Shaktar Donetsk v Sporting CP
Shaktar Donetsk v Sporting CP
Tuesday November 3rd, 2026
Stamford Bridge
Champions League Matchday 4
The warm up
There cannot have been many times if any at all that the lions have faced sides back-to-back who have been displaced from their homes. Now admittedly they are for very different reasons, but it doesn’t make it any less of a fact. One is owing to a ramshackle ground in Lisboa, the other is a full scale war following an invasion of their country. The good news though for regular readers os that we’ve another billionaire owner to focus on during the course of this preview. This season’s previews are in danger of becoming more a version of the Sunday Times or Forbes rich list than they are anything else. So far we've done Evangelos Marinakis with Rio Ave, Idan Ofer with Famalicão, Dietmar Hopp with Académico de Viseu, Joseph Oughourlian at Racing Lens and Kyle Krause at Casa Pia. Maybe he’ll dip his hands in his pocket and the Geese will no longer be displaced from Lisboa – watch this space.
Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the best part of four and a half years it won't have escaped your intention that Ukraine are currently at war with Russia having been invaded in the February of 2022. Clearly when the country you're based in is being used as a battlefield, the game of football becomes secondary. However as Pope John Paul II once said "Of all the unimportant things, football is the most important." I'm of course hypothesising, but one can only imagine that for the fans of Shaktar, being carried somewhere else even if in their minds for 90 minutes feels like a victory of sorts.
They were formed as late as May 1936 making them a relative baby in footballing terms. Like a lot of clubs we've featured over the years they've gone by a host of different names before their current incarnation, initially beginning life as Stakhanovets up until 1946. Then they were known simply as Shakhtyor until 1992, before switching to their current name. Shakhter or Shakhtar means coal miner. Donetsk being the eastern Ukraine city where their home would be had the Russians not invaded their country. Shakter being the Russian variation of the word for reference. It'll come as no suprise to learn I'm sure therefore that their nicknames are Hirnyky (The Miners) and Kroty (The Moles). No evidence that Penfold is their mascot but unlike a mole I'll keep an eye out when we play.
There cannot have been many times if any at all that the lions have faced sides back-to-back who have been displaced from their homes. Now admittedly they are for very different reasons, but it doesn’t make it any less of a fact. One is owing to a ramshackle ground in Lisboa, the other is a full scale war following an invasion of their country. The good news though for regular readers os that we’ve another billionaire owner to focus on during the course of this preview. This season’s previews are in danger of becoming more a version of the Sunday Times or Forbes rich list than they are anything else. So far we've done Evangelos Marinakis with Rio Ave, Idan Ofer with Famalicão, Dietmar Hopp with Académico de Viseu, Joseph Oughourlian at Racing Lens and Kyle Krause at Casa Pia. Maybe he’ll dip his hands in his pocket and the Geese will no longer be displaced from Lisboa – watch this space.
Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the best part of four and a half years it won't have escaped your intention that Ukraine are currently at war with Russia having been invaded in the February of 2022. Clearly when the country you're based in is being used as a battlefield, the game of football becomes secondary. However as Pope John Paul II once said "Of all the unimportant things, football is the most important." I'm of course hypothesising, but one can only imagine that for the fans of Shaktar, being carried somewhere else even if in their minds for 90 minutes feels like a victory of sorts.
They were formed as late as May 1936 making them a relative baby in footballing terms. Like a lot of clubs we've featured over the years they've gone by a host of different names before their current incarnation, initially beginning life as Stakhanovets up until 1946. Then they were known simply as Shakhtyor until 1992, before switching to their current name. Shakhter or Shakhtar means coal miner. Donetsk being the eastern Ukraine city where their home would be had the Russians not invaded their country. Shakter being the Russian variation of the word for reference. It'll come as no suprise to learn I'm sure therefore that their nicknames are Hirnyky (The Miners) and Kroty (The Moles). No evidence that Penfold is their mascot but unlike a mole I'll keep an eye out when we play.
Over the years we've brought you stories of dock workers, students and more coming together to form clubs. We'll now add the All-Union of Council on Physical Culture and Sports to that ever growing list. Much like Nazi Germany around the same period, it appears that the ruling bodies of the USSR were keen on promoting the physical movement of their people.
Ukraine gained indepedence in 1991 which led to the creation of Vyshcha Liha in 1992, latterly known as the Ukraine Premier League from 2008 onwards. Both Shakhtar and Dynamo Kyiv are the only two clubs to have featured in every season since it's formation and to date they've won every league title between them bar one which was won by Tavriya Simferopol. That's only two clubs behind the Liga founded in 1934 so they've 72 years to draw level. Notable former players include Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Fernandinho and Willian who all went onto ply their trade in the English Premier League. You imagine those days feel a long time ago now for their supporters.
