Football Federation President: “incredible pressure” being placed on football team players by opposition leaders

Levan Kobiashvili, the President of the Georgian Football Federation, on Wednesday said leaders of the domestic opposition were placing “incredible pressure” on national football team players, making “attacks” and issuing “insults” among ongoing controversy around the domestic bill on transparency of foreign influence.

The GFF President was commenting on the ongoing public protests against the bill and calls for prominent public figures, celebrities and athletes to join them.

“An incredible scale of pressure, attacks and insults is being carried out on our boys, the people who, in just a few weeks, will carry the flag of Georgia to the middle of Europe, in Germany, and represent our country for the first time in history”, Kobiashvili said in reference to the squad’s first-ever qualification for the European Football Championship.

Even today, in various social networks and media, we see [...] unheard-of attacks and [...] insults carried out by specific mean opposition leaders towards the Georgian football team and players. Those who are really not interested in football or the victory of Georgia are especially active and fully manage these processes”, he noted.

Kobiashvili stressed he had “never sought to involve” football players in political processes and added that national football team players “represent Georgia, and insulting them is an insult to our country and citizens”.

“I want to call on everyone to respect all players. Stop insulting them. Believe me, as a professional football player, I know that mental preparation for such important matches is just as important as physical preparation. Let the boys concentrate on their work”, he said.

Kobiashvili also called on “the people involved in politics, who are trying to divide the public, deepen polarisation and radicalise the processes, to come to their senses and not dare touch our praiseworthy football players”.