Sport
2024_2
On March 26, 2024, the dream of many generations united by the love of football for decades became reality. The national team of Georgia defeated the national team of Greece at The "Boris Paitchadze Dinamo Arena" in Tbilisi in front of 60,000 fans and millions of TV viewers, and for the first time in the history of Georgian football, won a ticket to the final stage of the European Championship...
The football fever in our country started from the coastal cities of Georgia, it spread all over the country and finally reached Tbilisi. A lot of professional teams have been formed; football has entered cinematography as well and created such memorable characters as Feola, Kuchkuch, Jason and others and others...
Ippolite Khvichia, at first sight extremely cheerful person, remained a quiet, thoughtful one in the circle of friends. Cheerfulness followed him from his youth, but at the same time he was tender-hearted, tears came to his eyes at the mention of his mother... While traveling with his theatrical troupe, he sat on the front seat of the bus and slept peacefully. He took each role seriously and achieved the best results. Grandson of Ipolite Khvichia told us – “There are many legends about my grandfather, people wrote and created these stories themselves’’. Indeed, Ipolite’s acquaintances describe him as a different kind of person; He used to “kill” people with laughter with his funny anecdotes – a myth! They were dying from laughter at the sight of him in the street – it’s a myth! Funerals ended early, because people could not stop laughing – is a myth! It’s all made up! Erosi Manjgaladze was jealous of Iipolite – this is also a myth. Today, Ipolite is a cheerful, humorous man for the people, he is “Feola” a mythical hero; For close friends, he remained as Ippolite Kvinchia (his real surname), a boy from Khoni. After the Georgian national team qualified for the European Championship, sports fans once again looked back at “Feola”, the best Georgian football coach of all time – in the history of Georgian cinema! Let’s recall a different Ipolite, Ipolite as an athlete, with small unwritten stories, from memories preserved from his acquaintances.
In the 1960s, there was a tradition, the troupe of the Kutaisi Drama Theater played football with the troupe of the Rustaveli Theater. The goal of this game was to see the actor-footballers in a new role. A big confrontation, a friendly rivalry..! In Kutaisi and Tbilisi, players were gathered, teams were formed, and the day of the match was set. In addition to the actors, young employees of the theater (illuminators, technicians, drivers) were invited to the competition and they were signed as athletes, along with the actors. Preparations began at the old stadium of Dinamo. Famous actors had to participate in these meetings so that people would attend the games, tickets would be sold and the stadium would be filled. Among the “football players” were: Ipolite Khvichia, Erosi Manjgaladze, Soso Lagidze, Karlo Zghenti, and others. Their appearance on the pitch caused excitement in the fans, because, the familiar and native environment of black-and-white screens and the theater stage was transferred to the green field, where joy and fun reigned. Dinamo Tbilisi had already won the union championship, with a brilliant team, Tbilisi and Kutaisi, still with their car-free streets were obsessed with football.
The matches were unpredictable, tense, no less than Shakespeare’s tragedies, and often veered cheerfully into comedy. It was not about the victor; it was important which one of the players would be most memorable! Who would dive as if the sky had fallen, who would break the rules in the way that an outstanding director would confuse the audience with the techniques of dramaturgy. Acting talent had to come before athletic skills. However, both teams were preparing secretly in advance with professional specialists from “Dinamo”. The coaches were called upon to teach the secret moves, to write victory on the paper, and the script as the match progressed. Once, the teams moved towards the center, the defender sent the ball towards the penalty area, a lightning attack, and a whirlwind-like break followed, the home team won a penalty! Erosi Manjgaladze tried to execute the spot kick, the stadium was completely silent; The great actor moved from the center, and ran so much that when his foot finally touched the ball, it missed everyone, and everything and launched into the sky. Erosi missed the penalty! As Feola’s colleague-competitor would say – "Undertaker, today you buried football!" – However, seeing him miss a penalty was the same as seeing a goal being scored. The team of Kutaisi was defeated: "What should we do, Feola, can you see we are losing?" Feola: "I don’t know what to do. Keep playing guys, I’m very pleased with you!" – Indeed, the national team of Georgia continued to move towards Europe! As for Feola, the team of Tbilisi visited him in Kutaisi, for the second match, the first success gave wings to the players from the capital city.
