About

Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukrainian: Футбольний клуб «Шахта́р» Донецьк, short nickname "miners") is a Ukrainian professional football club from the city of Donetsk. In 2014, due to the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, the club was forced to move to Lviv, and has since early 2017 played in the city of Kharkiv (at the stadium "Metalist") whilst having its office headquarters and training facilities in Kyiv. Shakhtar has appeared in several European competitions and is often a participant in the UEFA Champions League. The club became the first club in independent Ukraine to win the UEFA Cup in 2009, the last year before the competition was revamped as the Europa League. FC Shakhtar Donetsk is one of two Ukrainian clubs, the other being Dynamo Kyiv, who have won a major UEFA competition. The club formerly played its home matches in Donetsk at the newly built Donbass Arena, however, due to the conflict in Eastern Ukraine, the team were forced to relocate 1000 kilometers to the west in Arena Lviv in the interim. Following the winter break of the 2016–17 season the club then moved again to the Metalist Stadium in Kharkiv (250 kilometers to the northwest of Donetsk) early in 2017. Shakhtar Donetsk is Ukraine's most popular football club, and is particularly favoured in the eastern Donbas region. The club draws its history from the very start of the Soviet football league competitions and is one of the oldest clubs in Ukraine. The club was a member of the Soviet Voluntary Sports Society of Shakhtyor, having connections with other Soviet teams from Karaganda (Kazakhstan), Soligorsk (Belarus), among others. In the late Soviet period, Shakhtar was considered a tough mid-table club of the Soviet Top League and a cup competition specialist after winning the Soviet Cup two years in a row in 1961 and 1962. The team has played under the following names: Stakhanovets (1936–46), Shakhtyor (Shakhtar) (1946–92), and FC Shakhtar (1992–present).