FC Iberia 1999
Also written as Iberia 1999, Saburtalo.
The club
FC Iberia 1999 were founded on 20 August 1999 in Tbilisi as FC Saburtalo, named for the Saburtalo district of the city where the club is still based. In 2005 the club was bought by the Iberia Business Group, headed by Tariel Khechikashvili, who later served as Georgia's Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs and who remains the club's chairman. On 27 February 2024 the name was changed from Saburtalo to Iberia 1999. The nickname is the Red Eagles, and the kit is primarily white with red as the secondary colour.
This is not Dinamo Tbilisi, and the two are easy to confuse for a specific reason: Dinamo Tbilisi themselves played as Iberia Tbilisi from 1990, as a way of putting distance between the club and its Soviet past, before supporter opposition saw the old name restored in 1992. Dinamo Tbilisi are a different and far older club, founded on 1 September 1925, playing at the 54,202-capacity Boris Paichadze Dinamo Arena, winners of the Cup Winners' Cup in 1980/81 and the only club based in Georgia ever to have lifted a European trophy. Iberia 1999 have won nothing in Europe and did not exist until 1999. The corpus already holds three clubs called Dinamo, and Iberia 1999 are none of them: not Dinamo Zagreb, not Dinamo Minsk, not Dinamo Tirana. Nor are they Dinamo Batumi, who play in the same Georgian division. The old name should be kept clear too: Saburtalo and Iberia 1999 are one club under two names, not two clubs.
The club's registered ground is the David Petriashvili Stadium in Tbilisi, capacity 2,130, and it also operates a full-size training ground called Bendela in the Saburtalo district holding 1,800. For the 2026 Erovnuli Liga season and for European ties the club has played at the much larger Mikheil Meskhi Stadium in Tbilisi, capacity 22,754. The shirt sponsor in 2026 is Audi and the kit manufacturer Givova; the captain is Gizo Mamageishvili.
The head coach is the Ukrainian Andriy Demchenko, appointed on 16 June 2026 when Guga Nergadze left by mutual consent. Nergadze had himself taken over on 2 October 2025, after Gia Geguchadze, who replaced Levan Korgalidze on 31 July 2025.
Recent seasons
Iberia 1999 have been the dominant Georgian side of the last three years. They won the Erovnuli Liga in 2024 under Levan Korgalidze and retained it in 2025 with 80 points from 36 matches, 24 wins, 8 draws and 4 losses, 60 goals scored and 24 conceded, two points clear of Dila Gori on 78 with Torpedo Kutaisi third on 63 and Dinamo Tbilisi fourth on 57. That title run included an eighteen-match unbeaten sequence and a run of seven straight wins, and was completed despite two changes of head coach in the second half of the season.
The 2026 defence has been harder. As of 22 August 2026 Iberia 1999 sat second, 34 points from 20 matches, 10 wins, 4 draws and 6 losses, 30 goals scored and 22 conceded, behind Rustavi on 41 from 20 and level on 34 with Dinamo Tbilisi and Dinamo Batumi, both of whom had played more games. That position carried Conference League first qualifying round qualification.
Honours and landmarks
Erovnuli Liga champions three times, in 2018, 2024 and 2025. Erovnuli Liga 2 winners in 2014/15, when the club took its group by a nineteen-point margin and went up to the top flight. Georgian Cup winners three times, in 2019, 2021 and 2023. Georgian Super Cup winners once, in 2020.
The first league title, in 2018, came under Gia Chiabrishvili after three top-flight seasons without a trophy. The first Georgian Cup followed in 2019 with a 3-1 win over Locomotive in the final, and the 2020 Super Cup was won by beating the reigning champions Dinamo Tbilisi. Since promotion the only year without domestic silverware of some kind has been 2022.
The club runs one of the strongest academies in Georgia, with under-19 national youth league titles in 2016 and 2022 and three under-17 titles in the early 2020s. Players developed or fielded there include the Georgia internationals Giorgi Kharaishvili, Irakli Sikharulidze, Giorgi Makaridze and Giorgi Gocholeishvili, alongside the Moldovan Dmitri Mandrîcenco, the Zimbabwean Alec Mudimu and the Cameroonian Olivier Boumal.
Notable scorelines
The club's best European result is the 3-0 win away to Sheriff Tiraspol in the first qualifying round of the 2019/20 Champions League, on their first appearance in UEFA competition, after losing the home leg 1-3 — a tie won 4-3 on aggregate.
