"Maybe the switch will do us good? "

In 2017 Georgia's top division, the Umaglesi Liga, will become the twelfth spring-to-autumn league in Europe. The decision taken earlier this year means that there will be a transitional season for the rest of this calendar year to decide who represents the country in next season's European competitions. The transitional campaign isn't a normal league campaign and does require a bit of a breakdown.

Transitional Format
The league has fourteen clubs which for this short season are divided into two groups of seven. Each side plays each other home and away against the sides in their own group. The two group winners will then play each other at the end in a championship play-off to decide who gets the champions league place. 2nd and 3rd place finishers in both groups enter play-offs against each other to decide who gets the Europa League berth. The winners of the Georgian cup will take a Europa League berth as usual.
The teams finishing bottom of both groups are relegated to the second tier Pirveli Liga with 5th and 6th place finishers in both groups entering play-offs to keep their top flight status, the two losers here are relegated.

The change:
The league originally started out as a spring-to-autumn season after independence. The Georgian Football Federation (GFF) then decided to go with the autumn-to-spring season from the 1991-92 season up until last season. In that time the league has switched around league formats with a sixteen team home and away format, a championship and relegation pool system after a general season and a ten team home and away format with a twenty team format and oddly a seventeen team format also used.
The reason for this switch in calendar can probably be put down to European performance. Georgian clubs enter European competition in early July which is a good month and a half before domestic football resumes. The hope is that by switching the calendar the clubs will be match fit and sharp heading into these games giving them a slight edge of potentially out of season opponents, thus improving European results.

Dinamo Tbilisi were outclassed by PAOK
source: enallaxnews.gr

This season only Dinamo Tbilisi made any sort of run in Europe. They beat Alashkert from Armenia in the champions league before defeat by Dinamo Zagreb sent them into the Europa League play-off round which ultimately ended in a 5-0 aggregate defeat to PAOK. For the past two seasons all other Georgian clubs haven fallen at the first hurdle.

There have been notable runs such as Chikura Sachkhere in 2014 when they reached the third qualifying round in the Europa League after beating Bursaspor from Turkey and of course Dila Gori's runs to the play-off round in successive seasons, beating sides such as AaB Aallborg, Hajduk Split and Anorthosis. Zestafoni have also reached the play-off round in recent years. However those runs remain exceptions as opposed to rule and as of yet Dinamo Tbilisi remain the only Georgian club to have qualified for a group stage of European competition (2004-05 UEFA Cup).

By getting Georgian teams match fit and in season when these qualifying games come around the GFF hope to replicate the success neighboring Azerbaijan is currently having. For the second season is succession, Azerbaijan have two sides competing in the Europa League group stage.
The case point for a change in calendar having better results is Ireland. In 2002 the league of Ireland made the decision to press ahead with a switch in calendar to play through the summer with the aim of improving European results. That switch was made it 2003 and only a year later Shelbourne made serious inroads of getting into the champions league group stage. Results in Europe did improve but only for a few years until the lack of money impacted on the standard of Irish sides. Results are only now starting to pick up after that lull with Shamrock Rovers in 2011 and Dundalk this season making the group stage of the Europa League.

The season so far:
So far this season it's a free for all. The biggest and most successful club, Dinamo Tbilisi are off the pace. The defending champions are six points off top spot in Group 2. The country's second most successful side, Torpedo Kutaisi are bottom of the same group.

The struggles of the bigger sides have opened a window of opportunity. Leading both groups are sides that have never won the league title before. Samtredia lead Group 1 by two points ahead Dinamo Batumi, who themselves haven't won the title before. Chikhura Sachkhere lead Group 2 by five points from Locomotivi Tbilisi.

The group games will be concluded on November 25th by which time the play-offs for the European places will take center stage so still a bit of time for the bigger sides to sort themselves out.