FC Gareji

FC Gareji is an Association football club from Sagarejo, which currently takes part in Erovnuli Liga 2, the second tier of Georgian football league.

History

Established in 1960, during the Soviet period Gareji for many years participated in Georgian republican championship and later, after 1990, spent several seasons in the second and third divisions.

A recent rise of the team started from Regionuli Liga, the last tier of the Georgian professional league system, which Gareji won in 2018.

As winners of D Group East of the regional league, Gareji were promoted to newly created Liga 4. They finished third, outside of the promotion zone, which was still widely regarded as success for the debutants. Further events unfolded unexpectedly. After FC Tskhinvali failed to fulfill their financial obligations, they were expelled from Liga 3 and replaced by Gareji, which filled the vacuum as a 3rd placed team.

Against all odds, the newly promoted team under head coach Tengiz Kobiashvili emerged among the third division leaders from the outset of the 2020 season and convincingly prevailed over their rivals in the promotion battle by winning 14 games out of 18. With this success Gareji completed a remarkable journey from the fifth division to Liga 2 within the shortest period of time.