FC Samtredia

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.^[1]

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 the Georgian Football Federation broke ties with the Soviet Football Federation and formed an independent championship.

Early years after independence

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.^[2] 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.^[3]

The most fruitful period for Samtredia was in the mid-2010s, when they finished amongst the top three teams of Umaglesi Liga for three consecutive seasons. Moreover, in 2016, under head coach Giorgi Tsetsadze, they became champions for the first time in their history after victory over Chikhura Sachkhere in the championship playoffs.^[4] Samtredia completed the season with the double after they beat Georgian Cup holders Torpedo Kutaisi in the Super Cup game.^[5]

In 2019, the club competed 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.^[6]

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.^[7] His second tenure lasted eight months, though. The team lost the relegation struggle and finished bottom of the table.^[8]

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.^[9]

Samtredia spent the next two seasons fighting for survival. In 2023, they cruised to a narrow play-off victory over Gareji, but a year later suffered a third relegation in seven years.^[10]

Domestic leagues

More information Season, Div ...

Season	Div	Pos	Top goalscorer	Goals	Cup
1990	1st	12/18			Round of 32
1991	1st	18/20			–
1991/92	1st	15/20			Round of 16
1992/93	1st	10/17			Round of 16
1993/94	1st	4/10			Round of 16
1994/95	1st	2/16	Gia Jishkariani	18	Quarterfinals
1995/96	1st	4/16	Zurab Ionanidze	23	Semifinals
1996/97	1st	14/16↓			Round of 16
1997/98	2nd	2/14↑			Quarterfinals
1998/99	1st	8/16			Round of 16
1999/2000	1st	7/8			Round of 32
2000/01	1st	12/12↓			Round of 32
2001/02	2nd	10/11			Round of 32
2002/03	2nd	16/16			Round of 32
2003/04	2nd	14/16			Round of 32
2007/08	2nd	8/10			1st Round
2008/09	2nd	1/11↑			Round of 16
2009/10	1st	7/10	Zaur Khachiperadze	11	Round of 16
2010/11	1st	10/10↓	Giga Kverenchkhiladze	4	Round of 32
2011/12	2nd, A	3/8	Papuna Shatirishvili	3	Round of 32
2012/13	2nd	5/12	Zaur Khachiperadze	9	Round of 16
2013/14	2nd	1/14↑	Zviad Kantaria	11	Round of 32
2014/15	1st	6/16	Tornike Kapanadze	7	Runners-up
2015/16	1st	2/16	Budu Zivzivadze	16	Quarterfinals
2016	1st	1/14	Budu Zivzivadze	11	Quarterfinals
2017	1st	3/10	Davit Rajamashvili	8	Round of 16
2018	1st	9/10↓	Giorgi Pantsulaia	6	Round of 16
2019	2nd	2/10↑	Guram Samushia	15	Round of 16
2020	1st	7/10	Nijat Gurbanov	4	Round of 16
2021	1st	10/10↓	Nikola Prelčec	4	Round of 32
2022	2nd	3/10↑	Dato Kirkitadze	8	Round of 32
2023	1st	9/10	Zurab Nachkebia Aleksandar Mishov	8	Round of 32
2024	1st	10/10↓	Daniel Owusu	5	Round of 16
2025	2nd	6/10	Levan Kutalia	9	Semifinals

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European record

More information Season, Competition ...

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1995–96	UEFA Cup	PR	FK Vardar	0–2	0–1	0–3
2016–17	UEFA Europa League	1QR	Gabala	2–1	1–5	3–6
2017–18	UEFA Champions League	2QR	Qarabag	0–1	0–5	0–6
2018–19	UEFA Europa League	1QR	Tobol	0–1	0–2	0–3

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League

• Umaglesi Liga/Erovnuli Liga
  • Winners: 2016^[12]
  • 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