Georgian PM announces plans for new football stadium to host 2028 Champions League final

A 70,000-capacity football stadium will be built in Georgia’s capital city of Tbilisi with a goal of the venue hosting the 2028 final of the UEFA Champions League, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced on Monday.

Kobakhidze said the announcement was coming as part of his Government’s “important mega project related to sports, specifically football and rugby”.

We want to build a new stadium in Tbilisi, which will essentially serve these two types of sports, [and] it will be designed to host 70,000 spectators. This will be a first-class, modern stadium that will allow us to host the most high-profile matches in our capital, including the Champions League final”, he said.

The Government head noted the stadium would be built with the “British style” of design without tracks for running sports.

“We will submit an application to host the 2028 UEFA Champions League final in this [...] stadium. This will be a very important present for Georgian football and Georgian fans. Tbilisi will have a unique stadium designed for 70,000 fans, and this project will be properly implemented”, he noted.

The PM also alleged the management of the football club Dinamo Tbilisi had made plans to “build residential blocks on the territory of the historical base” of the club, and called the alleged initiative an “attitude that is a manifestation of the policy of the previous [United National Movement] Government”.

Of course, we will not allow this, but the attitude itself can be seen from all this”, he claimed, noting the management of the club had published a “political statement” against the controversial law on transparency of foreign influence, reintroduced by the ruling party this month against public protests.

He also made contrasts with the former Government by saying national football team players “used to travel to matches of the team at their own expense” during the UNM rule.

“Under such conditions, how can sports achieve any success? I will repeat once again that today we have a consistent policy, which, naturally, brings its results”, he said.

The Government head further claimed the previous Government had “led the country’s sports [and] football to failure”.

“It took us years to repair the damage done to the sports then, to reach the unique success that our sports has in all disciplines today. Also, I would like to recall stories of specific players, the story of one of the players who told me personally that for political reasons, they had refused to call him up for the national team [games]”, the PM alleged.

“At that time, the coach of the football team was a foreigner, and he was forced not to call up the specific player [who was] playing in one of the top leagues. All this had political reasons”, Kobakhidze claimed.

The PM also alleged a “practice of destruction of sports infrastructure” during the UNM Government in his comments.

A stadium in Batumi was demolished. A city with such sporting and football traditions was left without a stadium for years, and if it were not for the most important project initiated and implemented during our Government, Batumi would not have a stadium even today. This was their attitude towards sports. Of course, this attitude has fundamentally changed”, Kobakhidze said.

The PM also recalled the sale of the football base Norchi Dinamoeli in Tbilisi’s Didube district by saying the venue had been a “unique complex with its unique history, where all generations of Dinamo Tbilisi players grew up, and this area was simply taken and sold” under the former Government.

“At the same time, [the Government] deceived one of the foreign investors by selling them [the base] for construction purposes without telling them that there was a subway network running under it. Consequently, they both destroyed a unique base and gave the territory to a foreign investor in such a way that it was impossible to build [anything] there”, he continued.

Kobakhidze alleged the cases showed the former ruling power’s “[absence of] love [for] the country and the city”.