April 11 – Wearing the names of heavily bombarded cities on their shirts, Ukrainian top-flight club Shakhtar Donetsk began a symbolic government-backed ‘Football for Peace’ Tour on Saturday with a game played in front of 5,000 fans against Greek champions Olympiakos.
The tour aims to raise money for Ukraine’s military and also help Ukrainian refugees displaced by the war against Russia. With tickets selling for €10, all proceeds were donated to charities helping the millions of Ukrainians who have been forced to flee their country.
Shakhtar is also set to play Fenerbahce, Hajduk Split and Lechia Gdansk, with other opponents still to be confirmed, after the domestic league had to be shut down following the Russian invasion.
The club was already displaced from its original home of Donetsk in 2014 and has been playing home games for some time in Lviv and Kharkiv.
“The names of those cities where so many people died, will remain forever in our hearts. The guys were crying in the locker room after the game,” Shakhtar captain Taras Stepanenko said.
“We thank Olympiakos for giving us the opportunity to play the game … We hope we passed our message against war and for peace.”
Shakhtar had not played a game since December. All the team’s foreign players have been released and replaced by those from the youth academy.
Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias and the Ukrainian ambassador to Greece attended the game which was preceded by one minute’s silence and won 1-0 by the hosts.
“This is a special game, the first game of Shakhtar Donetsk since the war began,” said Shakhtar director of football Darijo Srna. “This game is full of emotion for us. We’ve had just one training session and we are raising money for Ukraine’s children and refugees. They are heroes.”
Robert Lewandowski, David Beckham and Manchester City’s Ukrainian full-back Oleksandr Zinchenko are among the tour ambassadors.
Shamefully, Olympiakos’ official fan club boycotted the game saying it “refused to take sides” and “play political games”.
Conversely Olympiakos sporting director and former French international Christian Karembeu said: “We are proud to host this event to raise awareness of the war. We use football as a tool for peace.”
A small section of seats was filled with 176 teddy bears and other children’s toys in memory of the 176 children who, Ukraine said Saturday, have so far died in the war.
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