Football in Conflict Zones

It is just past 6 am in Ukraine on the morning of August 23. The Donbass Arena, home to Ukrainian football champions Shakhtar Donetsk, was just bombed twice as the conflict between national forces and pro-Russian separatists hit a peak.

As it is not a match day, the 52,000-capacity stadium was empty and hence there were no casualties, but the $425 million venue took significant damage. Because of the violence Shakhtar had to relocate to Lviv in the western region of the country, five hours away from Donetsk.

This was five years ago. Because of the uncertainty, Shakhtar has since moved again, this time to Ukraine’s capital Kiev, with the club setting up their training facilities in the city in 2017. However, the side, who are the current champions of Ukraine, play their games at the Metalist Stadium in Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine.