Venues
Further information: List of football stadiums in Qatar
Seven of the eight venues, including Lusail Stadium, the venue
for the final, were new stadiums built specifically for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The eighth was heavily
renovated.
The first five proposed venues for the World Cup were unveiled at the beginning of
March 2010. Qatar intended that the stadiums should reflect its history and culture, and
for the designs to meet the following terms of reference: legacy, comfort, accessibility,
and sustainability.[56] The stadiums were equipped with cooling systems that aim to
reduce temperatures within the stadium by up to 20 °C (36 °F).[57][58]
Their marketing included statements describing the stadiums as zero waste, and the
upper tiers of the stadiums will be disassembled after the World Cup and donated to
countries with less developed sports infrastructure.[57][58] Qatar aspired to be compliant
and certified by the Global Sustainability Assessment System (GSAS) for all the World
Cup stadiums. All of the five stadium projects launched were designed by German
architect Albert Speer & Partners.[59] The Al Bayt and Al Wakrah stadiums were the only
indoor stadiums of the eight used.[60]
Some venues, such as the 68,000-seat Al Bayt Stadium, were
planned to have their upper tiers of seating removed to reduce capacity after the tournament, however
this is yet to happen.
In an April 2013 report by Merrill Lynch, the organisers in Qatar requested that FIFA
approve a smaller number of stadiums due to the growing costs.[61] Bloomberg said that
Qatar wished to cut the number of venues to eight or nine from the twelve originally
planned.[62] By April 2017, FIFA had yet to finalise the number of stadiums Qatar must
have readied in five years' time. Qatar's Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy
(SC) said it expected there would be eight in and near Doha, with the exception of Al
Khor.[63][64]
Eight stadiums in five Qatari cities were built or renovated for the FIFA World Cup.
Between 2010 (when Qatar were announced as hosts) and 2022, seven of the eight
stadiums were built (some in place of older, outdated venues) and the Khalifa
International Stadium was renovated for the tournament.
Al Khor: Al Bayt Stadium (new). The first piles were driven into the ground in 2014. On 30
November 2021 it hosted its first match.
Lusail: Lusail Stadium (new). The construction of the stadium was started on 11 April 2017.
It was completed on 21 November 2021.
Al Rayyan: Ahmad bin Ali Stadium (new). The stadium was built on the demolished former
stadium site. It was commissioned on 18 December 2020.
Al Rayyan: Education City Stadium (new). It was completed on 15 June 2020.
Al Rayyan: Khalifa International Stadium (heavily renovated). The largest stadium in the
country at the time, it was closed for renovation in 2014. It was commissioned in May 2017.
Doha: Al Thumama Stadium (new). Construction was completed on 21 October 2021.
Doha: Stadium 974 (new). Construction commenced in 2018. It was completed on 30
November 2021 and had hosted some of the matches in 2021 FIFA Arab Cup.
Al Wakrah: Al Janoub Stadium (new). Construction officially started in 2014 and was
completed on 16 May 2019.
Of these eight stadiums, all but two have since been either dismantled, or have been
moderately or heavily modified. The Stadium 974 was supposed to be dismantled after
the tournament; as of November 2024 however, this has not happened and the stadium
has sat abandoned in its original site—this stadium was the first planned temporary
stadium ever used for a FIFA World Cup.[65] Lusail Stadium, Al Bayt Stadium, Ahmad bin
Ali Stadium, Education City Stadium, Al Thumama Stadium and Al Janoub Stadium will
be moderately or heavily modified as reduce their capacity by half.[66] The Khalifa
International Stadium (latter along with the Stadium 974) are the only largely unmodified
stadium that were used for this tournament.
Host cities and stadiums
Al Khor
Lusail
Al Rayyan
Doha
Al Wakrah
Location of the host cities of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap
16km
9.9miles
8
7
Location of the stadiums of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
1
Al Bayt Stadium
Lusail Stadium
Ahmad bin Ali Stadium
Education City Stadium
Khalifa International Stadium
Al Thumama Stadium
Stadium 974
Al Janoub Stadium
List of host cities and stadiums
City Stadium Capacity Image
Al Khor Al Bayt Stadium 68,895[67][68]
Lusail Lusail Stadium 88,966[69][70]
List of host cities and stadiums
City Stadium Capacity Image
Ahmad bin Ali Stadium 45,032[71][72]
Education City Stadium 44,667[73][74]
Al Rayyan
Khalifa International Stadium 45,857[75][76]
Al Thumama Stadium 44,400[77][78]
Doha
Stadium 974 44,089[79][80]
Al Wakrah Al Janoub Stadium 44,325[81][82]
Team base camps
Base camps were used by the 32 national squads to stay and train before and during
the World Cup tournament. In July 2022, FIFA announced the hotels and training sites
for each participating team.[83][84] This World Cup was the most compact since the
inaugural edition in 1930, with 24 of the 32 teams being within a 10 km radius of each
other, and are concentrated within the Doha Area. It was the first Cup since 1930 in
which players did not need to take flights to matches and could remain at the same
training base throughout the entire tournament.[85][86]
List[85][86]
List[85][86]
Security
The Qatari government employed about 50,000 security personnel including police
departments and military forces from at least thirteen countries, including Poland,
Germany, France, Kuwait, Jordan, Italy, Palestine, Spain, Pakistan, Turkey, USA, Saudi
Arabia and the United Kingdom.[87] The Turkish government provided about 3,000 riot
police personnel,[87] and Pakistan provided about 4,500 Army troops to Qatar for the
event.[88]
