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The oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, seen as the shadow leader of Georgia, will give more than 10 million dollars to the national football team, qualified to everyone’s surprise for the round of 16 of Euro-2024, his political party announced Thursday. Players from this small Caucasian country beat Portugal 2-0 on Wednesday, a historic victory for their first international competition.
Prime Minister from 2012 to 2013
The team, coached by French coach Willy Sagnol, will face tournament favourites Spain, the three-time European champions, on Sunday. Regardless of the outcome of the match, the ruling Georgian Dream party has already announced that its honorary chairman, Bidzina Ivanishvili, will award the team a prize of around $10.7 million. If the players beat Spain, the sum will be doubled, the party added in a statement.
Bidzina Ivanishvili, the richest man in the former Soviet republic, has been quietly presiding over Georgia’s destiny for a decade, even though he does not hold government office. His fortune is estimated at $4.9 billion, nearly a quarter of his country’s GDP.
This 68-year-old was Prime Minister from 2012 to 2013 after founding the Georgian Dream party, which has taken a conservative and anti-Western turn in recent years. His critics accuse him of wanting to divert Georgia, an EU candidate, from its European path to bring it closer to Russia.
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