FC Gareji Sagarejo

FC Gareji (Georgian: საფეხბურთო კლუბი გარეჯი) is a Georgian Association football club from Sagarejo, which currently takes part in Erovnuli Liga 2, the second tier of the national football league.

The team has recently made headlines after achieving three consecutive promotions.

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 in 2018. Apart from winning its Group East, Gareji also secured an easy win in a home-and-away play-off tie against their Liga 3 opponents. As members of the newly created Liga 4, they finished just below 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, who filled the vacuum as a 3rd placed team.

Against all odds, the 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 promotion battle by winning 14 games out of 18. With this achievement Gareji completed a remarkable journey from the fifth division to Liga 2 within the shortest period of time.

Once in the second league, for most of 2021 Gareji were still aiming at the promotion, competing with Merani Martvili for a third qualifying place. Ultimately, the latter gained the upper hand, although Gareji recorded some impressive victories, including 8–0, which was the biggest win of the season for any Liga 2 team. Forward Giorgi Kharebashvili shined in this match by scoring six times.

During the 2023 season, the club seemed clear favourites to gain yet another promotion with going eleven points clear of immediate rivals at one point in June. However, Kolkheti 1913 managed to close the gap and finish atop the league table after a 1–1 draw in a crunch game held in Sagarejo on the final day of this season. Gareji could have still advanced to the top flight via play-offs, but suffered a 5–4 aggregate defeat at the hands of Samtredia.

Georgian Cup
In 2019, Gareji became a first ever 4th league team in Georgian football history to reach semifinals of the national Cup. The fact that head coach Davit Kokiashvili quit Gareji two days prior to the game may have affected the club, but they offered Lokomotive Tbilisi a decent resistance during the entire match. Despite taking the lead after the first 45 minutes, eventually Gareji lost after conceding the third goal from a penalty spot.

The next year Gareji were eliminated by Samgurali, the runners-up of the Cup.

The team reached quarterfinals in 2021 where they lost to future Cup winners Saburtalo in the dying minutes of the game.

Squad
As of 8 March 2024

Honours
• Regionuli Liga


 * Winners: 2018 (Group East D)

• Liga 4


 * Third place: 2019

'''• Meore Liga/Liga 3


 * Winners: 2020


 * Third place: 2016 (Group East D)

• Erovnuli Liga 2


 * Runners-up: 2023

Other teams
Gareji also have a reserve team, which participates in Group A of Regionuli Liga.

Stadium
Gareji's home arena is the Central stadium with the capacity of 2,000 seats, which sustained major reconstruction works in 2018.

Name
Gareji is the name of ancient rock-hewn St.David monastery complex, situated in the southern semi-desert part of the Sagarejo minicipality, which is inscribed on the club emblem.