The Georgian national football team has become a unifying force for the country, carrying a significant emotional resonance for Georgian society following its successful performances in EURO 2024 and victories in September during the Nations League. However, the Nations League match between Ukraine and Georgia on 11 October 2024 was exploited to spread disinformation and undermine opponents, manipulating the sentiments and emotions of the whole population.
Groups that openly support Ukraine’s fight against the Russian aggression became targets of the aforementioned disinformation and discrediting campaigns. A few days prior to the match, Ad hoc, a Facebook page associated with the pro-government media outlet POSTV, published a video titled “Georgian liberal cheering for the national team,” featuring Levan Gogoreliani, also known as Pako, who is connected to Bidzina Ivanishvili’s son, Bera Ivanishvili. This video is aligned with the narrative spread by the government and pro-Russian groups, suggesting that “Georgian liberals,” those who openly support Ukraine against Russian aggression, love Ukraine more than their own homeland, as they are “homeland-less” and “members of an agent network” (the term “agent network” has been used to discredit independent non-governmental organisations in Georgia since the initiation of the so-called foreign agents law in Parliament in 2023).
Additionally, anti-opposition anonymous Facebook pages and TikTok accounts, such as Politics (Politika), Enemies of the Country (Kveknis Mtrebi), and Avoe.ge, simultaneously published a post containing fake news in a coordinated manner a few hours before the match. Dozens of pro-Russian and pro-government pages shared the post soon after. The post reads: “Let us kneel for Ukrainians before the Ukraine-Georgia match begins! Please join us at Freedom Square to kneel in support of Ukrainians and show solidarity for the Ukrainian people in their fight against Russia. They are fighting in our place! Our organisation believes that kneeling before them will strengthen our friendship and clearly demonstrate our support!” These posts were accompanied by captions, such as “The UNM-people have gone fully crazy,” “what Georgian Slava Ukrainas demand,” “Georgians will only kneel before God and their mothers!!!,” etc. The aim of this disinformation was to undermine groups that support Ukraine (primarily opponents of the ruling party), portraying them as though the post originated from them.
After assessing all types of search systems, trusted media sources, social media pages of political parties and organisations and other public statements, it became evident that no such call was ever made. The post originated solely from the aforementioned anonymous pages. Furthermore, the disinformation references an unnamed organisation claiming that kneeling before Ukrainians would strengthen the friendship between the two countries, without citing any specific groups.
Moreover, these anonymous pages posted the disinformation simultaneously and Facebook pages Politics (Politika) and Enemies of the Country (Mtrebi) used identical captions, suggesting a coordinated campaign across multiple platforms. Anonymous pages that work together often spread disinformation.
The anonymous page Enemies of the Country (Mtrebi) published a fake quote attributed to Giorgi Gakharia, leader of the For Georgia political party, as though, after the defeat against Ukraine and Albania, he called for the withdrawal of Order of Honour given to the members of the Georgian national team. Moreover, the page used Mtavari Arkhi’s social media card design to make the post seem more credible. Notably, this disinformation tactic is similar to the so-called doppelganger technique used by Russian propaganda, cloning credible media outlets to convince users that fake posts are authentic.
The post is fake. There is no official or credible source confirming that Giorgi Gakharia made the aforementioned statement. This quote cannot be found either on Giorgi Gakharia’s official Facebook page Gakharia, or the Facebook and Instagram pages of Mtavari Arkhi.
Thus, malign actors exploited the Georgian national football team – a unifying force for the country – to manipulate the Georgian people and spread disinformation.
