Shakhtar Donetsk eye 2,000 mile trip for Champions League home games with Chelsea request

Shakhtar Donetsk have qualified for the Champions League this season and are hoping to use Chelsea's Stamford Bridge for their home matches in the competition

Shakhtar Donetsk are believed to be looking at using Stamford Bridge, the home of Chelsea, for their home fixtures in the Champions League this season. The Ukrainian club have qualified for the competition, while the Londoners will have no European football on offer this term.

The Donbass Arena, the home stadium for Shakhtar, has not been used for the club’s home matches since Russia annexed the Ukrainian city back in 2014. The 52,000-seater stadium, which is approximately 2,000 miles away from London, hosted several matches at Euro 2012 two years earlier.

As a result, Shakhtar have been forced to play their home matches at Kyiv and Lviv in Ukraine instead, while Germany, Slovenia and Poland have hosted matches in European competitions.

For this season, though, Shakhtar are reportedly targeting Stamford Bridge as a base of operations for this season's Champions League fixtures.

As reported by football.london, Shakhtar would not comment on the reports, stating that an official announcement would be made next week.

According to the BBC, Chelsea have made it clear this move has nothing to do with commercial motives for the club. It is also understood that Brentford's G-Tech Community Stadium and Fulham's Craven Cottage were considered as potential alternative venues.

Nevertheless, Stamford Bridge is believed to be the front-runner owing to its greater capacity. Furthermore, Chelsea share a warm relationship with Shakhtar, which dates back to the transfer of Mykhailo Mudryk.

Additionally, approximately 32,000 Ukraine-born residents are thought to live in London, making Stamford Bridge an ideal venue to draw those supporters to matches - a further 100,000 people of Ukrainian descent are also believed to reside in the capital.

In 2023, Stamford Bridge hosted the Game4Ukraine charity fixture, which raised funds for rebuilding the Mykhailo-Kotsiubynsky School in Chernihiv Oblast, which had been hit by Russian missiles.

Last season, Shakhtar progressed to the semi-final of the Europa League, where they were eliminated by Crystal Palace. Despite the setback, it represented a remarkable accomplishment given they had no permanent home venue.

They clinched an automatic berth in next season's Champions League after Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal both qualified through their domestic league positions. This opened up a route for Ukraine to enter the league phase after they led the UEFA coefficient rankings, finishing 9.75 points clear of second-placed Crvena Zvezda.

Meanwhile, Chelsea are absent from European competition this season following last term's 10th-place finish in the Premier League. This makes the possibility of Shakhtar using Stamford Bridge more straightforward, as there should be fewer scheduling issues.