Sports Engineering

The Stadiums of the World Cup

The Engineering Marvels That Host The Biggest Tournament in The World

Atlético de Madrid “The stage.” Posed on December 9, 2020. Tweet.

On a cold December day, a group of executives ventured to the FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland. There, they would decide the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 world cups. The host of the 2018 world cup wasn’t surprising, Russia was a large country with many soccer fans, and already had much of the infrastructure need to host. What was surprising was the host of the 2022 world cup. Qatar is a tiny country situated on a peninsula in the Persian gulf, it has about 300,000 citizens, one stadium, and almost no history of soccer. To make matters worse, in the summer, temperatures easily exceed 110 degrees Fahrenheit. But this was no problem for Qatar. Qatar ended up spending 220 billion dollars creating the infrastructure needed. There’s no places for tourists to stay? Build hundreds of new hotels. It’s too hot? Create massive air conditioned stadiums and push the games back to winter. There’s no transport system connecting the city center to the stadium? Create an entire new metro system. It’s a miracle that Qatar could build all these engineering marvels in less than 10 years, but their crown jewel is the stadiums.

Qatar built a total of 7 new stadiums to host this world cup, as well as completely renovating their only original one, the Khalifa International Stadium. These 8 stadiums will host a total of 32 teams in 64 matches. The venues for the World Cup are Lusail Iconic Stadium in Lusail, Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, Al Janoub Stadium in Al Wakrah, Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium, Khalifa International Stadium and Education City Stadium in Al Rayyan and Stadium 974 and Al Thumama Stadium in Doha. All 8 stadiums are only 55 miles away from Qatar’s Capital, Doha. Here are some stats about the stadium’s