They're the current Ukraine Premier League champions. Their record last season reading played 30, won 22, drawn 6 and losing just 2, GF 71, GA 21. That's some goal difference to be fair. Their two losses both came at home, their record away reading won 10, drawn 5, GF 34, GA 11, whereas at home (or their current adopted home anyway) won 12, drawn 1, lost 2, GF 37, GA 10.
At the time of writing they are once more top after 8 rounds with a record of won 7, lost 1, GF 18, GA 4. Joint top goalscorers Kauã Elias and Luca Meirelles with 3 goals apiece. Most average goals per game, fewest average goals conceded, most clean sheets with 5. It states they've scored 17 goals from set pieces which seems frankly ridiculous from 18 goals scored if correct.
Shaktar are owned by the Ukrainian businessman Rinat Leonidovych Akhmetov who tuned 60 in September of this year. As of May this year his net wealth was estimated at $7.8 billion making him Ukraine’s richest man, the 483rd richest person in the world and one of only 6 billionaires from Ukraine. Born in Donetsk his father was a coal miner and his mother was a shop assistant. What? I don’t know why your alarm bells are ringing, everyone has to start somewhere after all. The man has a bachelor’s degree in economics. It stands to reason that the son of a coal miner and shop assistant would go on to become worth just shy of 8 billion dollars. OK maybe a little more scrutiny wouldn't go amiss. Sorry that should I guess have read the son of a shaktar.
As you might imagine, just how Akhmetov made his fortune is somewhat shrouded in controversy. His claim is that he made his money from risky investments after the collapse of the former Soviet Union in the decade between 1985 and 1995. In a UK interview with the Guardian newspaper he described how he began to trade in coke and coal. Coke being a fuel for burning and not slang for cocaine or the drink just to clarify. From there he purchased minority stakes in industrial companies and one assumes like the former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, he would point to the wests clamber to invest in the east as the catalyst for his wealth. As I understand as a communist country every citizen was given small percentages of shares in state companies which were purchased by these future oligarchs en masse for tiny sums of money because those who held them had no idea of their potential long term value after the collapse of communism. This was certainly Roman’s claim on how his wealth would grow. However, many claim a different story in regards to both men, something both have refuted heavily and the latter incredibly litigiously during his time in England.
Many publications have made claims that Akhmetov’s background, far from being solely focused on the sale of coke and coal was actually one founded on criminal enterprise. Again, something the man denies and would point out that no charges have ever been brought against him. In the 80s Akhmetov was an assistant to a man called Akhat Bragin who it's alleged was basically a Ukrainian version of Tony Soprano. Among his alleged business interests was a nice line in illegal cloth. The scholar Andrew Wilson, an expert on Ukrainian politics, suggests that Akhmetov acted as an enforcer and a leader of his bosses gang who I quote were responsible for the use of "mafia methods to push aside the 'red directors' of the Industrial Union of Donbas (ISD).” Wilson goes on to claim that by the early 1990s Akhmetov set about acquiring property in Donetsk allegedly by means of extortion with the assistance of Volodymyr Malyshev, Lieutenant-General of The Head of Ministry of Internal Affairs Department in Donetsk Oblast. It should be noted that the allegations against Bragin being a crime boss originated from enforcement agencies.
Akhmetov is then accused of using his influence to have a member of parliament disappear his existing police records. Well as they say its not what you know but who you know. Maybe didn't help quell the speculation when he gave that same man a senior position in his firm.
If you think that all sounds rather wild then make sure you're seated because this is quite literally way more explosive a story than the ones we've been telling in respect of other owners so far this season. Back to Bragin his old boss who in October 1995 was the president of FC Shakhtar Donetsk. They was until he and six of his bodyguards were killed in a bombing at their stadium during a match. I'm sorry but you think a story like that would be wider known wouldn't you? As you might be expecting the rumour mill went to town after Akhmetov was alleged to have inherited a vast financial empire from his former boss. Presumably he didn’t have children then? Akhmetov claims he only narrowly escaped the explosion having been in the car behind when the bomb exploded. This probably isn't like Donald Trump latterly claiming to have been in the middle of 911 when he was actually the other side of the city.
Fast forward just shy of four years and an official Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs report identified Akhmetov as a leader of an organised crime syndicate. The report would make the claims that Akhmetov was tied to money laundering, financial fraud and the control of numerous large and fictitious companies.
Akhmetov would also be investigated on murder charges and for his alleged role in organised crime in the Donetsk region. Did he stay to face those charges? No don't be daft, in a bid to avoid prosecution he fucked off to the principality of Monaco. Friends in high places allowed his exile to end in 2006.
