Management of Georgian Football Federation is holding negotiations with Azerbaijani and Kazakh colleagues on holding a joint championship. Domenti Sichinava, president of Georgian Football Federation, stated about it in “Arena”, TV program of Davit Minashvili on Georgian Public Broadcasting.
According to Sichinava, if federations of all three countries achieve agreement, then, 18 teams will play in future Premier League – 6-6 from each country. If two countries achieve agreement, in this case there will be 16 teams in the championship – 8-8 teams from each country. Sichinava mentioned that one-one team will leave Premier League and one club will advance from lower league of each country. Prize money of future Premier League will be 50 million EUR. Each club will gain 2-2 million EUR. The rest of the money will be spent on the organizational issues. According to Sichinava, the Georgian side is holding active negotiations with Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani side will arrive in Georgia by the end of April. Sichinava highlighted that three countries will keep their quota at European tournaments. So, 4-4 teams will play at the tournaments.
The president of GFF stated the project must be prepared in a year and friendly matches will be held in this period. Interest of spectators, televisions and sponsors will be evaluated during this period. He also added that owners of the Georgian clubs support this idea.
The Russians want to form league with Ukraine. Alexey Miller, chairman of “Gazprom”, stated milliard dollar will be prize money of the future championship. Valery Gazzaev, president of “Alania” Vladikavkaz, will organize the joint championship.
This project has many opponents in Russia and Ukraine. Vyacheslav Koloskov, famous Russian and Soviet sport functionary and former vice-president of FIFA, negatively estimated offer of Miller. Vitaly Mutko, former chairman of Russian Football Association, agreed with him. Joseph Blatter, president of FIFA, stated he will not permit to hold such championship. Neither Michel Platini, president of UEFA, liked this idea. He stated such issues may be discussed but did not support it. “Shakhtar” Donetsk is more loyal to this championship. “Dynamo” Kyiv, “Dnipro” Dnipropetrovsk, “Metalist” Kharkov is against of it. When the project was discussed in Moscow only representatives of “Tavriya” Simferopol arrived there from Ukraine. Miller was asked how he will get milliard dollar and how transparent this money will be. Gazzaev was advised to care about “Alania” which is a real candidate to leave Russian Premier League.
So, let Georgian football universe and fans judge if it is justified to hold Georgian-Azerbaijani-Kazakh Championship. There are 53 countries in UEFA and all of them try to strengthen their own championship. Perhaps, Georgia must work on it too. If three countries agree and 50 million EUR is prize money, then each federation must have 165000 EUR. In case of two countries, 25-25 million EUR. If the Georgian Football Federation has so much money, prize money of the national championship should increase to millions of euros.
Besides that, no one knows how commercially profitable this championship will be. Georgian-Azerbaijani or Georgian-Kazakh Championships do not cause a great interest of fans. Neither televisions are interested in them. Away matches of the Georgian clubs can be watched only on internet. Perhaps, spectators will attend “Dinamo”-“Neftchi” match but I do not think that “Torpedo”-“Gabala” or “Zestafoni”-“Karabakh” may attract the spectators.
Why Azerbaijani “Khazar Lankaran” which has multi-millionaire owner must agree on playing at the joint championship. The same can be said about “Neftchi” or “Inter”.
UEFA will not let 12 or 8 teams from one championship (held by 2 or 3 countries) play at European tournaments.
Lasha Tabagari
