“Shakhtar Donetsk defeated Antwerp 1-0 in the Champions League group stage and guaranteed a place in the European Cup playoffs, Suspilne TV reported on Tuesday evening.
“Shakhtar Donetsk has won its third victory in the Champions League group stage. In the fifth round, the Pitmen beat Antwerp 1-0,” the report said.
It is noted that Shakhtar approached the match against the Belgian team in the status of the third team of Group H. Before this match, the Miners were six points behind Barcelona and Porto, who had nine points each, but retained their chances of the Champions League playoffs.
“Shakhtar defeated Barcelona 1-0 and retained its chances of qualifying for the Champions League playoffs, Suspilne.Sport reported on Tuesday evening.
“Shakhtar won its second victory in this season’s Champions League. “The Miners beat Barcelona 1-0 in a nominally home match in Hamburg,” the report said.
It is noted that this is Shakhtar’s first victory over Barcelona in 15 years.
It is also emphasized that Shakhtar started the European season with a defeat against Porto (1-3) and a victory over Antwerp (3-2). And in the first game against Barcelona away from home, the Miners lost 1-2.
FC Shakhtar Donetsk and Patrick van Leeuwen have terminated their cooperation, with the club’s sporting director Dario Srna taking over as acting head coach, the club has announced.
“FC Shakhtar officially announces the termination of the contract with head coach Patrick van Leeuwen. Together with the coach, the coaching staff leaves the club,” reads a statement on the club’s official website on Monday.
As noted, van Leeuwen has been in charge of the Pitmen since July 2023. During this time, the team has played 12 official matches. “FC Shakhtar expresses its gratitude to Patrick van Leeuwen and his assistants for their professionalism and wishes them success and victories in the future,” the statement reads.
The team is led by the club’s sporting director Srna, who will reportedly “prepare Shakhtar for the next matches as acting head coach.”
In the 2022/2023 season, the total revenue of FC Shakhtar (including VAT) amounted to UAH 5 billion 992 million including VAT, which is almost 2.8 times higher than the previous season (UAH 2 billion 178 million), according to the annual report published on the club’s official website.
According to the report, the club’s total revenue from the sale and lease of players last season increased to UAH 4 billion 29 million from UAH 622 million a season earlier, while revenues from UEFA and FIFA for participation in the Champions League group stage and for reaching the last 16 of the Europa League increased to UAH 1 billion 606 million from UAH 1 billion 164 million.
The club clarified that last season it made 14 incoming transfers, of which 11 were purchases, 2 were rentals and 1 was a free agent. There were the same number of outgoing transfers, including 5 sales and 9 rentals. The most high-profile transfer was that of midfielder Mykhailo Mudryk to Chelsea London for a record-breaking sum in the history of Ukrainian football: EUR 70 million and another EUR 30 million in bonuses. In addition, Serhiy Kryvtsov joined MLS side Inter Miami.
Shakhtar’s revenues from commercial activities in the 2022/2023 season decreased to UAH 357 million from UAH 392 million in the previous season.
Last season, FC Shakhtar increased its payments to the budgets of all levels by 34.4% compared to the 2021/22 season, up to UAH 566.9 million.
Among the events in the report is the extension of cooperation with the BRSM-Nafta network for 2023 and the termination of cooperation with the club’s title partner Parimatch due to its inclusion in the sanctions lists.
It is specified that the number of subscriptions to the club’s social media pages has increased by almost 5% to 3.15 million. The most popular are Facebook (1.41 million) and Instagram (544.4 thousand, +5.2%), while the largest influx was recorded on TikTok – 61 thousand, or 75%, and on Twitter – 24.5 thousand, or 24.7%.
Shakhtar’s website is available in four languages: Ukrainian, English, Polish and German. Last season, it was visited by 1.07 million unique users.
The European Commission has received a complaint from FC Shakhtar Donetsk against the International Football Federation (FIFA) for its decision to allow foreign players to suspend contracts with Ukrainian clubs until the summer of 2023 due to the war, causing $43.6 million in damages to the club.
The FA is demanding compensation.
“We have received a complaint, which we will consider on the basis of our standard procedures,” the European Commission told Interfax-Ukraine on Friday.
The EC did not provide further comment. “We have no further comments,” the EC said.
Earlier, the media reported that the European Commission is not the first instance to which Shakhtar is turning with this demand. The first suit against the federation was filed in the summer of 2022 in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, but in January 2023 it was dismissed. The lawsuit claimed that the emergency rules adopted by FIFA derailed the transfer of four foreign players to Shakhtar for EUR50 million.
“We expect the European Commission to understand and appreciate the extraordinary financial pressure that our club is under because of FIFA’s actions, while our country is being devastated by an illegal war,” said club general director Sergei Palkin.
Shakhtar Donetsk have beaten Rennes on penalties to reach the last 16 of the UEFA Europa League.
The main time ended 1-0 in favour of the French team, with Shakhtar winning the first leg by the same score.
In extra time, the teams traded goals with Rennes netting on 119 minutes. And then the Pitmen’s goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin managed to put away three penalties in the penalty shoot-out to lift the Ukrainian team into the 1/8 tournament.
