Construction of first Qatar World Cup stadium begins
Senior official confirms that construction of the stadium will be completed by 2015
Qatar will begin work on the first new football stadium for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, a senior official confirmed on Tuesday.
The Gulf Arab state won the rights to stage football’s premier event in 2022 after beating out the likes of Japan, US, England, South Korea and Australia. In its bid file, Qatar pledged to build five new stadiums, including the 80,000 capacity Lusail Iconic Stadium.
The new stadium will be built inside Qatar Foundation (Education City), said Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrehman Al Thani, secretary general of the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC). He added that work on the stadium would be completed in 2015.
In a report by Doha based newspaper, The Peninsula, Sheikh Saoud said that existing football and sports facilities would be upgraded over the next few years, as the build up to the World Cup intensifies.
Four new football clubs would be added to the Qatar Stars League to utilise the new stadiums, complimenting the existing 12 teams in the league.
Furthermore, he confirmed that a new aquatic facility is expected to be built, along with an upgrade to the Hamad Aquatic Centre. The Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning would confirm the details of this project in due course, the report said.
In addition, the government of Qatar will be building more sports facilities in schools across the country as it looked to involve more students in sports from an early age.
Earlier this year, plans for a sports museum were unveiled by Qatar. Croatian architect Danijel Koleti? conceived of the design for the Crystal Ball – Light of the Future building. Vedran Pediši? (SANGRAD) and Erick Velasco Farrera (AVP-arhitekti) designed the building.
