Following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the challenges that followed in the sporting industry as a result, the world's football governing body FIFA in June ruled that foreign players in the country of Ukraine were at liberty to suspend their contracts. Shakhtar Donetsk have now appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) demanding 50 million euros in damages from FIFA in lost transfer funds. In a statement the club through its Chief Executive Officer said; "We had to do this because of Fifa's highly unfair ruling, the consequences mean we will continue to lose significant income from deals we expected to close. We would also like to highlight that given the situation Ukrainian clubs are facing with the war, there has been little respect shown towards these clubs by FIFA. It has not looked to protect clubs and at no stage consulted with us to find a solution, they have seemingly ignored the perilous state that Ukrainian football clubs have been facing since the beginning of the war." 

Shakhtar Donetsk are regulars in the UEFA Champions League and now claim that the club lost money as a result of four of its players leaving the club after suspending their contracts in line with the FIFA ruling. In a letter written to CAS the club claims; "Because of FIFA's decision, FC Shakhtar has lost a chance to transfer four foreign players for the total amount of about €50m. Four foreign players immediately withdrew from further negotiations regarding their potential transfers. The players' agents advised them to withdraw from negotiations in order to leave the club without any compensation, which would allow them to secure more lucrative arrangements with new employers." FIFA ruled on 21 June that, unless they reached an agreement with their club by 30 June, foreign players and coaches could suspend their contracts with Ukrainian clubs until 30 June 2023. Shakhtar had at least 14 foreign players in their squad and had intentions to sell a few of those players in order to at least try to raise funds to cover their loss of earnings. The club says that their revenue streams have been highly decimated following Russia's invasion of their country and were hoping to recoup some money to at least assist in the humanitarian efforts during the war and also to cover their losses.  

Shakhtar said they had just over a week to finalize any deals with players before they could unilaterally suspend their contracts, and that meant buying clubs and agents therefore waited to avoid paying transfer fees. In the letter to CAS, Shakhtar said midfielder Manor Solomon stopped his permanent transfer to Fulham because of the FIFA ruling, and Brazilian midfielder Mateus Cardoso Lemos Martins' scheduled move to Olympique Lyonnais also fell through. Because of the ongoing war, the Ukrainian top league was initially suspended before it was terminated fully on the 27th of April. FIFA, however, suspended Russia's national teams, and football teams from participating in any international football-related activity.