The full-fledged phase of the Russo-Ukrainian war, which began on February 24 this year, forced domestic football to first pause and then look for options to keep it nominal, as the process of competition resumes in the new season. Home matches in European competition outside the country. Fortunately, the entire civilized community is on Ukraine’s side, and therefore Ukrainian plenipotentiaries in the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League managed to quickly resolve all major organizational issues.

However, in the 2022/23 season, not only Ukrainian teams play outside their home ground in European cups. In total, there are now seven such “exiles” …

Miner

domestic stadium: Donbass Arena (Donetsk, Ukraine)
Plays in the Champions League: “Polish Army Stadium named after Marshal Jozef Pilsudski” (Warsaw, Poland)

In 2014, due to the first signs of Russian military aggression against sovereign Ukraine, Shakhtar Donetsk was forced to leave his hometown, and with it his own stadium and base. Since then, the 52,000-seat Donbass Arena has been derelict and unable to host football matches, including at the highest level, while the Pitmen have nominally had to host home matches in other arenas.

Before the full-scale invasion of the Russian army in February, Shakhtar played in European competitions, first at Arena Lviv, and then at NSC Olimpiyskiy in the capital. Unfortunately, in the 2022/23 season these arenas also turned out to be unsafe, so UEFA could not allow the Pitmen to host their opponents on Ukrainian soil.

In this context, Shakhtar plays home matches in the Champions League at the Polish Army Stadium named after Marshal Jozef Pilsudski in Warsaw. Notably, the Pitmen have only played one match in this arena so far – against Celtic, which ended in a 1-1 draw. It is worth noting that Shakhtar is the only team that played a home match in a stadium outside their home ground in the main draw of the Champions League…

dynamo

domestic stadium: Dynamo Stadium Valery Lobanovsky (Kyiv, Ukraine), NSC Olimpiyskiy (Kyiv, Ukraine)
Played in LE on: Cracovia Jozef Pilsudski Stadium (Krakow, Poland)

Unlike Shakhtar, Dynamo had the opportunity to play home matches in European competitions in their hometown, even after the start of the war in Donbass in 2014. Everything changed in February 2022, when a horde of enemies entered the capital and briefly occupied part of the Kyiv region and adjacent territories. Despite the fact that the Armed Forces of Ukraine managed to expel the invaders from the Kyiv region long before the start of the new European Cup season, UEFA did not allow Ukrainian clubs to hold home matches in their country. The White-Blues, like Shakhtar, agreed with the Poles.

At the “Cracovia Stadium”, the Kievans have played only one home match so far in the Europa League group stage – against the Cypriot AEK from Larnaca in the second round. This game was a complete disappointment for fans of “white-blue” and all fans of Ukrainian football – “Dynamo” lost with a score of 0: 1, although they had more possession of the ball (62%) and hit the target more often (10 :8).

Let’s hope that Dynamo’s next nominal European Cup matches in Krakow will be much more successful.

Dnieper-1

home stadium: Dnieper-Arena (Dnepr, Ukraine)
Plays on LK on: Kosice Football Arena (Kosice, Slovakia)

Installed only in March 2017, the Dnipro-1 was an absolute first in European competitions. Unfortunately, as in the case of Dynamo and Shakhtar, this team no longer has a chance to play home matches in their home stadium, which is a very functional and modern Dnipro Arena. The reason is the same – the Russian-Ukrainian war …

“Sports club members” in European competitions are forced to play their home matches at the local Kosice football field in Košice, Slovak. So far, Dnipro-1 can not boast of a huge support of fans in the stands of this stadium, and Kucher’s wards lost their debut in the Europa League and Conference League to AEK (1:2) from Larnaca in the so-called home arena. Respectively Dutch AZ (0:1 ).

I want to believe that Dnipro-1 will be able to play in the Kosice and playoff games of the Conference League stage next spring and will already host their opponents in their native Dnipro-Arena for the new season…

Sheriff

home stadium: SC “Sheriff” (Tiraspol, Moldova)
Played in LE on: Zimbru Stadium (Chisinau, Moldova)

Sharif Tiraspol is the richest and most titled club of the Moldovan championship, which allows them to participate in the qualifying rounds of various European competitions from year to year without any problems, and last season for the first time in the group stage of the Champions League. The team was then led by Ukrainian Iuria Vernyduba, creating a series of sensations, first beating Shakhtar at Tiraspol (2:0) and then Real Madrid (2:1) at Madrid.

