World mourns tragic death of Georgian football official

Georgia and the international football community is mourning the tragic death of a top Georgian football official.

Davit Petriashvili, 46, died in a car accident in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi in the early hours of December 21. 

As I know early in the morning [Petriashvili] was crossing a road when he collided with a patrol police car,” said a relative of Petriashvili. 

He died at the scene shortly after the accident.

The relative said Petriashvili died one day after returning home from Switzerland to celebrate Christmas with his family. 

This afternoon the Chief Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia confirmed a police vehicle was involved in the accident.

An investigation has been launched to determine the cause of the accident and the moments leading up to it.

Petriashvili was at the top of his career; he had served as a senior project manager within the national associations division of the Union of European Football Association (UEFA). He was also a director of several Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and UEFA matches, and acted as a member of world and European Championships Organisation groups. 

As news of Petriashvili’s death spread, local and international football organisations have expressed their sorrow about the football official’s tragic passing. The common message was of sadness and that Petriashvili had done much for local and international football. 

An investigation has been launched into the death of Davit Petriashvili. Photo by  the Union of European Football Association.

UEFA is deeply saddened to hear of the death of David Petriashvili, a senior project manager within the European body's national associations division,” stated the UEFA official webpage. 

Meanwhile FC Dinamo Tbilisi wrote: "We are deeply concerned by the death of Davit Petriashvili and offer condolences to his family.” 

Petriashvili first joined UEFA in June 2011 and was promoted to senior project manager in 2013. He was the main contact for UEFA's 54 national associations with respect to UEFA's HatTrick assistance program; helping to identify their needs and dealing in particular with financial matters relating to the associations' sporting and infrastructure projects under the program.

Earlier, from 1988 to 2000 he was a member of the UEFA Committee for Amateur Football before becoming vice chairman of the UEFA Youth and Amateur Football Committee from 2000 to 2002. He served as a delegate at various UEFA matches from 1999 to 2011 and worked as a venue director for the European body, stated UEFA.