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FC Samtredia

Full name	Football Club Samtredia
Founded	1936; 88 years ago (1936) as Sanavardo Samtredia
Ground	Erosi Manjgaladze Stadium, Samtredia, Georgia
Capacity	3,000
Chairman	Mikheil Khutsishvili
Manager	Giorgi Oniani
League	Erovnuli Liga 2
2024	10th of 10 in Erovnuli Liga, relegated
Home colours Away colours

FC Samtredia (Georgian: სკ სამტრედია), commonly known as Samtredia, is a Georgian professional football club based in the city of Samtredia.

Following the 2024 season, the club was relegated to Erovnuli Liga 2, the 2nd tier of Georgian football. Their home ground is the Erosi Manjgaladze Stadium.

In 2016, Samtredia won the league and the Super Cup.

Pre-Independence

Soviet League Era

Established in 1936, Samtredia spent years in the Georgian SSR Championship before the club eventually obtained the right to participate in the Soviet Second League, the third tier of the Soviet football system. Lokomotivi Samtredia finished their season as runners-up several times and even won the league twice, although they eventually failed to win the knockout stages of the competition against winners of two other SSR Countries.

Below are the all-time results during the 17 consecutive seasons in the Soviet Second League.

Following the 1989 season, the Samtredian team as well as all other Georgian clubs withdrew from their relevant Soviet leagues after Georgian Football Federation broke ties with the Soviet Football Federation and formed an independent championship.

After Independence

Early years

Right after Georgia's independence, Sanavardo Samtredia became a member of the new national top tier, the Umaglesi Liga.

While twice, in 1993/94 and 1995/96, they finished in 4th, in 1994/1995 the club ended the season in 2nd which gave them qualification for the preliminary round of the UEFA Cup.

The debut in European competition turned out unsuccessful. Soon they fell from the top flight followed by relegation from Pirveli Liga as well.

Recent Times

In 2014/15 Samtredia reached the final of the David Kipiani Cup. In the previous rounds they had knocked out four opponents, including favourites Dinamo Batumi, Torpedo Kutaisi and Chikhura, but they weren't able to upset the odds again against Dinamo Tbilisi.

The most fruitful period for Samtredia was in the mid-2010s, when they finished amongst the top three teams of Umaglesi Liga for three consecutive seasons. Moreover, in 2016, under head coach Giorgi Tsetsadze, they became champions for the first time in their history after a victory over Chikhura Sachkhere in the championship playoffs. Samtredia completed the season with the double after they beat Georgian Cup holders Torpedo Kutaisi in the Super Cup game.

In 2019, the club competed in Liga 2, although they returned to the Erovnuli Liga after one season. Manager Kakhaber Kacharava, who guided Samtredia back to the top flight, had to quit the club in September 2020 after just one point earned in their last five league games and a shock cup defeat from Liga 3 minnows Tbilisi City.

New head coach Giorgi Mikadze steered Samtredia away from the relegation zone, but in February 2021 he was replaced by Giorgi Tsetsadze, who had once brought the club to their only champion's title. His second tenure lasted eight months, though. The team lost the relegation struggle and finished bottom of the table.

Just like the previous case three years earlier, it took Samtredia a year to move back to the top flight. Under Giorgi Shashiashvili the team beat their rivals for a playoff spot and qualified for decisive matches for the third time in the last five years. Another victory over Sioni completed their successful league campaign in 2022.

Samtredia spent the next two seasons fighting for survival. In 2023, they cruised to a narrow play-off victory over Gareji, but a year later suffered a third relegation in seven years.

Seasons

Domestic leagues

Season	Div	Pos	Top goalscorer	Goals	Cup
1990	1st	12/18			Round of 32
1991	1st	18/20			–
1991/92	1st	15/20			Round of 16
1992/93	1st	10/17			Round of 16
1993/94	1st	4/10			Round of 16
1994/95	1st	2/16	Gia Jishkariani	18	Quarterfinals
1995/96	1st	4/16	Zurab Ionanidze	23	Semifinals
1996/97	1st	14/16↓			Round of 16
1997/98	2nd	2/14↑			Quarterfinals
1998/99	1st	8/16			Round of 16
1999/2000	1st	7/8			Round of 32
2000/01	1st	12/12↓			Round of 32
2001/02	2nd	10/11			Round of 32
2002/03	2nd	16/16			Round of 32
2003/04	2nd	14/16			Round of 32
2007/08	2nd	8/10			1st Round
2008/09	2nd	1/11↑			Round of 16
2009/10	1st	7/10	Zaur Khachiperadze	11	Round of 16
2010/11	1st	10/10↓	Giga Kverenchkhiladze	4	Round of 32
2011/12	2nd, A	3/8	Papuna Shatirishvili	3	Round of 32
2012/13	2nd	5/12	Zaur Khachiperadze	9	Round of 16
2013/14	2nd	1/14↑	Zviad Kantaria	11	Round of 32
2014/15	1st	6/16	Tornike Kapanadze	7	Runners-up
2015/16	1st	2/16	Budu Zivzivadze	16	Quarterfinals
2016	1st	1/14	Budu Zivzivadze	11	Quarterfinals
2017	1st	3/10	Davit Rajamashvili	8	Round of 16
2018	1st	9/10↓	Giorgi Pantsulaia	6	Round of 16
2019	2nd	2/10↑	Guram Samushia	15	Round of 16
2020	1st	7/10	Nijat Gurbanov	4	Round of 16
2021	1st	10/10↓	Nikola Prelčec	4	Round of 32
2022	2nd	3/10↑	Dato Kirkitadze	8	Round of 32
2023	1st	9/10	Zurab Nachkebia Aleksandar Mishov	8	Round of 32
2024	1st	10/10↓	Daniel Owusu	5	Round of 16