Alongside the football club Akhmetov’s business interests are far less wanky than the new Casa Pia owners who were featured in our last post. You've metallurgy and coal mining, power generation, telecommunications, banking, real estate, mechanical engineering, agriculture and transport. Combined these companies are turning over billions annually, however a vast sum of that income is swelling the Ukrainian governments coffers at a time it's most needed so however he allegedly made his money it does at least now appear be doing some good.
Random football attributed fact - Everton's new ground was constructed with 1,000 tonnes of steel from one of the companies owned by Akhmetov.
If you were worried that Akhmetov was struggling when he fled to Monaco let me allow you to breathe a sigh of relief. He purchased a €471 million apartment. I know, I know you were all worried so that's brought you some relief. €471 million! Fucking hell. For an apartment. What was it built from? Saffron? According to Bloomberg, this stands as the most expensive sale in real estate history. I wonder if his parents were still alive? Imagine that phone call to an ex-miner and shop assistant.
Hi, yeah it's me. I've just brought a new apartment.
Where?
Monaco.
Expensive?
Wellllll everything is relative you know…
He also owns London's most expensive penthouse at One Hyde Park, the price of which seems quite reasonable compared to the one in Monaco, a snip at $213 million, although it's alleged he spent a further $120 million in renovations. He brought Villa Les Cèdres in Cap Ferrat, France for €200 million in 2019. Then there's the $122 million penthouse in Belgravia, London although that figure is apparently approximate.
That appartment in Monaco by the way is apparently over five floors in the Le Renzo building boasting 21 rooms over some 27,000 square feet and also has its own swimming pool.
It maybe should also be noted that his reported wealth has dropped considerably from a high of $31.1 billion in 2008. In 2013/13 Forbes had him as the 39th richest person in the world.
It's reckoned that around 70 of Akhmetov’s companies have been destroyed by Russians during the ongoing conflict. Their authorities have also declared him as a rogue individual which they used as justification to confiscate a large section of his business interests in invaded territories that had been captured.
He was elected a member of parliament in 2006 but apparently only appeared once in the parliament building during his inauguration. Insert your own Nigel Farage jokes.
Again it should be noted that alongside his company basically keeping the Ukrainian economy afloat Akhmetov is also helping the victims of the war in Donbas with substantial amounts of money.
Akhmetov denies his money was inherited from his former boss but it does very much appear that he inherited Shakhtar Donetsk from Akhat Bragin. I mean that seems ridiculously generous doesn't it? The last thing I inherited was a photo album containing postcards from the second World War which contains one of Mussolini and his mistress hanging dead upside down in a public square. Didn't have that one on your bingo card I imagine. Anyways, he was appointed president on October 11th, 1996. Under his control they've been league champions fifteen times, won the Ukrainian Cup fifteen times, the Ukrainian Super Cup nine times and maybe most impressive of all, they won the UEFA Europa League Cup.
Akhmetov had the Donbas Arena stadium built in 2009 to elite UEFA standards with a capacity of over 50,000. Since the war however in Ukraine the club have been unable to play there and since the spring of 2014 they've trained in Kyiv and played in several stadiums. Home is currently the Arena Lviv albeit their home champions league matches are being played at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge. You don't imagine that would have happened under their old ownership it's fair to say. Akhmetov has not attended home games since 2014 as he presumably would provide quite a high profile target and only promises to start to attend once more when they return home.
Oh correction to my earlier statement by the way, in the course of my research it appears that Akhmetov is equally as litigious as Abramovich in a bid to protect his name and reputation which is fair enough I'd say when newspapers implicate you in the 1996 murder of Donetsk-based Ukrainian oligarch Yevhen Shcherban.
So just to clarify that Akhmetov categorically refutes all claims against him of a criminal nature. The ex-coal miner and shop assistants son just happened to be in the right place at the right time and amass a fortune of over $30 billion before the war in Ukraine. The fact remains though that people associated with have been murdered and blown up in a car bomb even if there's no evidence he was associated with either. Still when all is said and done he's stuck his hand in his pocket to the tune of hundreds of millions of Euros to help the people of Ukraine which seems a good thing to me. I mean Pablo Escobar did the same thing in Colombia but that's by the by. Coincidences happen all the time and I made it abundantly clear above that he wasn't selling that type of coke. Sometimes I think it's a good fucking job no one reads these things otherwise I might find myself in a spot of trouble one day.
Roman Abramovich started out selling rubber ducks in Moscow by the way.
