Rustavi II

Rustavi II answers to no fixed rival. Each year the David Kipiani Cup hands it a different opponent, and none of them stay long: a 1-3 defeat to Sulori in 2018, a 1-0 win over the same side in 2025 before a 0-1 exit to Odishi 1919 later that year, then 2-3 losses to both Orbi and Irao in 2026 — the latter, in Tbilisi, on 24 June. Between rounds, the real business is the league.

That business dates to 3 July 2015, when FC Rustavi was formed in the city with no legal tie to the clubs that had carried its name before it — Metallurgi, Gorda, Olimpi. The reserve side has no separate founding date on record; it first appears in Liga 3 tables from the 2016 season, built, it seems, alongside the first team rather than after it.

That first full season remains its best one: second place in its Liga 3 group in 2016, behind Telavi. Rustavi II won 11 of 14 matches that year, a return nothing since has matched — no league title, no cup run past the early rounds, just a 4-0 win over Borjomi standing out for how rare a wide margin is in its record.

Home games are played at Poladi Stadium in Rustavi, now listed at 4,657 seats against a historic capacity of 10,720. The June defeat to Irao sent Rustavi II back to the league, still chasing a season that matches 2016.