FC Torpedo Kutaisi
Also written as Torpedo Kutaisi.
The club
FC Torpedo Kutaisi is a Georgian club based in Kutaisi, founded on 3 May 1946 as the football team of the Kutaisi Automobile Factory, which is where the Torpedo name comes from. This is not Dinamo Tbilisi and not Dila Gori, the other two Georgian clubs covered in this set of dossiers, and it is not any of the Russian or Belarusian clubs that share the Torpedo name, such as Torpedo Moscow or Torpedo Zhodino. Those clubs carry the same name for the same reason, factory sponsorship of works teams was common practice across the Soviet Union, but Torpedo Kutaisi has no organisational connection to any of them; it is a separate Georgian institution.
The club won the Georgian SSR Championship in 1949, and in 1959 it merged with FC Locomotive Kutaisi while keeping the Torpedo name. It entered the Soviet Top League in 1962 and has been one of Georgia's most successful clubs since the country's post-independence league began.
Torpedo Kutaisi play at the Ramaz Shengelia Stadium in Kutaisi, capacity 10,400, known as the Givi Kiladze Stadium until it was renamed in 2015 in honour of Ramaz Shengelia, a Torpedo product who went on to win the 1980-81 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup with Dinamo Tbilisi. The home kit is a white shirt with black shorts, the away kit black with white shorts.
The head coach is the German Dirk Schuster. The chairman is David Kereselidze. The date Schuster was appointed and who he succeeded were not established from the sources read here.
Recent seasons
Torpedo Kutaisi finished third in the Erovnuli Liga in 2023 with 60 points, then second in 2024 with 70. They dropped back to third in 2025 with 63 points. The Erovnuli Liga runs as a single calendar-year season, February to December, rather than splitting across two years, so the 2026 campaign is still in progress: as of 22 August 2026 Torpedo Kutaisi sit fifth with 31 points from 22 matches, 8 wins, 7 draws and 7 losses, 36 goals scored and 25 conceded.
Honours and landmarks
Torpedo Kutaisi have won the Georgian top flight four times, in 1999-2000, 2000-01, 2001-02 and 2017, and have finished runners-up on four further occasions. They have won the Georgian Cup five times, in 1998-99, 2000-01, 2016, 2018 and 2022, and the Georgian Super Cup four times, in 2018, 2019, 2024 and 2026. In the Soviet era the club won the Soviet First League in 1960 and 1961 and the Soviet Second League in 1988, on top of the 1949 Georgian SSR title.
Five players who won the 1980-81 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup with Dinamo Tbilisi, Tamaz Kostava, Otar Gabelia, Nodar Khizanishvili, Tengiz Sulakvelidze and Ramaz Shengelia, came through Torpedo Kutaisi, which is why the club's home ground now carries Shengelia's name.
Notable scorelines
Torpedo Kutaisi's biggest European wins are 9-2 on aggregate over Lantana of Estonia in 1999-2000 UEFA Cup qualifying, 7-1 over Erebuni of Armenia in the 1998 Intertoto Cup, and 7-0 over Víkingur Gøta of the Faroe Islands in the 2018-19 Europa League second qualifying round. They also beat B36 Tórshavn of the Faroe Islands 6-2 on aggregate in 2002-03 Champions League qualifying, and won 5-4 aggregate ties against Kukësi of Albania in 2018-19 and Ordabasy of Kazakhstan in 2025-26.
The heaviest defeats are 1-8 on aggregate to AS Trenčín of Slovakia in the 2017-18 Europa League first qualifying round, 0-6 to BATE Borisov of Belarus in the 2005-06 UEFA Cup, and 0-6 to Zira of Azerbaijan in 2026-27 Conference League qualifying. In the 1999-2000 UEFA Cup first round they also lost 1-7 to AEK Athens. The club's all-time record win and record defeat in domestic competition were not established from the sources read here.
European record
Torpedo Kutaisi's first European appearance came in the 1998 Intertoto Cup, beating Erebuni of Armenia 7-1 before losing to Lommel of Belgium. Their run through the 2000s was mostly short: past Lantana of Estonia and then out to AEK Athens in the 1999-2000 UEFA Cup, out to Crvena Zvezda in 2000-01 Champions League qualifying, past Linfield and then out to Copenhagen in 2001-02, past B36 Tórshavn and then out to Sparta Prague in 2002-03, and heavy defeats to RC Lens in 2003-04 and BATE Borisov in 2005-06.
There was a long gap before the next European entries, against Aktobe of Kazakhstan in 2012-13 and Žilina of Slovakia in 2013-14, both lost, and a heavy 1-8 defeat to Trenčín in 2017-18. The best run came in 2018-19: Torpedo Kutaisi lost to Sheriff Tiraspol in Champions League qualifying, then in the Europa League beat Víkingur Gøta 7-0 and Kukësi 5-4 on aggregate before losing the play-off round 0-5 to Ludogorets Razgrad. Since the Conference League began they have reached the second qualifying round three times running, in 2023-24 (beating Sarajevo on penalties before losing to Aktobe), 2024-25 (beating Tirana before losing to Omonia) and 2025-26 (beating Ordabasy before losing to Omonia again), and in 2026-27 they were eliminated in the first qualifying round by Zira of Azerbaijan.
Quotes
No directly quoted material was confirmed from the sources read here.
Right now (2026/27)
Dirk Schuster is the head coach. Torpedo Kutaisi entered the 2026-27 UEFA Conference League qualifying at the first qualifying round, drawn against Zira of Azerbaijan. The first leg, away, was played on 8 July 2026 at the Sumgayit City Stadium in Sumgait and lost 3-0, Renato scoring twice, in the 32nd minute and from the penalty spot in the 63rd, and Volkov adding a third in the 47th, in front of 1,490. The second leg at the Ramaz Shengelia Stadium on 16 July 2026 was also lost, 3-0 to Zira, Aydın scoring in the 25th and 70th minutes and Seydiyev in the 39th, referee Mihály Káprály of Hungary, attendance 3,500. Torpedo Kutaisi went out 6-0 on aggregate in the first qualifying round.
That followed a Georgian Super Cup win, the club's fourth. Torpedo Kutaisi beat Dila Gori 1-0 in the semi-final on 27 June 2026 at the Tengiz Burjanadze Stadium in Gori, Vladimer Mamuchashvili scoring in the 73rd minute, then beat Iberia 1999 2-2 in the final on 1 July 2026 at the Mikheil Meskhi Stadium in Tbilisi, Komnen Andrić and Giorgi Arabidze scoring, winning the shootout 6-5.
Domestically the 2026 Erovnuli Liga, played as a single calendar-year season rather than split across two years, has Torpedo Kutaisi fifth as of 22 August 2026, on 31 points from 22 matches, 8 wins, 7 draws and 7 losses, 36 goals scored and 25 conceded. Summer transfer business and the club's remaining fixtures were not confirmed from the sources read here.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Torpedo_Kutaisi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erovnuli_Liga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Erovnuli_Liga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Conference_League_qualifying https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Conference_League_qualifying_(first_and_second_round_matches) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Georgian_Super_Cup https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Zira
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.