How Shakhtar Donetsk made Stamford Bridge home: 'We brought smiles to children under attack'
The piece details Shakhtar Donetsk's exile from their home arenas in eastern Ukraine and how a partnership with Chelsea allowed them to host Champions League matches at Stamford Bridge. It highlights the human cost of the conflict on the club, its staff and supporters, and frames the club's outreach — including bringing joy to Ukrainian children displaced by the war — as a core part of their identity during displacement. The feature sits at the intersection of sport, geopolitics and humanitarian storytelling.
Read the full story at nytimes.comShakhtar's relocation to Stamford Bridge is one of the most striking case studies in modern football of how a club can lose its home but not its sense of purpose. By continuing to compete in the Champions League from a borrowed London ground while channeling resources toward children affected by the war, Shakhtar have turned a forced exile into a platform for visibility and solidarity. For Chelsea, hosting a fellow European club under such circumstances reinforces the bridge between top-flight football and the wider world it operates in — a reminder that stadiums are not just commercial assets but also spaces that can carry meaning well beyond matchday.
Context added by Socc360, not by nytimes.com.
Data source: nytimes.com (via Socc360). Last updated .
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