Georgia failed to qualify for 1998 FIFA World Cup in France, obtaining 10 points and finishing in fourth place, level on points with Poland. At this time Georgia reached forty-second place in the FIFA World Ranking.

During UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying the Georgia national team won one match, drew two and finished at the bottom of the group with five points. This marked the beginning of a period of decline for Georgian football.
The team finished fifth (and last) with seven points in their qualifying group for Euro 2004, although they defeated Russia with a goal scored by Malkhaz Asatiani.
In the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifiers Georgia beat Albania 2–0 at home and Kazakhstan away 2–1. They finished sixth (second bottom) with ten points in Group 2.
Georgia were sixth out of seven teams in the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying group with ten points. They defeated Scotland 2–0 at home and the Faroe Islands 6–0 away and 3–1 at home.

Héctor Cúper became the manager of Georgia in August 2008. During the qualification round for the 2010 FIFA World Cup Georgia failed to win any matches and finished sixth (and last) with three points. Cuper didn't extend his contract, and on 6 November 2009, Temur Ketsbaia was appointed as the new manager of the Georgian national football team. Ketsbaia resigned as manager after a 4–0 defeat at home to Poland in the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifiers on 14 November 2014, having previously stated he would do so before the match regardless of the result.

In June 2016, Georgia beat the two-time reigning European champions Spain 1–0 in their final pre-Euro 2016 friendly.
In 2018, they were the first team to earn promotion in the new UEFA Nations League. They scored the event's first goal in a UEFA Nations League D game in Kazakhstan before beating Latvia twice and Andorra, with 2 games still to spare and earned their first-ever playoff berth. In the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying, Georgia had a disappointing run, with their only two wins coming over Gibraltar. In the Path D playoff semi-final, Georgia managed to beat Belarus 1–0 and thus the hope to qualify for UEFA Euro 2020 increased, but it went in vain after the Georgians suffered a heartbreaking home defeat to North Macedonia in the decisive match and thus missed the opportunity to make a historic debut in a major competition.

Georgia showed improvements with a strong 2–0 win over Sweden at the 2022 World Cup qualification on 11 November 2021. They continued their improvement by winning the 2022–23 UEFA Nations League C Group 4, getting promoted to 2022–23 UEFA Nations League B, and qualifying for their second-ever play-off berth. Georgia won 2–0 against Luxembourg, earning them a spot in the final of the UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying play-offs. They defeated Greece 4–2 on penalties after a 0–0 draw in the playoff final, which guaranteed Georgia's qualification for Euro 2024 and their first-ever international tournament.