Georgia national football team

The Georgia national football team is the national football team of Georgia and is controlled by the Georgian Football Federation. The Georgian team's first match took place in 1990, while Georgia was still part of the Soviet Union. The team have attempted to qualify for each major tournament from Euro 96 onwards, but have not yet achieved qualification.

Georgia's home games are played at the Boris Paichadze Stadium in Tblisi.

History

Prior to 1990, Georgian players played for the USSR national football team. The first match played by the Georgian national team occurred while Georgia was still part of the Soviet Union, when they played Lithuania on May 27, 1990, a match which ended in a 2-2 draw.(Curious fact:The match was between the two clubs FC Dinamo Tbilisi and Žalgiris Vilnius, but some time later, around 1992/93, officials football federations of these countries decided to change the status of the game to international. The decision was due to the fact that the clubs contained the best Georgian and Lithuanian players, so the countries designated the clubs their official teams). This was the Georgian team's only match prior to independence, which was declared on April 9, 1991.

The Georgian Football Federation became a member of both UEFA and FIFA in 1992, enabling Georgia to play competitive matches. The first of these came in September 1994, a 1-0 defeat to Moldova as part of the qualifiers for Euro 96. Georgia finished third in their group, ahead of Moldova and Wales, but seven points behind second-placed qualifiers Bulgaria. Georgia have subsequently finished bottom of their group in qualification for the 2000 and 2004 European Championships, and have finished third, fourth and sixth in World Cup qualifying groups. Consequently, Georgia has never qualified for the finals of a major tournament. However, recently they have shown relative success on the international scene by beating twice World Cup winners Uruguay and well established Turkey both in friendly matches.

World Cup record

• 1930 to 1994 - Did not enter, was part of USSR
• 1998 to 2006 - Did not qualify

European Championship record

• 1960 to 1992 - Did not enter, was part of USSR
• 1996 to 2008 - Did not qualify

Notable players

• Shota Arveladze
• Kakha Kaladze
• Georgi Kinkladze
• Temuri Ketsbaia
• Georgi Demetradze
• Alexander Iashvili

FIFA World Cup qualification

Most capped Georgia players

As of March 27, 2008, the ten players with the most caps for Georgia are:

#	Name	Career	Caps	Goals
1	Levan Kobiashvili	1996-	71	7
2	Georgi Nemsadze	1992-2004	69	0
3	Kakha Kaladze	1996-	63	1
4	Gocha Jamarauli	1994-2004	62	6
5	Shota Arveladze	1997-2007	61	26

Top Georgia goalscorers

As of March 27, 2008, the seven players with the most goals for Georgia are:

#	Player	Career	Goals (Caps)
1	Shota Arveladze	1997-2007	26 (61)
2	Temuri Ketsbaia	1991-2002	16 (50)
3	Alexander Iashvili	1998-	12 (40)
	Giorgi Demetradze	1996-	12 (56)
5	Mikhail Kavelashvili	1994-2002	8 (45)
	Georgi Kinkladze	1991-2005	8 (54)
7	Levan Kobiashvili	1996-	7 (71)

Current squad

The following players were called up for the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification against Italy on September 10 2008.

Recent call-ups

Footnotes

External links

• Georgian Football Federation
• RSSSF archive of results 1990-