From POLITICO · · 2m
Ukraine's football club fights on at Stamford Bridge
Shakhtar Donetsk plays Champions League matches in London this season, using football to rally support for Ukraine's war effort.
In brief
Shakhtar Donetsk plays Champions League matches in London this season, using football to rally support for Ukraine's war effort. Shakhtar Donetsk, Ukraine's top football club, is based at Stamford Bridge for Champions League matches this season, positioning itself as a symbol of Ukrainian endurance and a platform to…
Shakhtar moves to London for Champions League
Ukraine's top football club Shakhtar Donetsk will play home matches at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea FC's stadium, for the 2024-25 Champions League season.
A decade of displacement
Shakhtar Donetsk was driven from its home in Donetsk in 2014 by Russian-backed forces and has spent more than a decade moving between temporary host cities.
Playing for Ukraine, not just Shakhtar
Chief Executive Sergei Palkin said the club represents the whole country. The team will play four matches in London this fall and winter against AEK Athens, Sporting CP, Fenerbahçe and Real Madrid.
“At this point we are not representing just Shakhtar Donetsk. We are representing the whole country.”
Stress at home, football abroad
Sporting Director Darijo Srna, a former star defender for Shakhtar and Croatia, said the team wants to play football and support Ukrainian fans who have left their homes.
“We are 24/7 under stress in Ukraine. And we want to just go out and play for our fans, for Ukraine.”
Investment pitch on the pitch
Shakhtar's jersey carries the name of SCM, Ukraine's biggest private financial and industrial investment company, owned by club owner Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine's richest man.
Ukraine as Europe's first line of defence
SCM officials argue that investing in Ukraine now is strategic for Europe's security, energy and food security. Natalya Yemchenko, SCM's chief corporate affairs officer, said it is a good time to invest.
“It's a good time to invest in Ukraine, not from the point of view of big and easy money.”
Russia targets civilian infrastructure
Yemchenko said Russia's recent attacks on shopping malls and logistics centres are meant to demotivate Ukrainian business and make life impossible, following the pattern seen in Mariupol.
“They would like to demotivate Ukrainian business. Shopping malls, logistics centers: They are the main target for the last two months.”
A European war, not just Ukrainian
Yemchenko said Ukraine cannot keep defending Europe if its economy fails. She described the conflict as a Ukrainian war but also a European war, making reconstruction investment a shared responsibility.
“This war is a Ukrainian war, but to a big extent, it's a European war, unfortunately.”
What to remember
Shakhtar Donetsk, Ukraine's top football club, is based at Stamford Bridge for Champions League matches this season, positioning itself as a symbol of Ukrainian endurance and a platform to attract Western investment in the country's reconstruction.
