Newborn Olimpi on top in Georgia.

The winter break has begun in Georgia with FC Olimpi Rustavi - a side founded on the eve of the season - leading the title race.
Winter champions
A 1-0 win against FC Kutaisi Torpedo in their final game of the autumn, on 26 November, ensured Olimpi would spend the winter two points clear of FC WIT Georgia, FC Ameri Tbilisi and FC Zestaponi with 12-time champions FC Dinamo Tbilisi a further three adrift in fifth place.
Club merger
With the exclusion of FC Kolkheti-1913 Poti and FC Tskhinvali for financial reasons, the starting lineup in the Umaglesi Liga dropped from 16 teams to 14 with the merger of FC Tbilisi and FC Rustavi, which formed Olimpi. Yet despite being appointed two days before the campaign began, 31-year-old coach Georgi Kiknadze has worked wonders, never looking back after his side won their curtain-raiser 7-0 against FC Kakheti Telavi. Indeed, goalkeeper Mikhail Alavidze did not concede in the first nine games.
Important result
Last season's Georgian Cup winners Ameri made a similarly bright start, claiming six straight victories and staying unbeaten until the last round of the autumn, when they lost 4-3 at WIT - a result that put Olimpi top and took WIT into second spot. The fact Olimpi and Ameri - who, between them, boast just one full term among the élite - are flying high, reflects poorly on the traditional giants of Georgian football like Dinamo, Zestaponi, WIT and title-holders FC Sioni Bolnisi, who languish in seventh position.
Coaching changes
A coaching change lifted Dinamo towards the end of the autumn with Czech Dušan Uhrin - the father of the FK Mladá Boleslav coach of the same name - guiding them to a 1-0 win against Olimpi and back into title contention, while Temur Makharadze's arrival has raised pulses at Zestaponi. Elsewhere, eight league goals have left Nika Gelashvili top of the scoring charts, and kept WIT in the running, while Sioni remain in a parlous state after coach Kakhaber Tskhadadze was banned from the touchline until May 2007 after insulting a referee. His assistant, Georgi Kipshidze, has made improvements, thanks partly to Cameroonian striker Erik Romeo Chassem, but they have much to do to match the achievements of the surprise league leaders come the spring.