Akaki Khubutia is no longer a recruit in the national team, he had his debut 3 years ago in the friendly match against Slovenia (2:1) and he has already accumulated 14 matches. Khubutia played without substitution in recent meetings. He became a defender of the main lineup in the team formatted by Temur Ketsbaia and so his opinion about the recent developments is interesting.

 “World Sport” contacted Khubutia:

- Let’s start with the leaving of Aleko Amisulashvili from the team.

- It is very harmful for the team. Amisulashvili did a lot for the team. I think, that it will not be a final decision and the problem will be solved. Anyway, I hope. what happened, it is not my business.

- Zurab Khizanishvili says that Ketsbaia abuses players. What can you say about this?

- I have never heard such thing, we are Georgians and we really will give an ear to it. Ketsbaia is an emotional person and if he abuses himself or says something obscene, is a different thing. He is a coach and I will not say anything on his shout. Abuse is one thing and shout is another. If you do not have the ability to endure, it is hard. He is a coach and has his own method, sometimes he cries loud and sometimes shouts, but it is not right to make a problem of it and give an interview. I am not afraid of anybody. We must be more self-critical. Nothing good will happen by spinning round with conflicts.

- Have you had any other kind of conflict with Ketsbaia?

- I have not had, and if someone had, this is not my problem. There was a time, when I was coming for the team and the coach did not allow me play even one minute. For example, last year, when we lost to Poland 0:1, after this I was not playing for a long time. I am a football player and of course this offended me, but I was silent. I was doing my duty.

- Let’s say something about club too: “Mordovia” is a leader of the Russian First League and if we look at the difference in points, it would not be a difficult to return to the Premier League.

- It seems, that playing in the First League is more difficult that in Premier League. It is in a psychological point of view, because we are leaders and every team fights against us with a particular motivation. I also learned that, the opponents have double bonuses in case of success and only 3 legionary can play the game simultaneously. Long flight was discovery in “Mordovia”, which is very hard, but otherwise does not work. Generally, “Mordovia” did not deserve dismissal, but probably you remember that when we arrived in the team, 11 rounds were remained and we lag other teams very much. We started to earn points but it was not enough. We won over such teams, which are leading the Premier League now, including “Spartak”.

- You have played against a lot of strong forwards in the national team: Mario Manjukic, Nikica Jelavic, Robert Lewandowski, Alvaro Negredo, Olivie Zhiru, Karim Benzema. Which was the most strong one for you?

- It is difficult to pick one of them, because I played against them in a different periods. Lewandowaski seemed most strongly for me last year, however they are all the strongest players. They are one of the best forwards in Europe.

- Again about the national team: What do you think, what is the biggest problem?

- Changing generation is a painful process. Young and perspective players are coming and they will slowly adapt. They still do not have enough experience, but it will appear. There are not such players in the team as were Kakha Kaladze, Levan Kobiashvili and Aleksandre Iashvili. Changing generation follows a lot of problems, but nothing dangerous. These players can build a good team. Let’s take a match against France: with the exception of the last minutes, we defended well, however, we played against the Grand.

- Hopes are good, but they did not come true.

- In fact, since 1981, Georgians have not felt happy, but we must try our best.

Ilia Nanobashvili