Yesterday the match against Finland proved once again that Georgian football is far from European one and needs a lot of time to overcome it.

I was watching yesterday’s match and it reminded me of “Dila” – “Rapid” and “Dinamo” – “Tottenham”. The same happened there. Educated and literate Europeans and confused Georgians. Perhaps, yesterday referee treated us badly, awarded wrong penalty etc. but the same… Soon he did not count a real goal of Finland. But these are all details. The fact is that the guests beat us. They played learnt football. Our team could not even make a good combination. They tried to play individually. The opponent offered us a strict pressing from the first minute. Let us confess that Mixu Paatelainen (we remember him only with 4 goals against San Marino) tactically beat Temur Ketsbaia. The Finnish team learnt our team. Last year on 12 October the match of these teams ended up draw (1:1). The Georgians were winning and played better. After 11 months we saw a different Finnish national team which has a good progress and more oppressed “Crusaders”.

We play better as No.2 and that is why we did not lose to France. Now when it was time for offence and victory, we turned out very weak.

Overall, I think football is like a state. It is a reduced model of the state with its social-economical or other different problems. We have been independent for 23 years and we are not still a good state. This place became beautiful but the most important – content remained the same. The same is in football. Stadiums and bases have been built but reality is the same. It is a terrible situation in children’s football, payments are high and many talented boys give up playing football. If you pay for balls, uniforms, parents are also forced to pay field rent. There is a catastrophic deficit of professionalism in coaches. A young boy finishes football school so that he has no idea about real football. He does not know how to play. Now our boys find a way with talent but this talent is enough till certain age. Then, they face a harsh and brutal reality and can do nothing.

I think it is deeper problem than a fault of some people. I am not sure that if somebody replaces Sichinava, Pipia or Ketsbaia, nothing will be changed. Unfortunately, it is a society of the soviet mentality where real European values have nothing to do.

Neither I nor anybody can say what is wrong with us. We are in closed circle, time passes and there is no way out. I was watching “Dinamo” – “Tottenham” sadly and I saw the difference – “Tottenham” was Europe and “Dinamo” – Georgia. The Londoners did what they wanted. If they had wanted, they could have scored 8-10 goals. Unfortunately, it is a reality.

This mentality follows us like an old witch. It is really strange. If current football players do not play for European top-clubs, what we can say about that generation (Ketsbaia, Arveladze brothers, Kinkladze, Jamarauli, Nemsadze, Kaladze) which played for European strongest clubs but could do nothing in the national team. We remember shameful losses and the last places in the groups. The most talented generation could not get at the final stage of any serious tournament. In the history of independent Georgian football our national team has never won a decisive important match. Yesterday’s loss to Finland was a continuation of this sad tradition.

Solomon Gulisashvili