting one!
If you ask me about the most special moment, it was the playoff match against Greece when we finally qualified for EURO 2024. I’ll never forget that, and I don't think any Georgian will ever forget that day. Even now, I get goosebumps thinking about that emotional match and what happened afterward in Tbilisi. Those images will never leave my mind. It was a truly special day.
And as I said earlier, in the last five years, we’ve always been at a tournament – for a small country like Georgia, that’s an amazing achievement, and we’re very proud. But what matters now is tomorrow and we’re working hard to experience those feelings again.
How important has UEFA HatTrick funding been to the development of Georgian football?
Without HatTrick, we wouldn’t have achieved what we did – it has given us the opportunity to build so much. All the infrastructure we’ve developed recently for youth players and for girls and women’s football was thanks to HatTrick.
When I travel around the country today I see football fields that wouldn’t exist without HatTrick.
But it's not just infrastructure – there are also coach education and football management programmes. Just having pitches isn’t enough – you need well-trained coaches and qualified officials for different roles. All of this was made possible through HatTrick.
On every step of the journey I’ve described today, HatTrick was there. Honestly, without it, we wouldn’t have had this success. We’re very grateful.
The UEFA Grow programme was also involved in creating your strategy for 2022–2026. How is the federation performing against that strategy now?
We’re very happy. I think it’s the first time in history that the GFF officially had a strategy. It helps us know what’s coming, what our tasks are, and which direction we need to work in.
Football evolves, new priorities emerge, and of course, we’re already thinking about our next strategy because, after the European Championship, Georgian football has reached a new level and we have new challenges.
One area where I see a real need is our domestic league – we must work together with the clubs to improve, but so far, the current strategy has worked very well.
We have also made real progress with our dedicated women's football strategy. We now have thousands more girls playing football, where in the past, they often didn’t dare to play. We have given hope to many girls and today, any girl who wants to play football has the opportunity.