A new docuseries is coming to Paramount+ focusing on Ukrainian club Shakhtar Donetsk’s run through the 2022-23 UEFA Champions League.
The four-part series, premiering Tuesday, September 12, takes viewers behind the scenes during an emotional season taking place during the war in Ukraine.
Here’s a trailer.
Additionally, CBS released a synopsis of the series.
FOOTBALL MUST GO ON follows the emotional and physical journey of Ukraine soccer club Shakhtar Donetsk as they compete in the 2022-2023 UEFA Champions League season against the constant backdrop of their homeland being ravaged by war. The fly-on-the-wall documentary series gives viewers an in-depth look at the upheaval and challenges by the Ukraine champions that no team in modern-day sports has ever faced.
Granted unique access by the team, Paramount+ and CBS Sports go with Shakhtar as the players and coaches juggle the demands of playing in club football’s biggest tournament, while monitoring the horrors unfolding at home. Living in Ukraine and ultimately forced by war to decamp to Poland, Shakhtar must play at “home” against European giants Real Madrid, and others, in a Warsaw stadium that also houses refugees from their homeland.
Wherever they play, Shakhtar must focus on the game at hand with the fate of their loved ones and homeland always on their minds. FOOTBALL MUST GO ON is a unique juxtaposition of sports glory, the agony of war and the triumph of the human spirit.
Football Must Go On is part of Paramount+’s Stories from the Beautiful Game collection of soccer documentaries, which also includes Guillem Balague’s Destination: European Nights and The Only about former USWNT goalkeeper Brianna Scurry.
Last year, ESPN released an edition of E60 following the Ukrainian Men’s National Team during the war. Remember the Blue & Yellow garnered incredible praise, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Football Must Go On received the same sort of acclaim.
