"It's almost one month we were on the pulse trying to understand what we tracked in the Greek league and the Scottish league." That's Shakhtar CEO Sergei Palkin, describing a nail-biting wait that finally ended in Shakhtar's favour on Sunday — and it earns them at least €35 million for their trouble.
Three results had to go right. All three did. AEK Athens clinched the Greek title while Olympiakos drew. Celtic beat Rangers at home, ending any lingering Scottish title hopes for the Ibrox side. And Shakhtar themselves hammered Poltava 4-0 to wrap up the Ukrainian Premier League — their 16th championship.
How the backdoor opened
This isn't a straightforward qualification story. Ukraine sits 23rd in UEFA's country rankings, which normally means no direct Champions League entry and a brutal run through qualifying rounds in July and August. But there's a contingency rule: if the Champions League winner is already qualified for next season — which applies to both Arsenal and PSG ahead of the May 30 final — that freed-up spot gets redistributed to the highest-ranked national champion still in qualifying.
That was Shakhtar, sitting at No. 45 in UEFA's club coefficient rankings with 56.25 points, boosted significantly by their Conference League semifinal run. Olympiakos (No. 36) and Rangers (No. 38) both had superior rankings but failed where it counted — on the pitch, in their own leagues.
The result: Shakhtar skip three qualifying rounds entirely and go straight into the 36-team main phase in September. The €35 million minimum prize money goes to a club that has been without a home ground since 2014, displaced first by Russian-backed separatists and now operating through a full-scale war in its fifth year. Domestic home games are played in Lviv. European fixtures take place in Krakow. The Donbas Arena, which hosted Euro 2012, has been under Russian occupation for over a decade.
Twelve Brazilians and a former Barça midfielder in charge
Coach Arda Turan — the 39-year-old ex-Galatasaray, Atlético Madrid and Barcelona midfielder — took over a team that had slipped to third in the league just a year ago. He's now delivered the title. Palkin praised him as someone with "our DNA" and a natural motivator of a young squad, which currently includes 12 Brazilian players, most of them under 23.
It mirrors Shakhtar's historic model — Willian, Fernandinho, Fred, Luiz Adriano were all developed there — but this generation is almost entirely new, rebuilt after FIFA relaxed contract rules in 2022 and several players departed. Palkin's pitch to recruits is straightforward: it's a Brazilian community inside a warzone, and they know exactly what they're signing up for.
Where Shakhtar will play their four Champions League home games between September and January hasn't been decided. Previous seasons used German venues. Palkin says the club wants to "increase the geography" of their fixtures, pointing out that ten million Ukrainians have left the country and their fanbase is now scattered across Europe.
"We are sending a message that our club continues to represent Ukrainian football with dignity," Palkin said. At €35 million guaranteed and a place among Europe's elite 36, it's a message with real financial weight behind it.
