Protesters in Georgia have mocked the appointment of former Manchester City footballer Mikheil Kavelashvili as the new president of Georgia by waving red cards and kicking footballs.
Kavelashvili, a hardline critic of the West has been set up to replace a pro-Western incumbent amid protests against the government over a halt to the country’s EU accession talks
The move came a month after elections in the country the Georgian Dream party nominated Kavelashvili as its candidate for the Presidency of Georgia.
The 300-member electoral college, rather than the public, “elected” Kavelashvili as a president.
Kavelashvili played for Manchester City under Alan Ball in the mid 1990’s and famously scored in the Manchester Derby at Maine Road
The 53 year old was first elected to parliament in 2016 and, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, set up a splinter group called People’s Power.
A decision that was met with a lot of criticism by the general public, calling him a “laughable” candidate.
