Varketili

Two Iraqi businessmen, Allen Ayosi and Munjid Shukri Al-Haili, set the terms of Real Varketili's modern identity in 2016. They put money into a small Tbilisi side, renamed it and said what they wanted in return: a climb from the regional leagues to the Georgian top flight, and a football centre built to UEFA standards. The name gained a "Real". The rest ran into difficulties.

Varketili are still in the lower tiers. They play in Liga 3, the third level, having come up from the fourth-tier Regional League. In the David Kipiani Cup, the Georgian Cup, they have entered in recent seasons, including 2022, 2023 and 2025, and each time went out in the early rounds.

The setting is far removed from the original plan. Home games are played on the 35th School Sports Ground, at 16 Petre Kavtaradze Street. It has an artificial pitch, no running track and 250 seats. A stand that size holds a school crowd, not a top-flight one, and the distance between it and the ambition of 2016 is easy to measure.

The club's colours are red, white, teal and silver, and the logo carries all four.

The club itself is older than the money. It was founded in Varketili, the Tbilisi district whose name it kept when the "Real" was added.