Former footballer set to be Georgia’s next president

A former Manchester City footballer known for his anti-western rhetoric is set to become the next president of Georgia after he was backed by the Black Sea country’s ruling party.

Former Georgian international football player Mikheil Kavelashvili is congratulated during a Georgian Dream Party's congress in Tbilisi. Georgia's ruling party nominated the far-right politician for the largely ceremonial post of president, aiming to strengthen its grip on power. Picture: Georgian Dream party's press service/AFP

A former Manchester City footballer known for his anti-western rhetoric is set to become the next president of Georgia after he was backed by the Black Sea country’s ruling party.

Mikheil Kavelashvili, who made 28 appearances for the English Premier League club in the 1990s, founded the far-right People’s Power party in 2022. He was one of the authors of a controversial “transparency on foreign influence” law that sparked huge protests in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, this spring.

The new president will be chosen for the first time by an electoral college that is controlled by Georgian Dream, the ruling party, meaning that Kavelashvili, 53, is certain to secure the post when it votes on December 14.

A former Georgian Dream MP, Kavelashvili has accused the United States of having “an insatiable desire to destroy our country” by dragging it into the war in Ukraine. The allegations were first voiced by Bidzina Ivanishvili, the shadowy billionaire who rules Georgia from behind the scenes.

“I will do everything to unite Georgian society around our national interests, our national identity, our values, and the idea of Georgia’s independence,” Kavelashvili said on Wednesday.

However, his presidency will prove a further blow to Georgia’s hopes of joining the European Union, something that is supported by more than 80 per cent of the population. Brussels suspended Georgia’s EU bid in June over the “foreign influence” law, which critics said was inspired by similar legislation that President Vladimir Putin has used to stifle dissent in Russia. The Georgian law obliges organisations that receive more than one fifth of their funding from abroad to register as “pursuing the interest of a foreign power”.

Outgoing president Salome Zourabichvili. Picture: Tobias Schwarz/AFP

Georgian oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili. Picture: Giorgi Arjevanidze/AFP

“There is no doubt that Mikheil Kavelashvili will not be in the service of foreign powers, but in the service of the Georgian state,” Ivanishvili said, in a thinly veiled reference to Salome Zourabichvili, the country’s outgoing, pro-western president. He also described Kavelashvili, who has backed Georgian Dream’s anti-LGBT policies, as the “embodiment of a Georgian man”.

Zourabichvili has accused Georgian Dream of stealing last month’s parliamentary elections as part of a “Russian special operation” and has led protests against alleged vote fraud. The country’s first female president, she was directly elected by the Georgian people in 2018. Opposition MPs boycotted the new parliament’s first session this week and have refused to recognise its legitimacy.

Kavelashvili, a former striker, played four games for Manchester City in the Premier League in 1996, scoring his solitary goal at the top level in a derby match against Manchester United. He scored another two goals after Manchester City were relegated, before going to play for a number of Swiss clubs.

Mikhail Kavelashvili, left, fights for the ball in Oslo in 1999 during Georgia’s Euro 2000 group 2 qualifier against Norway. Picture: Tor Richardsen/Scanpix/AFP

He also made almost 50 appearances for the Georgian national team. He was barred from standing for president of Georgia’s football federation in 2015 because he did not have the educational qualifications. He is not the only former Georgian footballer to have entered politics: Kakha Kaladze, the ex-AC Milan defender, has been the mayor of Tbilisi since 2017. He also supports Ivanishvili.

Kavelashvili is also not the first former Manchester City player to become president of his country. George Weah, who played for City in 2000, was president of Liberia for six years before being voted out of office earlier this year.