Euro Leagues: Shakhtar Donetsk CEO & 100 days until the World Cup
Football Daily
BBC
4.3 • 4.6K Ratings
🗓️ 5 March 2026
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this special episode of the Euro Leagues, Steve Crossman, Guillem Balague, Archie Rhind-Tutt and Julien Laurens are joined by Sergei Palkin, CEO of Ukrainian giants Shakhtar Donetsk.
Sergei talks about the challenges facing the club since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 - finding somewhere to play their games, convincing foreign players to sign for them and dreaming of returning to the Donbas Arena.
With less than 100 days to go until the World Cup, the panel also discuss how Germany, Spain and France are shaping up.
TIMECODES 00:52 - Less than 100 days until the World Cup 04:33 - Germany and Nagelsmann 11:17 - Spain's injury worries 15:05 - France and Deschamps spoilt for choice 26:38 - Shakhtar Donetsk CEO Sergei Palkin 27:23 - Running a football club in wartime 29:18 - The role of sport in Ukrainian's lives 31:04 - Using stadiums as shelters 33:12 - Convincing foreign players to sign 37:17 - Trying to maintain the academy 40:20 - Dreams of returning to the Donbas Arena
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:05.6 | Hello, I've just nipped in before your BBC podcast starts to tell you all about |
| 0:09.4 | You're Dead to Me. We're the comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Also from the BBC |
| 0:13.9 | and presented by me, Greg Jenner. I should have told you that at the beginning. Sorry. |
| 0:17.9 | Anyway, like many other BBC podcasts, such as Desert Island Discs, |
| 0:21.2 | evil genius, or in our time, |
| 0:23.2 | your dead to me is available first on BBC Sounds, |
| 0:26.3 | a whole month earlier than anywhere else, in fact. |
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| 0:30.8 | to hear the very latest in history |
| 0:32.6 | and loads of other good stuff, |
| 0:34.3 | then listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:37.0 | On the Football Daily podcast, The Euroleaks with Steve Crossman. |
| 0:43.0 | Hello there, welcome to the Euroleaks on the Football Daily podcast. |
| 0:46.3 | Coming up, we'll be bringing you a really special interview with the CEO of Shaktar Dynetsk, Sergei Palkin. |
| 0:53.5 | The war in Ukraine has just entered its fifth year, as you all know. |
| 0:56.3 | It's now 12 years since Shaktar last played a home game because of Russian attacks in the Dombas, |
| 1:01.9 | which long predate the wider invasion. That is going to be by a great distance, the most important |
| 1:08.7 | conversation we have today. It's going to be a show of two halves. So before Sergi joins us, we'll talk about some of the lighter side of football. Hello, Guillain Balaget. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Archie Rintutt. Hello. And if it isn't ESPN, Julianne, hey, Jules. Hello, guys. How are we all doing, all right? Great. Excellent. |
| 1:28.2 | I am thoroughly excited for our opening discussion. |
| 1:32.0 | I'm going to need you to all close your eyes, okay? |
| 1:34.8 | Because I'm going to paint some pictures for you right now. |
... |
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