Shakhtar Donetsk vs Fenerbahce: A tale of two clubs at crossroads of Europe

Shakhtar return to scene of greatest win to face rivals whose ambitions match those the Ukrainian club once held

Shakhtar Donetsk are in Istanbul today, back at the site of their greatest night, where they did what they may never be able to do again.

Six years ago at the Sukru Saracoglu stadium, Shakhtar won the last ever Uefa Cup, 2-1 against Werder Bremen. It felt like the start of an era for a wealthy, well-run club and their talented team. Now, though, Shakhtar are homeless, broken and shorn of their stars. The war in Ukraine has damaged their stadium and their hopes of joining Europe’s football elite. This evening Mircea Lucescu’s weary side – no longer champions of Ukraine – play Fenerbahce in the Champions League third qualifying round, first leg. The Turkish team is the only one with a hope of competing with the giants of “old Europe”.

The stories of Shakhtar and Fenerbahce show how quickly a rich, ambitious side can buy the right coaches and players to make them a force. They show the global power of having a new stadium, and the prestige and projection that brings.

Funded by Rinat Akhmetov’s mining billions, Shakhtar bought in players from Brazil, building an exciting team set up to win trophies. After that Uefa Cup win – the first European trophy won by a Ukrainian side since independence – Shakhtar then won four consecutive league titles. They reached the Champions League quarter-finals in 2011. In the summer of 2009 they opened the 52,000-seater Donbass Arena, which hosted five matches during Euro 2012, including a semi-final. It gave Shakhtar the global profile, as well as the base, to push on in the Champions League.

But then last year Ukraine was torn apart by war, separatists declared the Donetsk People’s Republic and the stadium was damaged by artillery shelling. Shakhtar now play 1,000 kilometres away, in Lviv. Their two best players, Luiz Adriano and Douglas Costa, have been sold to Milan and Bayern Munich this summer.

It has been a very different summer for the team on the south-west side of the Black Sea, who have signed Robin van Persie, Nani, Simon Kjaer and Portuguese coach Vitor Pereira, all in their attempt to climb back to the top of the Turkish game while imposing themselves on Europe. Even with Van Persie likely to be on the bench, Fenerbahce have to win this evening.

This will be Fenerbahce’s first European match after a two-year ban for match-fixing, the same crime that put their controversial president, Aziz Yildirim, in Istanbul’s Metris Prison. Since Yildirim’s release the club have been planning for their big comeback, especially after seeing Galatasaray win last season’s title. They regularly fill the Sukru Saracoglu, with its 50,000 capacity. They have 9.6 million fans on Facebook, more than the Mexico or Brazil football teams.

Hoping to take advantage of this, they have launched an ambitious campaign to register one million full members of the club. “This project is not a campaign but a sense of belonging,” Yildirim explained at the launch. “Fenerbahce is too big to be content with just derby victories or championships. Its administration must be adjusted in accordance with its greatness.”

Fenerbahce have already exceeded 100,000 members, five times what they had before the campaign. Like all Turkish clubs, their status as a public benefit society, rather than a corporation, is crucial. It means players’ salaries are taxed at only 15 per cent. Naturally, it is easier for Fenerbahce to pay Van Persie his reported €4.9m (£3.49m) net salary than it would be for a club in France or Spain.

Fenerbahce have a new European kit sponsorship deal with Turkish Airlines and are set to announce a stadium deal, which should soak up some of the cost of their summer spending. Turkish football then, is looking up, and Fenerbahce are as likely as Galatasaray to impress in this year’s Champions League. Tonight’s Ukrainian opponents, though, show how even the brightest teams can be thrown off course.