Shakhtar Donesk have become embroiled in another bust-up with UEFA just days before their Champions League showdown with Celtic.
The Ukrainian side have been banned from wearing a strip emblazoned with a charity set-up by Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on their shirts for the matchday two clash with the Scottish Premiership champions. Celtic travel to Warsaw this week for the Champions League clash with Shakhtar unable to play games at their Donbass Arena ground since 2014, and cannot play elsewhere in Ukraine following Russia's invasion.
Shakhtar have been at loggerheads with European football's governing body after UEFA sold the television rights to the game to Russian-based Match TV, owned by energy giants Gazprom, whose sponsorship deal with European football's governing body was scrapped after the invasion in February. The club then applied to wear a special strip against Celtic with the name and a QR code of UNITED24 across the jerseys.
This is an initiative launched by the war-torn's country's president to collect donations for 'medical aid, rebuilding Ukraine and defence." However, UEFA have blocked the move and stated. A UEFA statement read: "According to the competition rules, the use of the logo of charitable organisations is not possible when it is related to politics."
Shakhtar called the outcome a 'very strange decision'. They will now wear their usual strip when they face the Hoops this week in Poland.
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