European record

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1995–96	UEFA Cup	PR	FK Vardar	0–2	0–1	0–3
2016–17	UEFA Europa League	1QR	Gabala	2–1	1–5	3–6
2017–18	UEFA Champions League	2QR	Qarabag	0–1	0–5	0–6
2018–19	UEFA Europa League	1QR	Tobol	0–1	0–2	0–3

Current squad

As of 25 July 2024

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  GEO Tornike Megrelishvili (on loan from Iberia 1999) 2 DF  GEO Lasha Kvaratskhelia 3 DF  GEO Zurab Gigashvili 4 DF  GEO Jemal Chachua 6 MF  GHA Daniel Owusu 7 MF  GEO Rati Ardazisvili 8 MF  ARG Eric Barrios 9 FW  GHA Joseph Amoako 10 FW  BRA Natan Baiano 11 FW  CMR Francois Ekongolo (on loan from Torpedo Kutaisi) 13 MF  GEO Lasha Parunashvili

No. Pos. Nation Player 14 DF  BRA Léo Assunpção 15 DF  GEO Giorgi Kveladze 17 DF  GEO Luka Elbakidze 18 MF  GEO Levan Khmaladze (captain) 20 DF  MKD Filip Boskovski 21 FW  ESP Inigo Martin 22 DF  ESP Jose Carrillo 24 FW  GEO Roin Odishelidze 25 GK  GEO Avtandil Labadze 30 MF  GEO Malkhaz Chitaishvili 38 MF  TJK Murodali Aknazarov 40 DF  GEO Davit Ubilava

Managers

Name	Nat.	From	To
Levan Anjaparidze		January 2011	July 2011
Koba Mikadze		August 2011	October 2011
Gia Bendeliani		October 2011	September 2012
Leri Megeneishvili (1)		September 2012	December 2012
Dato Chelidze		January 2013	June 2013
Ucha Sosiashvili		July 2013	December 2013
Gela Sanaia		January 2014	October 2014
Giorgi Tsetsadze (1)		October 2014	September 2018
Giorgi Daraselia		September 2018	December 2018
Kakhaber Kacharava		January 2019	August 2020
Giorgi Mikadze		August 2020	January 2021
Giorgi Tsetsadze (2)		February 2021	October 2021
Leei Megeneishvili (2)		October 2021	January 2022
Giorgi Shashiashvili		February 2022	April 2023
Dimitar Kapinkovski		April 2023	August 2024
Vladimer Kakashvili		August 2024	December 2024

Honours

League

• Umaglesi Liga/Erovnuli Liga
  • Winners: 2016
  • Runners-up: 1994–95, 2015–16
  • Bronze medals: 2017
• Pirveli Liga/Erovnuli Liga 2
  • Winners: 2008–09, 2013–14
  • Runners-up: 1997–98, 2019
  • Third place: 2011–12 (A Group), 2022

Cup

• Georgian Cup
  • Runners-up: 2014–15
• Georgian Super Cup
  • Winners: 2017

Sponsors

Since 2019 Archi development company has been a general sponsor of FC Samtredia.

Name

Throughout their history Samtredia have also been named Lokomotivi, Sanavardo, Juba and Iberia with the current name regained in 2006.

Samtredia literally means a place where pigeons reside and comes from Georgian word mtredi - pigeon.

References

1. "Samtredia in 1970-80s". wildstat.com.
2. "Samtredia vs Vardar 1995 History". uefa.com.
3. "დინამო (თბ)-სამტრედია 5:0 - ძლევაი საკვირველი". sportall.ge (in Georgian), 27 May 2015.
4. "ფეხბურთი: "სამტრედია" საქართველოს ჩემპიონი გახდა". netgazeti.ge (in Georgian), 11 December 2016.
5. "სამტრედია - ტორპედო: პირველი სუპერთასი და პირველი დუბლი". sportall.ge (in Georgian), 27 February 2017.
6. "კახა კაჭარავამ "სამტრედია" დატოვა". fanebi.com (in Georgian), 23 September 2020.
7. "გია ცეცაძე: სამტრედიაში იმიტომ დავბრუნდი, რომ ეს ჩემი უსაყვარლესი გუნდია". 1tv.ge (in Georgian), 10 February 2021.
8. "სამტრედია შაშიაშვილმა ჩაიბარა". leadersport.ge (in Georgian). 14 February 2022.
9. "სამტრედია" ეროვნულ ლიგაში დაბრუნდა, "სიონი" ლიგა 2-ში გავარდა". 1tv.ge (in Georgian). 11 December 2022.
10. "თელავი პლეიოფში ითამაშებს, სამტრედია გავარდა". sportline.ge. 3 December 2024. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
11. "Players". erovnuliliga.ge. Retrieved 2 March 2024.
12. Georgia – List of Champions – RSSSF
13. "არქი "სამტრედიას" გენერალური სპონსორი გახდა". sportall.ge (in Georgian), 17 September 2019.
14. "The history of FC Samtredia". fcsamtredia.com. 6 December 2015. Archived from the original on 18 December 2016. Retrieved 11 July 2017.

External links

• Official website
• Team profile at Soccerway
• FC Samtredia results at Flashscore

• FC Samtredia
• Football clubs in Georgia (country)
• 1936 establishments in Georgia (country)
• Association football clubs established in 1936
• Sport in Imereti