2026/27 Champions League reports to date
Matchday 1 - PSV Eindhoven (A) 1-1 D
Seconds past the 45 minute mark the Ukrainian champions opened the scoring through Mendoza who turned his marker before firing a delicious shot low into the bottom right hand corner wide left of the area, ten yards from the goal line. It took the Dutch side just 2 minutes after the restart to find the equaliser as Dest smashed home from 16 yards. Poor defending on 66’ allowed Isaque to break free but his low effort straight at Kovár from 16 yards was a wasted opportunity to claim all 3 points for the visitors on an early evening game where chances were few and far between for either side. No big chances created over the course of the 90.
xG 0.50 - 0.50
Total Attempts 10 - 8
Shots on target 2 - 2
Big chances 0 - 0
Matchday 2 - AEK Athens (H) 3-1 W
2’ Corner from the visitors on the nearside headed onto the left hand post from 7 yards by Moukoudi. 27’ Pilios with two nutmegs, one on the wing and one inside the area, cut the ball back to Majer who swept home into the bottom right hand corner from 14 yards to give the Greeks the lead. What a run leading up to the assist. Irankunda will have a hard on watching those highlights ahead of Matchday 4. 31’ Foul in the box by Relvas not punished initially. Referee made to go to the monitor and a penalty awarded. 33’ Pedrinho sent the keeper left, the ball went right, 1-1. 48’ Pilios with a run into the box from the left. Just too heavy on one of his touches and he ends up shooting straight at the keeper from 12 yards out who'd come off his line to within a yard or two. 55’ Marin forced a save from a 28 yard free kick that was heading for the top left hand corner. Clearly someone watched the Lask highlights from Matchday 1 when their keeper didn't stop him from scoring. 79’ Tobias initially credited with giving Shakhtar the lead but I'm not buying it for a second. He wellies it from the edge of the six yard box and it looks like it would have ended up in Fulham had it not hit the leg of the keeper Brignoli and diverted into the net. Tobias will want it, Brignoli certainly won't to be fair to him but that's not how it works. 85’ Mendoza with three defenders in front of him coming in from the left, the two initially in front of him maybe think about stopping him but physically barely move a muscle, he shoots past the third en route into the net from 14 yards to make it 3-1 and wrap up 3 valuable points and €2 million in the club coffers. Ex-Sporting midfielder João Mário on as a second half substitute for AEK. You imagine one or two clubs might be looking at the Albanian left back Pilios on the back of his display tonight.
xG 1.37 - 1.10
Total Attempts 12 - 13
Shots on target 4 - 3
Big chances 2 - 3
Big chances missed 1 - 2
Kolos (H) 2-1 W
The miners followed up their midweek win in London with another league victory to remain top of the table. First half goals from Tobias and Bondar put them 2-0 within the opening 35 minutes. Tahiri pulled one back seven minutes from time but their chances of levelling all but vanished when Tsurikov was given his marching orders a minute before the end of the 90.
Matchday 3 - Internazionale (A) 1-0 L
2' Thurham nearly opened the scoring seeing his effort from 14 yards pushed around the far post. 39' Big chance for Shaktar as Matviyenko's header from 8 yards was clawed away off the line by Martínez to safety. 65' Thurham with dancing feet outside the box then pinged an effort from 20 yards again well saved. 67' Bastoni with a moment of madness pushed a Shaktar player off the ball with a hand in the face. In today's world with so many cameras you can't do it and get away with it. Second booking for the Italian defender and the Serie A leaders down to ten men. 76' Carlos Augusto so often the hero from the bench for this side finished from 14 yards to slot home past Riznyk. 83' Substitute
Kolos (H) 2-1 W
The miners followed up their midweek win in London with another league victory to remain top of the table. First half goals from Tobias and Bondar put them 2-0 within the opening 35 minutes. Tahiri pulled one back seven minutes from time but their chances of levelling all but vanished when Tsurikov was given his marching orders a minute before the end of the 90.
Matchday 3 - Internazionale (A) 1-0 L
2' Thurham nearly opened the scoring seeing his effort from 14 yards pushed around the far post. 39' Big chance for Shaktar as Matviyenko's header from 8 yards was clawed away off the line by Martínez to safety. 65' Thurham with dancing feet outside the box then pinged an effort from 20 yards again well saved. 67' Bastoni with a moment of madness pushed a Shaktar player off the ball with a hand in the face. In today's world with so many cameras you can't do it and get away with it. Second booking for the Italian defender and the Serie A leaders down to ten men. 76' Carlos Augusto so often the hero from the bench for this side finished from 14 yards to slot home past Riznyk. 83' Substitute
Mkhitaryan with one touch too many inside the box having been found all alone inside the area by Thurham from the right. He eventually controlled it and got a shot away from 14 yards past the near post. 86' That miss could have been very costly indeed as Newerton brought a fabulous save at the near post from Martínez from the corner of the far side of the 18 yard box. The ten men held on.
xG 1.05 - 0.60
Total Attempts 13 - 12
Shots on target 5 - 4
Big chances 1 - 0
Big chances missed 0 - 0
