Iberia 1999 Tbilisi

FC Iberia 1999 is a Georgian football club from Tbilisi, founded on 20 August 1999 as FC Saburtalo, taking its name from the city district where it was formed. From its earliest years the club placed a strong emphasis on developing young players, building its identity around a youth academy that would later become its defining feature. In 2005, the club was acquired by the Iberia Business Group, owned by Tariel Khechikashvili, who later became Georgia's Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs.

Saburtalo reached the Georgian top flight in 2015 and, three years later in 2018, won its first national championship under coach Gia Chiabrishvili. The club went on to confirm its status among Georgia's leading sides by adding further league titles in 2024 and 2025 — since the Erovnuli Liga was established in 2017, no other Georgian club has won more championships.

On 27 February 2024, the club returned to its original name, Iberia 1999, reconnecting with the identity it held before becoming Saburtalo. Youth development remains one of its greatest strengths: Tbilisi has long been a key source of Georgian football talent, and Iberia has become one of the clubs most effective at cultivating it. Home matches are played at the Mikheil Meskhi Stadium.

Iberia 1999: A name change built for growth

Iberia 1999 is a club that underwent an important image change in 2024: the former Saburtalo Tbilisi adopted a new name to more strongly emphasize its nationwide and European ambitions. This was not merely a cosmetic tweak, but a marketing and strategic decision tied to brand development and a desire to move away from an exclusively local association with one district of Tbilisi.

The club was founded on August 20, 1999 as Saburtalo Tbilisi, with the name derived from the district it had been connected to from the very beginning. Over the years, however, club officials came to believe that this model of identification too strongly limited the club's potential, especially when thinking about building a recognizable brand beyond Georgia. That is why, on February 27, 2024, the name was changed to Iberia 1999, while retaining the founding year as an element of historical continuity.

The new name also carries a clear marketing dimension. As club president Tariel Khechikashvili explained, "Iberia" sounds better on the European market, and it also doesn't confine the club within the boundaries of a single city district. This matters, because in football a name change rarely works on its own unless it's backed by a coherent narrative, sporting success, and consistent identity-building — and in the case of Iberia 1999, these conditions have been met, as the club has in recent years ranked among the top teams in Georgian football and has won consecutive titles.