Traveling throughout the country YB opponents Shakhtar Donetsk have been playing in exile for ten years

Alongside Dynamo Kiev, Shakhtar Donetsk is the best-known club from Ukraine. However, the club from the east of the country has been without a home for ten years. A return to the Donbass is not in sight.

Alex Teixeira, Douglas Costa, Fernandinho, Fred, Luiz Adriano, Willian: the list of Brazilian players who have gained a foothold in European football at Shakhtar Donetsk is long. They all moved on to the big footballing world, to Manchester, Munich, Milan, to top clubs in the major western leagues. The club has made a lot of money with the transfer of players from the Sugar Loaf. Fred and Alex Teixeira alone brought in over 100 million euros.

After the outbreak of war, this kind of income collapsed. FIFA allowed foreign players to suspend their contracts in the wake of the Russian war of aggression. In effect, they were able to leave the club free of charge. This has led to a loss in the high double-digit millions for Shakhtar so far. It was another blow that the war-torn club had to take.

Wandering around the country

Shakhtar has now been without a home for ten years. Founded in 1936 by miners in the Donbass, the proud club, which won the UEFA Cup in 2009, was forced to leave its homeland at the start of the 2014/15 season following the annexation of Crimea by Russian ruler Vladimir Putin and in light of the simmering conflict in eastern Ukraine.

The club first moved into exile in Lviv near the Polish border. Due to the lack of support at the other end of the country and, of course, the spectators, the club moved a little closer to home to Kharkiv, with Shakhtar finally playing its home games in the capital Kiev. With the invasion of Russian troops in February 2022, the club moved back to Lviv.

Shakhtar played its last home match worthy of the name in spring 2014. Since then, the Donbass Arena, which opened in 2009, hosted five matches at the 2012 European Championship and was the pride of the region with a capacity of just under 52,000, has been derelict. What's more, the stadium, which was awarded five stars by UEFA, the highest category, was severely damaged in August 2014 during fighting between Ukrainian units and Russian separatists. In the meantime, there were plans to return home. However, these were abandoned.

The third European Cup season away from home

Despite the war, Shakhtar played its home games in the league in Lviv. For the European Cup, however, the club had to move further west. In the first year of the war, Warsaw was the venue for the home games in the Champions League, while a year ago the Ukrainians played in Hamburg. This season, Shakhtar are playing their home games in Gelsenkirchen, in the stadium of FC Schalke, who are now fighting to stay in the 2nd Bundesliga.

They would be delighted to be able to play their games in "one of the best stadiums in Germany", said Sergei Palkin, the club boss of Shakhtar. Last season's positive experiences had shown that his club had strong support from the fans in this country, both from the locals and the Ukrainian refugees.

The first home game was attended by 21,636 spectators, which meant that the arena was less than half full. Shakhtar, who finished third in their domestic league, had no chance in the 3-0 defeat to Europa League winners Atalanta Bergamo. After three matchdays in the top flight, the Ukrainian champions have one point to their name - one more than Young Boys, who visit Gelsenkirchen on Wednesday. Match number 4 is therefore important for the rest of the campaign.

There are still many Brazilians in the Ukraine squad. They are no longer called Fernandinho, Douglas Costa or Willian, but Kevin, Marlon Gomes and Pedrinho. None of them have scored in the Champions League yet.

SDA