A payment that is pleasant at the moment, but which raises more questions later. The oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, seen as the shadow leader of Georgia, will give more than 10 million dollars to the national football team, qualified to everyone’s surprise for the round of 16 of Euro-2024, his political party announced Thursday.
10 million now, double that on Sunday?
Players from this small Caucasian country beat Portugal 2-0 on Wednesday, a historic victory for their first international competition. Whatever the outcome of the round of 16 match against Spain on Sunday, the ruling Georgian Dream Party has already announced that its honorary president, Bidzina Ivanishvili, will award the team a reward of around 10.7 million of dollars.
If the footballers win against Spain, this sum will be doubled, the party added in a press release. Bidzina Ivanishvili, the richest man in this former Soviet republic, has discreetly presided over the destiny of Georgia for a decade, even if he does not hold government positions. His fortune is estimated at $4.9 billion, almost a quarter of his country’s GDP.
The 68-year-old was prime minister from 2012 to 2013 after founding the Georgian Dream party, which has operated in recent years a conservative and anti-Western turn. His critics accuse him of wanting to divert Georgia, an EU candidate, from its European path to bring it closer to Russia.
