Brentford in talks to host Shakhtar Donetsk Champions League fixtures
Brentford are among the clubs in talks to host Shakhtar Donetsk’s home fixtures in the Champions League next season.
The Ukrainian club are prohibited by Uefa for safety reasons from staging their European games in the war-torn country and last season hosted teams in Krakow, Poland.
But Brentford’s Gtech Community Stadium has emerged as a surprise option for Shakhtar’s 2026-27 Champions League campaign – despite being 1,700 miles away from Donetsk.
The Bees are one of the clubs to have held discussions about hosting Shakhtar, Morning Wire has learned. Talks are understood to be ongoing although multiple sources insist West London is just one of the possibilities on the table.
Reports in Ukraine say venues in Poland and Germany are also under consideration. In recent years Shakhtar have also played home Champions League and Europa League fixtures in Gelsenkirchen, Hamburg and Warsaw.
Uefa would not stand in the way of Brentford hosting Shakhtar as the stadium meets its competition standards, as long as the local authorities grant permission.
How Brentford have used Gtech Community Stadium
Brentford have successfully generated extra revenue from renting out the Gtech Community Stadium since moving into their 17,000-capacity home in 2020.
Now-defunct rugby club London Irish were tenants from 2020 to 2023, while the ground has also hosted international men’s and women’s football.
The club have strong links to Ukraine through their midfielder Yehor Yarmoliuk, who joined in 2022 and has become a key first-team player.
That connection has seen the Bees run community events for displaced Ukrainian families and they also played the Ukraine national team in a behind-closed-doors friendly at their training ground in 2023. Hounslow and Ealing, also in West London, have some of the biggest Ukrainian populations in the UK.
Brentford were early suitors of Ukraine’s biggest star, Mykhailo Mudryk, before he joined Chelsea in an £89m transfer three years ago.
Shakhtar have been exiled from Donetsk since 2014, when war in the Donbas region broke out. They initially relocated to Lviv in the west of Ukraine, then to Kharkiv and finally Kyiv before returning to Lviv, where they currently play their home games in domestic competitions, in 2023.
The club regained the Ukrainian Premier League title last season, earning them direct entry to the league phase of next term’s Champions League.
Brentford and Shakhtar declined to comment.