ABSTRACT
Georgia is a sovereign state located in the Caucuses region of Eurasia at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe. Having gained its independence from USSR in 1991, the country shares a border with four nation states, including the Russian Federation. Georgia also has three breakaway regions, South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Adjara, with the Russo-Georgian War of 2008 involving Abkhazia and particularly South Ossetia one of the most recent conflicts fought in geographical Europe. Sport in Georgia and its breakaway regions often reflects and reinforces such divisions. This chapter analyses the history and development of domestic and international sport in Georgia, notably its two most popular sports of rugby union and football. The chapter then examines a case study on the 2016 CONIFA Football World Cup, organised for unrecognised nations and non-FIFA members and hosted by Abkhazia. Through an examination of qualitative data collected in Georgia and Abkhazia, this case study is set in the context of international relations within a wider regional framework, and investigates the role of sport both in shaping Georgian nationalism and national identity, and in promoting separatism and legitimising statehood in its breakaway regions.
