TBILISI, Georgia (AFP) — Georgia’s powerful oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili will award the country’s national football team US$10 million after they made it to the last 16 of Euro 2024, his ruling party said Thursday.

Georgia’s 2-0 win over Portugal on Wednesday was a historic triumph in the Black Sea nation’s first appearance at a major international tournament.

Coached by Frenchman Willy Sagnol, the team qualified from Group F as one of the four best third-placed finishers and face a daunting clash with Spain, who won all their group games.

The ruling Georgian Dream party’s “honorary Chairman Bidzina Ivanishvili will award Georgia’s football team 30 million lari (US$10.7 million) for qualifying for the last 16 of Euro 2024”, the party said in a statement.

“An additional 30 million lari will be awarded in case of a win over Spain,” it added.

Ivanishvili, the country’s richest man who made his fortune in Russia in the 1990s, is widely regarded as a puppet master pulling the strings of power from behind the scenes, despite not holding an official government position.

Last year he was named Georgian Dream’s honorary chairman, a new role that formalises his right to select the ruling party’s nominee for prime minister.

His return to front-line politics in 2023 raised fears he is steering Tbilisi away from the national dream of joining the EU.