President of FC Shakhtar Donetsk Rinat Akhmetov has said he believes that a possible Ukrainian-Russian joint football league should be advantageous, first and foremost, to Ukrainian football.

"What is the joint league? From a financial point of view, it's probably advantageous. From the point of view of entertainment, it's advantageous. From the point of view of competitiveness, it's advantageous," the club's press service quoted Akhmetov as saying to reporters during a team training session at the Donbass Arena stadium on Friday.

"The champions and runners-up of this tournament will qualify for the Champions League and the Europa League. And regarding what Ukrainian football in general needs, I want to listen to every Ukrainian fan. If it's advantageous to Ukrainian football, not [just] to Shakhtar, Shakhtar will support it! If Ukrainian football finds the joint league advantageous, we will follow the rules. Therefore the question of whether the league should exist or not shouldn't be addressed to me

Akhmetov said that he would obey the rules that that will be adopted by the Football Federation of Ukraine.

"We need a full discussion. I've just mentioned the pros, but we have to consider the cons. There's always a minus where there's a plus. The same happens in life, so everything is weighed and a decision is made. As a result, we're either proud of this decision or ashamed of it," he said.

"I want to be proud of this decision so that later, in five, 10 or 15 years, they [don't] say that Rinat made a decision that was advantageous to Shakhtar but disadvantageous to Ukrainian football, [and] that it destroyed the latter. I don't want to get into this story. I serve Ukrainian football and want it to progress. Even if today it's advantageous to us and disadvantageous to Ukrainian football, we'll act as Ukrainian football requires. That's our position, my personal position, and the position of the Shakhtar football club," Akhmetov said.