IASHVILI’S A BLAST FROM THE BACKPASS BY PHILIP QUINN

YESTERDAY I met the man who, some might say, effectively ended Packie Bonner’s career. Not Wim Jonk, lest anyone ask, but Sulkhon Iashvili, a white-haired Georgian of many chilly Tbilisi winters. Slight of build, a little stooped, but still brighteyed, the veteran journalist was responsible for changing the face of world football more than 25 years ago when he came up with the idea to ban the backpass rule which allowed goalkeepers to gather the ball in their hands. In the old Dinamo Tbilisi Stadium yesterday, Iashvili proudly showed me a letter from FIFA, written to him in September 1994, acknowledging the world governing body’s gratitude for his recommendation of the rule change. It was used for the first time in a World Cup tournament earlier that summer in the USA. Not all goalkeepers thrived when asked to evolve into sweepers and big Packie wasn’t alone in struggling with the ball at his feet. But, on balance, it’s been a progressive rule for football as it prevented teams from time-wasting. What next for the intriguing Iashvili, I wondered? He told me in broken English he wanted the offside rule changed and had an idea he thought might work. I was a little lost, yet also intrigued, that here in the cradle of the Caucasus, were held such deep thoughts about football. But that was to underestimate Tbilisi’s throbbing passion for the game. On the entrance to the Dinamo Stadium there is a legend bearing the names, in Georgian and English, of the great Dinamo Tbilisi team which won the 1981 Cup Winners’ Cup, thrashing Feyenoord 3-0. Two years earlier, they knocked Liverpool out of the European Cup, winning 3-0 on their own turf after a 2-1 loss at Anfield. These boys could play. Names like Kipiani, Chivadze, Daraselia, Sulakvelidze, Gutsaev may be familiar to those of a certain vintage, as they also backboned the old USSR side of that time. Black and white photos of them line the corridors of the stadium and their feats are further preserved by gigantic murals which dot the city. Football, along with basketball and chess, is a big deal in these parts. Stuck in a sardine-factorten traffic jam on the way from the airport on Thursday night, our driver spoke little English but he knew of two Irish footballers, George Best and Roy Keane. He also name-checked Larry Byrd. This is our third stop off in Tbilisi since 2014, and the fourth since 2003 when Gary Doherty, ‘The Ginger Pele’, headed the winner. Tbilisi is as it always has been, sticky, clogged with traffic and great value for your Lari, the local currency. Local beer Argo has been my tipple of choice at €2 a pint. Yet, the advances of Georgia’s American friends are evident through Wendy’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, Subway and our old friend, McDonald’s, who have an outlet across the road from our hotel. It’s a curious place as the seating area closes before the drive-thru, as an Irish visitor found out the other night. Undeterred, he took his place in a queue of cars, as happy as Lari.