European football returns this week, but Chelsea will not be involved. Their tenth placed finish last season means that new manager Xabi Alonso is free to concentrate on the league as he looks to rebuild the club’s fortunes.
However, their stadium will still welcome some of the continent’s leading teams after the club agreed to provide Shakhtar Donetsk with a temporary European home.
Shakhtar will play their four Champions League league-phase home matches at Stamford Bridge, and should they qualify for the knock-out stages, further games could be staged in West London.
Shakhtar have been unable to use the Donbas Arena in Donetsk since fighting broke out in eastern Ukraine in 2014. The stadium, which opened only five years earlier and staged matches during Euro 2012, had been one of eastern Europe’s most impressive sporting venues.
The club have subsequently led a nomadic existence, playing domestic and European matches in cities including Lviv, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Warsaw, Hamburg, Gelsenkirchen, Krakow, and Ljubljana.
Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 created further difficulties. Although domestic football eventually resumed in Ukraine under wartime restrictions, Shakhtar have continued to stage their European home fixtures abroad.
London will now become the latest stopping point. The club should benefit from Britain’s substantial Ukrainian community, as well as neutral supporters attracted by the opportunity to attend Champions League matches. Stamford Bridge offers greater capacity, facilities, and commercial potential than many of the alternative venues available.
Undoubted the most starred of all the visitors will be 15-time champions Real Madrid, with AEK Athens, Sporting and Fenerbahçe also scheduled to play at the Bridge.
The agreement is practical for both clubs. Chelsea can earn additional revenue from a stadium that would otherwise be unused on European nights, while Shakhtar gain access to an established Champions League venue.
Nevertheless, describing Stamford Bridge as a home venue is a stretch for a club whose spiritual heart remains more than 1,700 miles away.
Chelsea may not be playing in Europe this season, but Champions League nights will still return to their ground. The blue shirts taking the field, however, will belong to a displaced club searching for yet another place to call home.
