Chelsea windfall revealed as Stamford Bridge to host Champions League matches - Stefan Borson

Chelsea could generate some reasonable revenue from hosting Shakhtar Donetsk's home games in the Champions League.

That is according to former Manchester City financial adviser Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider that the move from the Blues won't be "lucrative", though.

It was announced on Friday, 21 August, that, subject to regulatory approvals, Shakhtar will play their home games in West London in 2026-27.

The overall reaction to the news has been pretty positive, even if it's only been made possible by the Blues missing out on European football last term.

Xabi Alonso is already being tipped for big things in the dugout, and Chelsea's lack of European football might be a huge help, rather than a hinderance.

Since Todd Boehly came aboard, however, much of the talk at the West London club has been about finances, with questions now being asked about the cost of sharing the stadium.

Chelsea have 'good chance to generate revenue'

Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, Borson suggested that the revenue from Shakhtar's games is unlikely to move the dial as some may expect.

"There'll be some. They may be doing it as a favour to a Ukrainian team, I suppose, given the history, but I doubt it," he said.

"But then again, it isn't going to be a particularly lucrative exercise to rent the stadium. It's obviously expensive to fulfil a fixture.

"I don't know what they're going to expect in terms of attendances and whether they'll open the whole stadium and who would attend.

"It's very hard to model out what that might look like. But there's a good chance that they generate a little bit of stadium revenue, stadium rental revenue, but I very much doubt it'll be that significant."

What are Chelsea's odds of securing Champions League football again?

The 2026-27 campaign could be a very exciting one for Chelsea, especially with deals done for the likes of Morgan Rogers and Maxence Lacroix.

Of course, Alonso still needs to shrink his squa significantly before the end of the window, but the signings so far have been very interesting.

Right now, the Blues are priced at 8/11 by one major bookmaker to secure a top-four finish in the Premier League this season, seeing them promoted back to the Champions League.

Many former players have even tipped them to win the entire division, but at 8/1, they're certainly seen as outsiders to beat Arsenal or Man City.