The exact date of the Georgian Football Federation elections is still unknown but exciting events are ahead. The term of current president Domenti Sichinava expires on January 22, 2015 but according to the regulations of the federation, the elections may be appointed until the end of 2015.
Perhaps, the elections will be held on August 11, 2015, after Super Cup. Some named September, some – November but December 31 is deadline.
It was known that Rezo Arveladze, secretary general of the federation, Mikheil Kavelashvili, one of the founders of “Our Football”, and Vladimer Gutsaev, former coach of the Georgia national team, wanted to become president. On Monday Levan Kobiashvili, former captain of the national team, officially stated that he will participate in the presidential elections.
Now Kobiashvili works for “Hertha” Berlin as a manager where he finished career last year. Kobiashvili is the only Georgian football player who has held 100 matches in the national team. He has played more than 350 matches in German Bundesliga and scored hat-trick in the group stage of Champions League. None of the Georgians have had such result before. Kobiashvili has never been involved in any scandal and has a good reputation. He is a good friend of Kakha Kaladze. The minister of Energy and deputy Prime Minister acknowledged that he supports “Kobi”.
It is also known that Kavelashvili and Levan Kipiani, minister of Sport, are friends. They founded “Our Football” together.
Rezo Arveladze has been working for the federation more than 10 years. First, he was a head coach of the youth team, then vice president and now secretary general. In short, he hopes for the support of the federation subjects.
The candidates are not few and of course, this situation is much better than it was before. It would be better if other candidates also show up. The most important thing is that nobody must intervene in the elections and the candidate with the most votes must win.
Unfortunately, we cannot avoid the fact that government is considered “behind” some candidates. The most important thing is that candidates must present their program and team. Besides that, future president must avoid employing relatives and friends. Generally, the best option is to dissociate the federation and its activities from the government. Only in Georgia happens that the government pays salary to head coaches of the national team. The federation must be responsible for the teams and everything that is connected to football. Only in Georgia the federations finances clubs. According to Sichinava, this fact surprised even UEFA.
The football development program initiated by the Ministry of Sport is considered one of the solutions of the current situation. The mentioned organization must not finance the clubs playing in the national championship. The ministry can only help football develop and be a solicitor to the government.
The only thing what the government can do for football is to develop sporting infrastructure. In most cases the budget funds are spent in unknown direction and the team does not have a stadium.
If the “teams” of Arveladze and Kavelashvili are more or less known, it is interesting who will be in the team of Kobiashvili and when he will arrive in Georgia to present his program.
The Georgian football officials must think which candidate they will support. Hopefully, the winner candidate will do the best for the Georgian football.
