Georgia oligarch to award national football team $10 million

TBILISI: Georgia’s powerful oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili will award the country’s national football team $10 million after they made it to the last 16 of Euro 2024, his ruling party said Thursday.
Georgia’s 2-0 win over Portugal on Wednesday was a historic triumph in the Black Sea nation’s first appearance at a major international tournament.
Coached by Frenchman Willy Sagnol, the team qualified from Group F as one of the four best third-placed finishers and face a daunting clash with Spain, who won all their group games, on Sunday.
The ruling Georgian Dream party’s “honorary chairman Bidzina Ivanishvili will award Georgia’s football team 30 million lari ($10.7 million) for qualifying for the last 16 of Euro 2024,” the party said in a statement.
“An additional 30 million lari will be awarded in case of a win over Spain,” it added.
Ivanishvili, the country’s richest man who made his fortune in Russia in the 1990s, is widely regarded as a puppet master pulling the strings of power from behind the scenes, despite not holding an official government position.
Last year, he was named Georgian Dream’s “honorary chairman,” a new role that formalizes his right to select the ruling party’s nominee for prime minister.