Former Donetsk Shakhtar Akhmetova flees from inhospitable Lvov to Kharkov
The Donetsk football club Shakhtar, owned by Rinat Akhmetov, which settled in Lviv after the start of the war in Donbass and played in the arena there, plans to change its home location: at the beginning of 2017, the team will move to the Metalist stadium in Kharkov.
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This was reported by the publication “Champion” , citing its sources in Akhmetov’s club.
It is noted that Shakhtar is now awaiting an official signal from UEFA regarding permission for Kharkov to host European Cup matches. After this, the club plans to completely say goodbye to Lvov and move all its services to Kharkov.
The team members are going to live in Kyiv in the future, as well as the club’s management, the publication notes.
“Shakhtar are going to hold home matches of the second part of the Ukrainian Championship in Kharkov, as well as the Champions League in the 2017/2018 season,” the message says.
Let us remind you that for the last two years, Shakhtar played all European Cup matches at the Arena-Lviv stadium. By the 2016/2017 season, the miners played home Premier League matches also in Lviv.
Only this year, Shakhtar began to compete in the domestic championship in cities other than Lviv, in particular in Kharkov.
The club with Donetsk roots and the owner, an oligarch from Yanukovych’s entourage, irritated many nationalistically minded Lviv residents.
Akhmetov's former Shakhtar Donetsk manager flees inhospitable Lviv for Kharkiv