Due to the election of the President of the GRU, which has been postponed several times, due to significant deficiencies in management and uncertainty, the funding of Georgian Rugby has been suspended since November 2020. Recently, there has been active business communication between the parties. The above mentioned meeting was the culmination, after which the funding was restored.
Bacho Khurtsidze (Vice-President of the Rugby Union): World Rugby funded the Georgian Rugby Union with a substantial amount of money within the framework of the High Achievement and Development Grant, due to the uncertainty and shortcomings in management was suspended. Now funding has been restored. This involvement was unprecedentedly representative, involving almost every top rugby player in the world, including CEO Alan Gilpin, manager Peter Horn and others. We introduced our plans to them, made a multi-page presentation, submitted financial documents. World Rugby was pleased with our plans and the suspended funding resumed.
President Ioseb Tkemaladze, Vice-Presidents Lasha Khurtsidze, Nika Alavidze and Tornike Gogebashvili, as well as Giorgi Nizharadze, the representative of Georgia in the World Rugby Council were involved in the online meeting on behalf of the Rugby Union.
