THE 'EXTRAORDINARY' TEAM PLAYING 1,000 MILES FROM HOME WITH A STERN MESSAGE FOR FIFA

When Shakhtar Donetsk take to the field against AZ Alkmaar in the UEFA Conference League quarter-finals, they will be in the middle of a round trip that takes more than a day. As far from it as it sounds, Arda Turan's side are not the visitors on Thursday evening but instead are the home side in Krakow, almost 1,000 miles away from Donetsk.

It has been 12 years since Shakhtar were able to play within their home city due to the war in Donbas. The club's offices and training facilities were relocated to Kyiv, 460 miles away, and home matches were played 800 miles away in Lviv.

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Shakhtar's wider home has been under threat, and cities across Ukraine have faced nightly drone strikes. Air travel is not possible for their squad, and this season's European matches have included travelling to Krakow and some arduous return journeys.

Any victory they achieve in the Conference League is not comparable to that of their rivals in the competition, according to CEO Sergei Palkin. He believes his team is full of extraordinary people in an extreme time.

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"On April 9, we are playing AZ Alkmaar in Krakow. On April 11, we are playing the Ukrainian Championship in Cherkasy. By bus it's up to 18 hours. Can you imagine?" Palkin told Mirror Football .

"When we arrive in Cherkasy, we need to go back to Alkmaar in Holland after the game because we need to play the second leg in the Conference League. It's 18 hours on a bus plus a two-hour flight. Can you imagine the mentality and the physical condition our players come to Alkmaar in to compete on a European level? Extraordinary people can survive this kind of extreme time."

"I would like European football to understand that when we arrive to play our opponent, we are already much, much less competitive," he said. "Our life and our logistic situations are not comparable. In our last game in Krakow, we played Lech Poznan. I asked their president, 'How long did you spend travelling here?' He said 45 minutes, and we spent 10 hours.

"We jump into the next level of the Conference League. This victory is not comparable with when you are living a normal life in Europe. I am proud of our players, of our coaching staff and our employees who are trying to provide the best in this time, to win, to grow and to build strategy."

Finding some success in Europe, alongside producing impressive talent, has become vital to the club's survival. Shakhtar were robbed of their foundation and can no longer utilise their home city, fans, stadium or training ground. The goal now is to 'grow in extreme conditions'.

But a team famed for combining Ukrainian and Brazilian talents, helping to launch the careers of the likes of Willian, Fernandinho and Douglas Costa, has fought to stick to those roots. Being in the midst of a devastating war and facing increased competition for South America's top talent has made things difficult, but Shakhtar have been able to sell an accelerated career trajectory and players with a commendable mentality.

"At this moment it's very difficult for us to compete and it's very difficult to sign new players because when we are signing new players, we are not selling them comfort," Palkin explained. "Because everybody understands that it's not possible to come to Ukraine at this moment and have comfort.

"We are selling them a career trajectory because they understand that our club is the fastest way to jump into the top level of European football. And even in this situation, we feel that it is not just a step, it's a statement from the player side of who they are.

"The talented young guys who are coming to Ukraine, first of all, need to be brave. Brave to play in this moment in Ukraine. If you are brave, it's a completely different category. And at the same time, you consider how to build your career in a shorter way."

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Whereas previously a figure such as Willian spent six years with the club, Brazilian starlet Kevin spent just 18 months before moving to Fulham. "When the war started, we reconsidered our transfer policy because we understood that we needed to have quite a short way to exit players," Palkin said.

"Kevin moved from our club to Fulham for 40 million Euro, we had Sudakov (to Benfica), we had Mudryk (to Chelsea ), we have other guys. This situation completely pushed us to rethink our strategy and all of our steps inside of the club."

The pressure for such action only intensified with the introduction of Annex 7 by FIFA at the start of the war. The governing body permitted foreign players to suspend their contracts with Ukrainian clubs, an action that is estimated to have cost Shakhtar more than £50million when no relief was offered to the club, despite the money they still owed for transfers that were already completed.

The club sought £43m of damages from FIFA in 2022 but eventually lost their case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Shakhtar and Palkin have accused FIFA of failing to support Ukrainian football during the war. FIFA's president, Gianni Infantino, pledged to support the 'continuous growth on and off the pitch' of football in Ukraine when he met with Andriy Shevchenko last year.

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"I asked FIFA how I can pay back this debt if you have stolen all our players. I cannot sell them. I cannot put them on loan. How can I operate? Their reaction was 'your problem'," Palkin said. He advocates now for a fund to help Ukrainian football.

"If you did not do good things, you should create a fund to help Ukrainian football, to support Ukrainian football. Support financially, support with infrastructure. If you always issue your slogans that we are one football family, you must prove it, you can not let Ukrainian football stay alone."

At the outset of war, survival was the only thing on anyone's mind. Shakhtar have now positioned themselves to find joy in European competition. Despite the realities of living in a country at war, they are two steps away from a European final, and with victory over AZ Alkmaar, could yet face Premier League opposition in Crystal Palace.

Their journey serves as more than a moment to challenge for a trophy. At a time where '95 per cent of information issued in Ukraine is negative information', Palkin knows the significance of 'some kind of positive emotion for our people, for our population, for our soldiers'.

But it also serves as a moment for the club to highlight what is going on at home, when global news is saturated with ever more conflicts. "Europe and the rest of the world is already tired sometimes from this war," Palkin said.

"It is our role to mention what is going on at this moment because football cannot live in an isolated world. Football should live in an area with specific and positive values and principles.

"Our role is to mention every day, especially during our European competitions, that war continues, we are surviving."

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2026-04-09T05:13:32Z