Work on the largest stadium for the 2022 World Cup is almost finished. In early September the playing field was laid. But the first game is scheduled for 2022.

As announced at the beginning of the year, Lusail Stadium was to be completed at the end of the third quarter of 2021. It looks like the plan will be successfully implemented. On September 1, the first rolls of turf appeared on the playing field, which were uncoiled on the previously prepared substrate. Just a couple days later the entire field, previously growing outside the stadium, was in place.

© Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy

Earlier, on May 6, the assembly of golden facade of the stadium was finalised, which consists of 4,200 triangular aluminum plates with a total area of 60,000 square metres. The whole thing is connected to the main steel structure of the arena by 4,672 connectors.

Decorations on the facade give the building the appearance of a bowl for dried dates, and the triangular perforations on it refer to traditional Qatari lamps (fanar). The geometric form is rooted in motifs found across the Arab and Islamic world. The roof, the membrane of which consists of hundreds of rhombuses, is also ready. This project is considered to be one of the most complex cable-membrane structures in the world.

© Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy

86,000 seats (80,000 net), also adorned with a golden triangle pattern, have already been installed. The pace of work would make the stadium opening in December possible. But, while it's time for final tests and technical acceptance, authorities decided that Lusail Stadium will be the only one to open in 2022.

Lusail is the 8th, very last venue of the upcoming World Cup in Qatar to open its doors. To date, five have been delivered (although Al Bayt Stadium is yet to fully open). The 6th will come in October, when Al Thumama Stadium is inaugurated.

© Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy

In November, the entirely modular Ras Abu Aboud Stadium will join the pack, as one of the hosts of the 2021 Arab Cup. Lusail is the largest stadium to be built in Qatar and it will host 10 games during the World Cup in 2022, including the final.

After the end of the 2022 World Cup, many of the seats will be dismantled and shipped overseas. The venue is to be partly converted into a public place. Schools, shops, cafes, medical clinics and sports facilities are planned. All of the above will be under the roof that is to be preserved from the football stadium.

© Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy

In addition, a brand new city of 38 square kilometres is being built around Lusail Stadium, with an estimated cost of $ 45 billion (€ 38 billion). It was designed to house more than 200,000 people and the city itself is to be divided into 19 districts. 

Qatar officials have announced that it will be the most technologically advanced city in the world. And while Lusail will remain a separate administrative unit, it’s physically the northern extension of Doha.

Author: Tomasz Sobura