Arveladze to lead Georgian youth

Georgian Football Federation (GFF) president Merab Dzhordania has confirmed that 33-year-old Revaz Arveladze has been appointed as the new head coach of Georgia Under-21 team.

'The time has come'
"Arveladze takes over Under-21 team, while [previous head coach] Vakhtang Kopaleishvili will be moving elsewhere," said Dzhordania. "Arveladze has been studying coaching theory, and the time has come for him to put it into practice."

Football family
Arveladze, the elder brother of the famous Georgian internationals Archil and Shota, who play for Rangers FC and 1. FC Köln respectively, will be formally appointed as Georgia's U-21 coach later this month.

Eleven caps
Having earned eleven Georgian caps as a player in a career that took in spells with a number of Georgian and German clubs, including Köln, Arveladze coached FC Dinamo Tbilisi for half of the 2000/01 season before taking up a post as club president for the remainder of the season.

Coaching certificate
After Dinamo was sold to a new owner, Arveladze left the club to pursue a career as a football agent, but after obtaining a UEFA B coaching licence in Köln recently, he now replaces Kopleishvili with the U-21 side. Georgia are currently bottom of their UEFA European Under-21 championship qualifying group, having lost against Switzerland and Russia in their opening two games.