However, before the start of the current European Cup season, UEFA banned Sharif from holding home matches on the field of the sports complex of the same name in Tiraspol. This decision was made in connection with a large-scale military escalation, which led to the invasion of the Russian army into the territory of Ukraine. Having read and taken into account the results made by agencies specializing in international political and strategic analysis, and assessing the unstable situation in Transnistria, UEFA did not see solid security guarantees for Sharif’s guests that allowed them to play home matches in the capital. Moldova, Chisinau.

It is worth noting that the 14th Guards Combined Arms Army of the Russian Federation is located on the territory of Pridnestrovie with a personnel strength of about 6.5 thousand people.

Union Saint Gilloise

home stadium: Joseph Marien Stadium (Brussels, Belgium)
Played in LE on: Den Dref Stadium (Leuven, Belgium)

The Belgian club Union Saint-Gilloise, whose history dates back to 1897, finished second in the last Belgian championship and played in the Champions League qualifiers, enabling them to enter European competition. Here, already at the third round stage, the Scottish Rangers (2:0, 0:3) became a stumbling block for the “royal club”, which marked the transition of the “Union” to the Europa League group. scene.

Both the home game against Rangers in the Champions League qualifiers and all the matches of the Europa League group stage, Union Saint-Gilloise has played and will play at the Den Dref stadium in Leuven, it will not. At the native Joseph Marien stadium in Brussels ”, where the “royal club” traditionally takes its rivals within the framework of local competitions.

UEFA and Union Saint-Gilloise bosses took this decision because the Joseph Marien arena did not meet the criteria put forward for stadiums to hold European cup matches. In particular, the building in Brussels did not satisfy the UEFA commission in terms of a number of infrastructures, even though it was able to accommodate the minimum required number of spectators (8,000) in the stands. That’s why Union Saint-Gilloise welcomes their Leuven rivals at the Stade Den Dref. Interestingly, this Belgian team has not played a single European match since 7 October 1964 before this season started. Then, in the first round of the Fairs Cup, “Union” played against “Juventus”, losing by the same score to Turin in both matches – 0:1.

Balkans

home stadium: Suva Reka City Stadium (Suva Reka, Kosovo/Serbia)
Plays on LK on: Fadil Vokri Stadium (Pristina, Kosovo/Serbia)

The champions of the partially recognized Republic of Kosovo (note that Ukraine does not recognize the independence of this state from Serbia) Balkani started the current European Cup season with the Champions League qualifiers and flew out of Zalgiris immediately. Moving on to the Conference League, the Balkans managed to pass three qualifying rounds at the same time, which allowed the team to progress to the group stage of the third European Cup in terms of status.

However, UEFA immediately made it clear that Balkani cannot play a home match at the Suva Reka City Stadium, which is unique to this team, since the latter categorically does not meet the requirements for organizing European Cup matches. Without such a restriction, Balkan’s home field, which can hold just 1,500 spectators, would be the smallest offered in the current European Cup season.

Fadıl Vokri stadium in Pristina is the only arena in Kosovo that can host European cups due to its infrastructure features. This stadium is home to the Pristina team and has a capacity of 16,000 spectators. At home, Balkani managed to draw with Romanian Cluj (1:1) in the first match of the Conference League’s group stage, but their guests were lucky to win them back in just the pause time of the match.

Villareal

home stadium: Estadio de la Seramica (Villarreal, Spain)
Plays on LK on: Ciudad de Valencia (Valencia, Spain)

Villarreal is a highly experienced European fighter and in the last Champions League draw, the Yellow Submarine reached the semi-finals and won the Europa League in the 2020/21 season. This season, however, all their home games, both at home and internationally, Villarreal are not playing in their hometown Estadio de la Seramica.

The thing is, Estadio de la Seramica will play Villarreal’s home games against Levante in the frogs arena – 64 kilometers in Ciudad de Valencia. The interim move has been agreed with both La Liga and UEFA, which means the Yellow Submarine has not had any organizational issues in any other arena.

It should be noted that the reconstruction of Estadio de la Seramica will take approximately until the end of this year. A few days ago, Villarreal president Fernando Roch Alfonso said the club plans to return to its home ground on 31 December. Today, Villarreal will play a home match against Valencia in the 15th week of La Liga. True, it is not yet clear whether the “yellow submarine” will be able to host the Conference League playoffs at home next year, as it is scheduled to complete certain types of internal work there. Estadio de la Seramica in the spring and how it will be handled at UEFA level is unknown.