Chiatura

Full name	Football Club Chiatura
Nickname(s)	Chiatura
Founded	1923; 101 years ago (1923)
Ground	Temur Maghradze Stadium Chiatura, Georgia
Manager	Givi Chinchaladze
League	Regionuli Liga
2024	10th of 13, Regionuli Liga
Home colours Away colours

FC Magaroeli is a Georgian football club from Chiatura. Since the 2023 season they have been competing in Regionuli Liga, the fifth tier of Georgian football.

The team has twice participated in the top tier.

Formed in 1923, Chiatura won the Georgian championship in 1975, and also clinched the domestic Cup title in 1978 and 1979. The club spent four seasons in the Soviet Second league.^[1]

In 1992/93 season the club finished second in Pirveli Liga which paved the way for Umaglesi Liga in 1993/94. Magaroeli participated in the top flight also in 1997/98.

Between 2004 and 2017 the club spent 13 successive seasons in Liga 2. At one point the club came close to another promotion. After winning the 2007–08 season with a 23-point margin, they beat Gagra on penalties in champions play-offs, although Chiatura eventually had to give up their Umaglesi Liga place^[2] after their failure to meet the criteria existing for top-flight clubs.

While the team stayed in top half of the table for four consecutive seasons, they were involved in survival battles in 2016. In this season Magaroeli were deducted three points for fielding an ineligible player.^[3] In play-offs they failed to overcome Meshakhte Tkibuli and left the league.

The next year they won the regular season in Liga 3, although displayed a poor performance in the promotion tournament.^[4]

In 2018, Chiatura finished in 12th place in a 20-team league and along with all other bottom-half clubs were relegated to the newly formed Liga 4.

The team came 2nd in 2020. Even though this result fell short of the promotion, some changes of the league format announced in January 2021 by GFF awarded Magaroeli a Liga 3 place for the upcoming season.^[5]

The club was struggling in the next two years. In both cases they finished in the drop zone and suffered a double relegation.

As of April 2022

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 3 DF  GEO Jimi Giorgadze 4 DF  GEO Saba Turmanidze 6 DF  GEO Givi Lashkhi 7 MF  GEO Giga Abramishvili 8 MF  GEO Giorgi Avanovi 9 FW  GEO Levan Kutchashvili 10 MF  GEO Tornike Devidze 11 FW  GEO Saba Gabadze 13 GK  GEO Giorgi Khvedelidze

No. Pos. Nation Player 14 FW  GEO Mikheil Mikeladze 17 DF  GEO Mirza Chkhitunidze 19 MF  GEO Giorgi Bakuradze 21 FW  GEO Koba Kapanadze 22 MF  GEO Aleksandre Bablidze 23 DF  GEO Givi Samkurashvili 24 MF  GEO Davit Chachua 29 FW  GEO Nika Gaprindashvili (C) 31 GK  GEO Zviad Japaridze 33 DF  GEO Lasha Kutchashvili

• Georgian Soviet Championship
  • Champion: 1975
• Georgian Soviet Cup
  • Champion: 1978, 1979
• Pirveli Liga:
  • Champion: 1997, 2008
  • Bronze prize winner: 1992, 1996, 2012
• Meore Liga
  • Winner: 2017 (Red Group)
• Liga 4
  • Runners-up: 2020

The club hosts their league games at the Temur Maghradze stadium, which has a capacity of 11,650.

The club several times changed the name from Chiatura to Magaroeli and back. The latter literally means a miner implying the existing Chiatura mine complex in this town.

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