FC Samtredia

FC Samtredia (სკ სამტრედია), commonly known simply as Samtredia, is a Georgian association football club based in the city of Samtredia.

The club gained promotion to Erovnuli Liga, the first tier of Georgian football system, after the 2022 season. Their home ground is Erosi Manjgaladze Stadium.

In 2016, Samtredia won the league and the Super Cup.

Soviet League Era
Established in 1936, Samtredia spent years in the Georgian SSR Championship before the club eventually obtained the right to participate in the Soviet Second League, the third tier of the Soviet football system. Lokomotivi Samtredia finished their season as runners-up several times and even won the league twice, although they eventually failed to win the knockout stages of the competition against winners of two other SSR Countries. Below are the all-time results during the 17 consecutive seasons in the Soviet Second League. Following the 1989 season, the Samtredian team as well as all other Georgian clubs withdrew from their relevant Soviet leagues after Georgian Football Federation broke ties with the Soviet Football Federation and formed an independent championship.

Early years
Right after Georgia's independence, Sanavardo Samtredia became a member of the new national top tier, the Umaglesi Liga.

While twice, in 1993/94 and 1995/96, they finished in 4th, in 1994/1995 the club ended the season in 2nd which gave them qualification for the preliminary round of the UEFA Cup.

The debut in European competition turned out unsuccessful. Soon they fell from the top flight followed by relegation from Pirveli Liga as well.

Recent Times
In 2014/15 Samtredia reached the final of the David Kipiani Cup. In the previous rounds they had knocked out four opponents, including favourites Dinamo Batumi, Torpedo Kutaisi and Chikhura, but they weren't able to upset the odds again against Dinamo Tbilisi.

The most fruitful period for Samtredia was in the mid-2010s, when they finished amongst the top three teams of Umaglesi Liga for three seasons in a row. Moreover, in 2016, under head coach Giorgi Tsetsadze, they became champions for the first time in their history after a victory over Chikhura Sachkhere in the championship playoffs. Samtredia completed the season with the double after they beat Georgian Cup holders Torpedo Kutaisi in the Super Cup game.

In 2019, the club were in Liga 2, although they returned to the Erovnuli Liga after one season. Manager Kakhaber Kacharava, who guided Samtredia back to the top flight, had to quit the club in September 2020 after just one point earned in their last five league games and a shock cup defeat from Liga 3 minnows Tbilisi City.

New head coach Giorgi Mikadze steered Samtredia away from the relegation zone, but in February 2021 he was replaced by Giorgi Tsetsadze, who had once brought the club to their only champion's title. His second tenure lasted eight months, though. The team lost the relegation struggle and finished bottom of the table.

Just like the previous case three years earlier, it took Samtredia a year to move back to the top flight. Under Giorgi Shashiashvili the team beat their rivals for a playoff spot and qualified for decisive matches for the third time in the last five years. Another victory over Sioni completed their successful league campaign in 2022.

Current squad
As of 9 April, 2024

Managers

 * Levan Anjaparidze (Jan - Jul 2011)
 * Koba Mikadze (Aug - Oct 2011)
 * Gia Bendeliani (Oct 2011 - Sep 2012)
 * Leri Megeneishvili (Sep - Dec 2012)
 * Dato Chelidze (Jan - Jun 2013)
 * Ucha Sosiashvili (Jul - Dec 2013)
 * Gela Sanaia (Jan - Oct 2014)
 * Giorgi Tsetsadze (Oct 2014 - Sep 2018)
 * Giorgi Daraselia (Sep - Dec 2018)
 * Kakhaber Kacharava (Jan 2019 - Aug 2020)
 * Giorgi Mikadze (Aug 2020 - Jan 2021)
 * Giorgi Tsetsadze (Feb - Oct 2021)
 * Leri Megeneishvili (Oct 2021 - Jan 2022)
 * Giorgi Shashiashvili (Feb 2022 - Apr 2023)
 * Dimitar Kapinkovski (Since April 2023)

Notable players
Born in Samtredia, Kаkha Kaladze began his football career at the age of 11 in FC Samtredia's junior team as a striker.

League

 * Umaglesi Liga/Erovnuli Liga
 * Winners: 2016
 * Runners-up: 1994–95, 2015–16
 * Bronze medals: 2017
 * Pirveli Liga/Erovnuli Liga 2
 * Winners: 2008–09, 2013–14
 * Runners-up: 1997–98, 2019
 * Third place: 2011–12 (A Group), 2022

Cup

 * Georgian Cup
 * Runners-up: 2014–15
 * Georgian Super Cup
 * Winners: 2017

Sponsors
Since 2019 Archi development company has been a general sponsor of FC Samtredia.

Name
Throughout their history Samtredia have also been named Lokomotivi, Sanavardo, Juba and Iberia with the current name regained in 2006.

Samtredia literally means a place where pigeons reside and comes from Georgian word mtredi - pigeon.