(Tbilisi) Oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, seen as the shadow leader of Georgia, will give more than 10 million US dollars to the national team, which surprisingly qualified for the round of 16 of Euro 2024 , announced his political party on Thursday.
The players of this small country in the Caucasus beat Portugal 2-0 on Wednesday, a historic victory in their first international competition.
The team, coached by French coach Willy Sagnol, will face one of the tournament favourites on Sunday, Spain, the three-time European champion.
Regardless of the outcome of the match, the ruling Georgian Dream Party has already announced that its honorary president, Bidzina Ivanishvili, will award the team a reward of around $10.7 million.
If the footballers win against Spain, this sum will be doubled, the party added in a press release.
Bidzina Ivanishvili, the richest man in this 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, almost 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.