The phrase that belongs to Georgian football fans, was useful for the coach of the national team, Willy Sagnol, in the final against the Greeks – "Khvedelidze! Take care of the defense! Defend!" In the rematch, Ipolite was traditionally in the starting lineup. This is how people recall; “He would run back and forth, fall, stand up, people liked to watch him. If you put the football kit on a sweaty Ipolite, he would look so funny, that you would definitely laugh. The team of Kutaisi had the ambition to win with a big score. The audience chanted! – Ipo!, Ipo! Come on Ipo! Come on Ipo! Go on score! The whole stadium was chanting, and the rest of the players were moving away – “Your trickery is over, Khvedelidze, your indecency, Fridon Dolaberidze!’’ – Ipo would sluggishly jog, swing his leg and send the ball into the back of the net, while the whole stadium was celebrating with joy and a smile. A grand feast was held after every match. The third half. Perhaps Feola also ordered evasively: "We won! 12 ice creams on the table! 11 for the players, twelfth for the spectator!"
Director Zurab Kandelaki recalls a 20-day tour in Western Georgia with Ipolite in the 70s: “We had a production of “Hello, our fathers” . This television play was successfully broadcasted on the screen, with the leading actors from Marjanishvili and Rustaveli theaters. It was decided to tour with this play in the form of a “Brigade’’.“Brigade” meant going on a trip to different parts of Georgia with a prepared troupe. Erosi could not stand traveling and was replaced by Ipolite. The group was led by Malkhaz Beburishvili.
The troupe arrived in West Georgia. The following was written on the poster – Starring Ipollite Kvichia! In the regions, they were used to the fact that the pre-announced actor wasn’t actually traveling with the troupe, and this “lie” was a part of advertising, so that people would buy tickets. Therefore, Ipolite was instructed to walk the streets of various small towns to be noticed by passers-by. The hall was full at his performances. 1000 people attended the first performance in Tskaltubo. The next performance was to be played in Samtredia. Ipolite said – let’s schedule a performance in Kulash, it was a 20-minute bus ride from there. He started in Samtredia at eight o’clock, he was scheduled to go to Kulash at nine o’clock, they asked him: how will we manage to arrive in time? The play is 90 minutes long. Ipolite answered: They will come, they will wait, they will see! We performed for 90 minutes in Samtredia and ran off to Kulash; The performance was held in the cinema building, it was hot, the ventilator was not working, and there was steam in the building. At the sight of Ipolite, the audience started applauding and shouting. According to the script, Ipolite is severely criticized by other characters. For the audience, this was so unexpected and unacceptable that a half naked man jumped up from the end of the hall and shouted: “Oh! Don’t hurt Ipolites feelings! Or I will make you regret being born! The people also followed – let Ipolite be! Ipolite jumped up, there was no backstage in Kulash’s “theater”, so he ran into the middle of the hall, the audience got up and followed him.
Today, the players of the national team are being chased by children for photos, videos, and memories! After all, football always has winners and losers, Feola would say it like this: Don’t you feel sorry for anyone? You are inhumane, you are beasts, look at those poor children the way they are crying, look! After the final, the Greeks left Tbilisi in a sad mood, but what can we do, you either win or lose in sports. There are many legends about Ipolite Khvicia, good legends are probably created by people who can love, they create in order to revive a precious memory, I am sure and I may even have seen, at the football match between Georgia and Greece, in the League of Nations final, an elderly kind man, how The steward asked for a ticket, and the confused man, after searching here and there in his pocket, took out a cardboard paper and confidently asked: "Is this a ticket or not? In the meantime, Kvekveskiri also scored, and Ipolite added – Are we in Europe? Answer me! Is this Europe or not!
Author: Tsotne Jabadari