As Shakhtar Donetsk take the field for their Champions League clash against 2013 champions, Bayern Munich, they do so away in Lviv, several 1000 miles away from their usual home in the east of Ukraine which is currently in the middle of a bloody civil war.
Lviv itself was once part of Poland and is much closer to Krakow than Kiev - and Donetsk. Imagine the Crusaders playing their home game in London - which they have done funnily enough.
Much has been made in the media about the conflict between the pro-Russia separatists and the military in the east including the Donetsk Oblast - and we all know about the MH17 disaster that took place near the city of Donetsk; the Malaysia Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur allegedly blown out of the air by accident by pro-Russian separatists.
Sport is an irrelevance when cities and homes are being bombed and people are dying each day. Yet for the purposes of this blog, there is no denying that the war has definitely had an effect on what was once a thriving football team and pride of the region and country.
Shakhtar Donetsk and its ultra sleek Donbass Arena, specifically built for EURO 2012 and hosted 5 games including the semifinal between Spain and Portugal, symbolised modern Ukrainian football - and indeed modern Ukraine.
The likes of Fernandinho, Willian, Henrikh Mkhitrayan and Darjio Srna, now playing in the big leagues in Western Europe, all played for the orange and black at some stage of their careers.
While Donetsk still has some good Brazilian imports, many of them have left the club due to the instability in the country. However, the club remains in the top half of the table, albeit 5 points behind traditional powerhouses, Dynamo Kiev - the war has definitely had an effect on the club.
The Donbass Arena itself has been bombed and severely damaged by the ravages of the persistent bombing and it is unlikely that it will see any of the events its 5-star rating from UEFA warrants. It is a pity as I recall from watching the Champions League and Euro 2012 games, that it is probably one of the best football stadiums in the world in its heyday.
War aside, Donetsk's plight is actually not dissimilar to another highly successful sports team.
While the Crusaders are back in Christchurch via Addington, they are still a team without a permanent home as a result of the devastating 2011 earthquake which has now rendered Lancaster Park in the east of the city unusable - Richie McCaw and Kieran Read still have to walk out of their makeshift sheds onto the ground.
At least it was a better scenario than 4 years ago when the Crusaders had to play their entire home season away from Christchurch, playing in Timaru, Nelson, Napier, Wellington and London - although being a franchise servicing the north of the South Island, they were still technically at home for many of their games.
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| SBW at Twickenham in 2011 v Sharks |
The future of the Crusaders' home remains up in the air with plans for an indoor stadium not dissimilar to Dunedin's Forsyth Barr Stadium in the running but buried below priority jobs, i.e. fixing the roads and CBD. Indeed, Lancaster Park, or Jade Stadium, still has not been bulldozed while the pitch is overgrown. Its future is also still unknown although it is likely that Lancaster Park will be completely demolished in the next couple of years as the city shifts to the west.
Earthquakes and war may be two different types of tragedy but their effect on sport remains the same, particularly when fatalities are involved.
While the Crusaders' future is brighter, Shakhtar Donetsk's future remains up in the air and its legacy and potential is set to be wasted away by the conflict in the east.
Yet in the wider scheme of things, considering the deaths of the 2011 Christchurch earthquake and the ongoing civil war in Ukraine, giant stadia and football games for once seem irrelevant to the humanity of the situation.
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