What, what? They said they were in psychosis. As if they (we mean "fathers" of Georgian football) heard for the first time that football pitches were not in good condition. You know how it happens in Georgia - no one listens to whatever a journalist says. Georgian newspapers wrote that was not football but "cornfieldball". So, we should have already been recovered from "psychosis" and now we should be living in "nirvana".
After the match against Israel, critical statement of Temur Ketsbaia - There is a cornfield on "Boris Paichadze", had a small prehistory. Head coach of the national team stated the same about the pitch two days ago. On Sunday (September 5), while attending to the training of the team, president and general secretary of Georgian Football Federation (GFF) were the first who heard these words from Ketsbaia. That was the reason that on Monday, Revaz Arveladze (he is a general secretary of federation) who was at the stadium was joked on by his friends - your pitch is not good, is it?
At the last press conference before the match, which was held by Temur Ketsbaia, Kakha Kaladze and Levan Kobiashvili, Ketsbaia looked back and said - if other federations have sponsors why we should not have them. We cannot say what head coach would have done in case of winning over Israel (we think, he would have expressed his dissatisfaction), but one thing is obvious. Zviad Sichinava, president of GFF, would not have hurried to hold an "operative" press conference on Friday.
Sichinava who came to federation from building business is neither politician nor professional in football. But he knows exactly, how to use criticism for himself. Next week we are having a meeting with UEFA and we will demand to help us improve infrastruction. If "UEFA" has brains, it "should die of laughter". Michel Platini, president of UEFA, visited Georgia a month ago. We all promised him that we would have done our best if he had let us hold the final of any European tournament. It appears that PR champaign of holding the finals of Europa League or Champions League was another Georgian "bluff".
It seems that we propagandized the national championship with our media-holding and we often direct attention to playing football in cornfield (natural turf surface pitch in Rustavi and artificial turf surface pitch in Zestaponi are exceptions) but addressee does not read it. Is this normal attitude toward work? We know that criticism of head coach has more authoritative power for the federation. But if Ketsbaia had not stated "this is cornfield not pitch" by press, GFF would not have done anything. So, they are reading what they want. We do not want to prove everything but in case of it last events look like performance. The purpose of it is to gain money for infrastruction (from government or from UEFA). One thing is not clear. The government spent 3-4 million GEL for cosmetic refurbishment of central stadium in Kutaisi. But with this money, the government could have made 3-4 perfect football pitches in different regions of the country. We are not saying that stadium in Kutaisi should not have been refurbished. We just underline that it would be impossible to bring up players for European tournaments until the pitch surfaces have not been improved.
Another old topic. We talked much about broadcasting matches of national championship by TV. We can say that Professional League could not have done its job. 4 rounds of new season have already been held and people have not watched any of them by TV. If Georgian TV Channels will be paid with appropriate amount of money, they have a desire to broadcast matches. It is natural that tariff will be different from European tariffs. Professional League (Gia Pirtskhalava is president) could not manage to persuade any Georgian TV Channel to broadcast the national championship.
On Friday, at the meeting with media, president of federation stated that on Monday (today) they would sign all documents with Professional League and they would return right to broadcast the championship. It does not matter who will have a right to broadcast matches. The most important for Georgian fans are to turn on TV and watch even one match per a week. One thing is for sure - whatever we write and officials read, if the government does not decide to punish the guilty, then everything will be in vain. Paired clubs are already found out in the national championship. If we do not help on time, they will disfigure beautifully started season.


Phridon Kervalishvili