Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Football Must Go On’ on Paramount+, Tracing A Ukrainian Soccer Club’s Journey Against the Backdrop of War

The UEFA Champions League is one of the biggest sporting competitions in the world–a 32-team competition that pits Europe’s top club football teams against each other. It’s dominated by familiar names–Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Liverpool. In the 2022-23 competition, though–Shakhtar Donetsk–a refugee club from Russian-occupied Ukraine–served as an emotional favorite against the backdrop of war. Football Must Go On, a four-part documentary miniseries on Paramount+, tells their story.

FOOTBALL MUST GO ON: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Regular people go about their lives in Kyiv against the backdrop of destroyed buildings and soldiers guarding the streets. “Our life for the last seven months… you count the days, five days of the war, one week of the war, one month… then? You just don’t count,” a woman narrates. “The bombs fall on every piece of territory. So, it’s not the best conditions to play football. But for Shakhtar and Ukraine, it’s a dream to play football again. You can try to kill us, you can bomb us every day, you can threaten us with nuclear weapons… but come on, we’ll still play football.”

The Gist: Football Must Go On tells the story of Shakhtar Donetsk’s 2022-23 UEFA Champions League run, but it has to give us context before we get to the games. Background is given on the geopolitical situation, both in Ukraine and in Donetsk, specifically. Interviews and off-pitch footage of players and figures around the team establish an emotional base, while game footage shows us the players’ previous successes. The approach is clear, and effective–we have to know exactly who we’re rooting for here, and why.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? It’s got shades of Escape to Victory, but in present-day, real-life terms. It’s also got the vibe of the stirring, heartstring-pulling human-interest segments you might see in the lead-up to an Olympic event.

Our Take: Shakhtar Donetsk haven’t played a home game in more than eight years. The club team, based in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, was forced to relocate after the 2014 Russian invasion and subsequent occupation of the Donbas region. Since then, they’ve played and trained in other parts of Ukraine, including the western city of Lviv, the northeastern city of Kharkiv, and the capital of Kyiv.

Prior to the war, they’d been a team on the rise. In 2009, they became only the second Ukrainian club team to win a European competition when they captured the UEFA Cup (now the Europa Cup). In more recent years, Shakhtar’s management continued their success by employing a canny strategy of signing developmental talent from countries like Brazil and selling their contracts to larger clubs once they experienced on-field results.

That all changed with Russia’s invasion in 2022, which saw thirteen of the team’s Brazilian players flee the country, fearing for their lives. The team had plans to stay afloat by selling the contracts of valuable players–a common tactic in club football–until a decision came down from FIFA, the sport’s governing body, stating that players could break contracts with Ukrainian clubs without penalty, leading many to leave for new clubs without Shakhtar receiving any compensation for their investments.

“Half the squad is disappeared,” one football journalist explains. “Essentially, [the club’s football director] Darijo Srna is charged with building a new Shakhtar Donetsk team.” The team is forced to move games to Poland, and restock their roster with younger, unproven and mostly-local players. By the time the 2022-23 UEFA Champions League competition begins, as one journalist notes, “the fact that they’re here at all is a victory.”

Team captain Taras Stepanenko speaks ruefully of the hardships he, his teammates and their families have had to face. “It’s an unpredictable situation, and in my mind, I can’t cope with it. I’ve already moved from my home two times. The first feeling was, it’s temporary, and I’d come back, but it’s already been eight years. It’s the first time I lived without my family, and it’s very difficult for me mentally.”

Football Must Go On tells a compelling story in a way that’s intense and engrossing without becoming schlocky or sentimental; this is a real story about people facing real hardships, and it doesn’t need to resort to pablum to inspire you–the hard truth is inspiring enough.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Shakhtar Donetsk opens the 2022-23 Champions League competition against the far-wealthier and better-equipped German club RB Leipzig, and few expect them to win; they’re supposed to just be happy to have fielded a team at all. By the time they finish off a 4-1 victory, it’s clear they’re not going to be content just with showing up; they’ve come to shock the world.

Sleeper Star: Virtually everyone here cuts an inspiring figure, but one that especially stands out is Lassina Traore, a young player from Burkina Faso who was the only foreign player to remain with the team after the Russian invasion. “I really appreciate that,” Srna explains. “It’s a war, it’s not easy to play in Ukraine with the sirens and bombs.”

Most Pilot-y Line: “This is war now, but we cannot stop,” Shakhtar Donetsk head coach Igor Jovićević explains. “The soldiers fighting for the people, everyone working for the economy of Ukraine, we want to show with football that life goes on. Many soldiers, many people are fighting for us, and we want through our effort, our results, through our victories, to give them a little bit of satisfaction. This is our duty and our social responsibility. Football never stops. Football must go on.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. The story of Shakhtar Donetsk is an incredible one, and Football Must Go On is a smart, sharp and stirring telling of that story.

Scott Hines, publisher of the widely-beloved Action Cookbook Newsletter, is an architect, blogger and proficient internet user based in Louisville, Kentucky.