Shakhtar Donetsk CEO Sergei Palkin has revealed Chelsea are obligated to play Shakhtar Donetsk in a friendly in Donbass as part of the €100million deal to sign Mykhaylo Mudryk.

Palkin said in an interview with The Athletic: “Yes, it is written into the contract. But actually, we did not even need to read it in the contract because Behdad spoke with our president.

“Behdad supports Ukraine a lot because he is American and it is an English club, so for us this is a positive triangle because when you say England and Ukraine, it is important for our war support at this moment. They spoke very well and shook hands.

“I know because I translated. I liked the conversation very much and I believe that it does not matter if it is in the contract or not.

“It was Behdad who proposed [the friendly], because he said he wanted to help Ukraine, to help Ukrainian refugees and to support Ukrainian people.

“For us, this match [in Donetsk] would be like a miracle (having not played in their home city since 2014). We would have this match every weekend if we could.”