FC Betlemi Keda

Formed in 1950, Betlemi competed in regional competitions of the Georgian Soviet league. The club showed their best result in the Cup during the first season in 1990 when they reached the 5th round. In the mid-1990s the team was dissolved for more than a decade.[1]

In the 2011/12 season, Betlemi under manager Edisher Kakabadze gained promotion to Pirveli Liga for the first time, where they spent four successive seasons. In April 2015, the whole Georgian football world was shocked to hear about sudden death of team's captain Archil Partenadze during the training session.[2]

The next season turned out crucial. Despite an encouraging start and reaching the promotion area at the winter break, a wretched run of form later led to the manager's exit.[3] The team was soon embroiled in a match-fixing scandal and subjected to severe punishment. While a life-long ban on football activity was meted out to five individuals, including four players, Betlemi were expelled from the league.[4] Following this decision and a major purge, the management as well as eighteen players were replaced.[5]

Betlemi managed to successfully recover from the crisis and complete the 2016 season on top of the table, but as none of the league winners were promoted this year, the club remained in the third division. In 2019, five bottom teams were involved in a fierce relegation battle up until the last round. Eventually, after one victory in last eight games, Betlemi hit rock bottom.[6]

The team was among the top five in the initial three seasons in Liga 4. In 2021 and 2022, Betlemi participated in the promotion battle, although in both cases they finished just one place below the qualifying slot.

By the summer of 2023, the team had produced a 24-game unbeaten streak in both competitions stretching from the previous September. In a record-breaking achievement for all four national division clubs this season, Amiran Mujiri's men secured fourteen wins in as many matches, including twelve of them with a large margin, and reached an astonishing 60:2 goal difference. In late September, with eighteen wins in 19 games now, Betlemi notched up an unprecedented success for Georgian football history. Along with fellow Adjarian club Gonio, they sealed promotion two months before the end of the season with seven games still in hand.[7]

In early June 2023, striker Amiran "Tato" Abuselidze became the first player who netted his 100th goal for Betlemi. Eventually, with 28 goals he became the top goalscorer of this season.

As of 12 March 2024

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

• Meore Liga

Winner (1): 2016 (West B)

Betlemi's home ground is a 1,000-seat stadium in Keda, named after Archil Partenadze. Some reconstruction works were launched there in August 2020.[8]

Betlemi is a Georgian word for biblical Bethlehem.

• Profile on Soccerway
• Facebook page
• FC Betlemi Keda Results