[2] At that time, major football clubs in the Soviet Union were professional in practice, but were officially regarded as amateur.
Winning the Second Division meant a playoff for promotion to the Umaglesi Liga, the highest level of Georgian football.
In 1995 former Mretebi player Kinkladze joined Manchester City of the English Premier League from Dinamo Tbilisi for £2 million.
A lengthy dispute in which the matter was referred to the Georgian Football Federation and FIFA followed, with Mretebi claiming $875,000 in unpaid fees.
[9] Dinamo paid this sum in 2001, but the cost of the case and that of subsequent claims and appeals meant that Mretebi, by now playing in the lower echelons of the Georgian football system, suffered financial collapse and withdrew from the league in 2002.