On 23 September 2015, the President of Dinamo Tbilisi, Roman Pipia, left the session of the Georgian Football Federation’s Executive Committee as a sign of protest. Mr Pipia stated that there were violations in the selection process of a delegate from the Guria Regional Football Federation. He claimed: "I cannot put my signature and, thereby, support this illegal act. They have nominated Tkebuchava again, organised a voting process and now there is a discussion about that. There was a lawyer summoned here who clarified that Kakha Ebralidze is eligible to nominate his candidate directly. However, I know that according to the law, Mr Ebralidze is not authorised to do so. There are plenty of people who actually want to see Mr Ebralidze but so far they could not manage to find him. I do not want to offend anybody in this situation but this actually is the legitimisation of an illegal act and it is very close to being criminal."

took interest in this issue and verified Roman Pipia’s statement.

The elections for the presidency of the Georgian Football Federation are scheduled for 3 October 2015. Only the delegates who are nominated by members of the Georgian Football Federation are allowed to vote. According to Article 10 of the Georgian Football Federation’s statute, there are 35 members in total in the Georgian Football Federation. In September, the Guria Regional Football Federation nominated two candidates as delegates for the Georgian Football Federation’s Executive Committee. The President of the Guria Regional Football Federation, Kakha Ebralidze, nominated Gocha Tkebuchava as a voting delegate. This was decried by members of the Guria Regional Football Federation’s Executive Council. The members asserted that President Ebralidze had no right to act single-handedly and so they decided to convene a session of the Executive Council where Yuri Chkheidze was selected to be a voting delegate at the presidential elections of the Georgian Football Federation.

On 7 September 2015, at a session of the Georgian Football Federation’s Executive Committee, members rejected the selection of the Guria Regional Football Federation’s Executive Council and ruled that Gocha Tkebuchava would retain his seat as a delegate. Eventually, the dispute was transferred to the Sport Tribunal which deals with football disputes. On 17 September 2015, the Tribunal ruled that the decision made by the members of the Guria Regional Football Federation’s Executive Council violated the Guria Regional Football Federation’s statute and, therefore, was illegal. The Sport Tribunal declared that according to the aforementioned statute, the decision of the Executive Council members is legal only in the case of two-thirds of its members, together with the president of the Guria Regional Football Federation and or his deputy, being present at the session. In this case, neither the president of the Guria Regional Football Federation (Kakha Ebralidze) nor his deputy (this position is still vacant) attended the session of the Guria Regional Football Federation’s Executive Council.

The Sport Tribunal also considered the second case and decided to cancel the 7 September 2015 decision of the Georgian Football Federation’s Executive Council which confirmed Gocha Tkebuchava, a candidate nominated by the president of the Guria Regional Football Federation, as a voting candidate. The rationale behind this decision was the absence of the respective minutes of the session. The Sport Tribunal also decided to give the Guria Regional Football Federation’s Executive Council until 23 September 2015 to observe the norms of the statute and elect its delegate without violating the law. On 20 September 2015, the Guria Regional Football Federation’s Executive Council conducted a new session but retained Yuri Chkheidze as a delegate. The session was conducted without the presence of Kakha Ebralidze. The final decision was made by the Georgian Football Federation’s Executive Committee:  Gocha Tkebuchava was restored as a delegate and the decision made by the Guria Regional Football Federation’s Executive Council was ruled to be illegal. Additionally, the Chairman of the Sport Tribunal, Zurab Bitsadze, was relieved from his duties on the grounds of not being impartial.

The Guria Regional Football Federation’s statute is very vague and does not enable us to make accurate conclusions about the issue. The document does not include precise procedures on how a delegate is elected. Further, there is no clause/article which separates the authority of the president from that of the executive councils. There is a general clause in the statute which says that: "The Federation’s Executive Council is a governing and representative organ which, according to Article 5.15 of the statute, makes decisions on those topics which do not belong to the competence of the highest organ of the Federation – the General Council" and the President "executes the decisions made by the Executive Council and the General Council." However, at the same time there is Article 5.8 of the statute which says that: "The President, together with the Executive Council, also exerts the right of governance and representation."

According to the existing practices, the delegates for the presidential elections of the Georgian Football Federation are authorised by the respective executive councils of the regional football federations through voting. That was the method which was used to select delegates from Ajara and Racha-Lechkhumi. Of note is Article 21 of the Georgian Football Federation’s statute which says that the delegate “should be nominated or elected by the respective organ.” Therefore, this norm is also too vague in order to precisely define that organ which is responsible for electing a candidate.

Of interest, too, is the fact that both the Georgian Football Federation’s Executive Committee and the Sport Tribunal decided to annul the decision of the Guria Regional Football Federation’s Executive Council, not because of being unauthorised but because of procedural violations. According to the Guria Regional Football Federation’s statute, the Executive Council is allowed to elect a delegate. The reason for annulling the decision of the session of the Guria Regional Football Federation’s Executive Council was the absence of the Federation’s president. The members of the Executive Council insist that President Kakha Ebralidze was notified two days before as prescribed by the statute. However, he still did not attend the session and this, according to the members of the Executive Council, is forbidden by the statute. The president himself denies the allegations and claims that he missed the session only because he was not informed beforehand. Of interest is the Sport Tribunal’s decision which ruled that the Guria Regional Football Federation’s Executive Council should be convened before 23 September 2015 in order to elect a delegate. According to Article 59 of the Georgian Football Federation’s statute, the Sport Tribunal is allowed to review and change the decision of the Georgian Football Federation’s Executive Committee. The Sport Tribunal’s ruling required that the delegate from the Guria Regional Football Federation should be elected at the session of the Guria Regional Football Federation’s Executive Council.

There were numerous procedural violations when Gocha Tkebuchava was confirmed as a delegate for the second time; however, none of them are criminal. There are several circumstances to be considered when it comes to the election of a delegate. The dispute arose due to the ambiguity of the statutes of the Georgian Football Federation and the Guria Regional Football Federation which do not determine the bodies responsible for electing delegates. However, there is a general practice and there is the 17 September 2015 ruling of the Sport Tribunal which requested the election of the delegate at a session of the Executive Council.