The heaviest European defeat is the 4-0 loss away to Jagiellonia Białystok in the play-off round on 20 August 2026. Before that the worst was 5-1 away to Apollon Limassol in the single-legged 2020/21 Europa League first qualifying round, and a 5-0 aggregate loss to Dinamo Zagreb in the 2019/20 Champions League second qualifying round, 2-0 at home and 3-0 away. The club's record domestic win and record domestic defeat were not established from the sources read here.
European record
Across UEFA competition from 2019 to the current campaign the club's record is 25 matches played, 7 won, 5 drawn and 13 lost, 24 goals scored and 38 conceded.
The debut season, 2019/20, remains one of the better ones. As Saburtalo they beat Sheriff Tiraspol 4-3 on aggregate in the Champions League first qualifying round, lost 5-0 to Dinamo Zagreb in the second, and then went out of the Europa League third qualifying round 3-2 to Ararat-Armenia after losing 2-0 at home and winning 2-1 away. In 2020/21 they lost 5-1 to Apollon Limassol in a one-legged Europa League first qualifying round.
In 2022/23 they beat Partizani of Albania in the Conference League first qualifying round, losing 1-0 at home and winning 1-0 after extra time away before taking the shootout 5-4, then lost 4-3 on aggregate to FCSB in the second round after a 1-0 home win and a 4-2 defeat in Bucharest. In 2024/25 they beat Partizani again, 2-0 on aggregate, and lost 3-0 to Istanbul Basaksehir in the Conference League third qualifying round. In 2025/26 they were beaten 6-2 on aggregate by Malmö in the Champions League first qualifying round, losing 3-1 both home and away, and then went out of the Conference League second qualifying round to Levadia Tallinn, 2-2 after extra time at home and 1-0 down in Estonia, 3-2 on aggregate.
Quotes
No directly quoted material was confirmed from the sources read here.
Right now (2026/27)
Andriy Demchenko is the head coach. Iberia 1999 entered the Champions League as Georgian champions and have already dropped twice, and are now one match from either the Europa League league phase or the Conference League.
In the Champions League first qualifying round they won 3-2 away to Flora at the Lilleküla Stadium in Tallinn on 8 July 2026, Zviad Natchkhebia scoring on 18 minutes and Jemal-Giorgi Jinjolava from the penalty spot on 21, Vladislav Kreida pulling one back on 28 and Sander Alamaa levelling on 73 before Bakar Kardava won it on 75 in front of 2,017. Sandi Putros of Denmark refereed. The home leg finished 2-2 and Iberia went through 5-4 on aggregate.
The second qualifying round was against Slovan Bratislava. Iberia lost the home leg 0-2 at the Mikheil Meskhi Stadium on 21 July 2026, Andraž Šporar scoring on 25 minutes and Alasana Yirajang on 31 in front of 7,119, with Lukas Fähndrich of Switzerland refereeing. The away leg was drawn 1-1 and Iberia went out 3-1 on aggregate, dropping into the Europa League.
The Europa League third qualifying round was against Larne of Northern Ireland. The first leg at Inver Park on 4 August 2026 finished 0-0 in front of 1,967, refereed by Mohammad Al-Emara of Finland. The return at the Mikheil Meskhi Stadium on 11 August 2026 was won 2-1 after extra time before 11,130: Vakho Bedoshvili put Iberia ahead on 74 minutes, James Simpson equalised on 76, and Nika Sikharulashvili won it on 102. Rohit Saggi of Norway refereed.
That put them into the play-off round against Jagiellonia Białystok, and the first leg went badly. At the Stadion Miejski in Białystok on 20 August 2026 Iberia lost 4-0 in front of 19,108, Jesús Imaz scoring a penalty on 34 minutes, Jeremy Agbonifo on 45+2, an own goal by Abdullahi Ibrahim Alhassan on 62 and Sergio Lozano on 90+2, with Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea of Spain in charge.
The second leg is today, 27 August 2026, at the Mikheil Meskhi Stadium in Tbilisi, kicking off at 18:00 UTC, 20:00 local, with Simone Sozza of Italy refereeing. Iberia need to overturn four goals. The outcome is not yet known and is not written here. Losing the tie would put them into the Conference League league phase rather than out of Europe.
Domestically the Erovnuli Liga runs on the calendar year and is past halfway, with Iberia second behind Rustavi and three clubs level on 34 points. The club's summer transfer business was not established from the sources read here.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Iberia_1999 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Dinamo_Tbilisi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Erovnuli_Liga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Erovnuli_Liga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Champions_League_qualifying https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Europa_League_qualifying
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.