FIFA World Cup 2022: Qatar’s state of the art stadiums
Following the tremendous World Cup 2018 in Russia, all eyes are on Qatar as it prepares to host football’s mega event in 2022. Under its proposal to FIFA, Qatar will build 9 new stadiums and renovate 3, with the 12 venues divided among 7 host cities. The 7 host cities are Al-Daayen, Al-Khor, Al-Rayyan, Al-Shamal, Al-Wakrah, Doha and Umm Slal.
After the Cup, it is planned to dismantle parts of the stadiums and send them to developing countries to make 22 new stadiums. Hopes and expectations are set extremely high and FIFA President Gianni Infantino claimed, “The Russian World Cup was the best ever, and the World Cup in 2022 has to be even better”.
he 2022 World Cup will provide plenty of firsts: it is the first time that a country from both the Arab and Muslim-majority nations gets to host the football World Cup. It will also be the first time that a World Cup will be held during Europe’s winter, meaning the schedulers of the continent’s professional leagues will have to come up with a solution. Whatever happens, there is bound to be a long break in league play in November and December, which in turn will probably lead to a delay in the start of the summer offseason.
The Stadiums
So far, the stadiums are becoming the stadiums of every football fan’s dreams. Seven new state-of-the-art stadiums with advanced open-air cooling technology are being built from scratch for the 2022 event. Zaha Hadid Architects worked with structural engineer Schlaich Bergermann Partner to create an operable roof from pleated PTFE fabric that can be extended to like a sail to cover the stadium to shade players and spectators.
The cover works with air diffusers and under-seat cooling nozzles to pump cool air into the stadium, which is captured in the bowl. Cool air from the stadium will be re-cooled and recycled back into the stadium. More than 26,000 people are directly involved in the construction of the proposed stadiums. The Khalifa International Stadium, which was built in 1976 in Doha, is the first tournament-ready venue.
Undoubtedly, like in every FIFA World Cup, fans will be getting riled up to see their favourite players performing for their own country and in stadiums like these, it’s bound to be even more exciting. We especially cannot wait to see top scorers from the Premier League such as Harry Kane for England, Mohamed Salah for Egypt and Sergio Aguero for Argentina. To see players from teams such as Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham divided into their national teams and play against one another is fascinating. For example, it’ll surely be a sight to witness Virgil van Dijk from Liverpool playing for the Dutch against one of his own team mates.
Qatar will have to host 32 teams for the World Cup and in 2026, the number of teams is planning to rise to 48 whopping teams. Fifa’s decision to award the united bid from the USA, Canada and Mexico the right to host the 2026 World Cup will bring us a 48-team tournament like no World Cup before.