Plans for the sixth stadium which will host the 2022 World Cup in Qatar have been revealed.
The 40,000-seater Al Thumama Stadium, designed in the shape of a ‘gahfiya’ — a traditional headdress worn by Arab men — is the latest to be announced as Qatar gear up for football’s showpiece competition in five years’ time.
Al Thumama, situated four miles south of Qatar’s capital Doha, is one of seven stadiums now under construction, with Khalifa International Stadium in Doha having already been completed in May this year.
It will play host to some of the competition’s group stage matches and will be used until the quarter-finals with plans for Lusail Stadium, the venue of the final, yet to be revealed.
Lusail Stadium will seat 86,000 people and stage the opening ceremony as well as the tournament’s showpiece. Plans for Ras Abu Aboud, another stadium which will sit just across the water from Doha city centre, are also to be announced.
However, four other stadiums Al Bayt Stadium, Al Rayyan Stadium, Al Wakrah Stadium and Qatar Foundation Stadium have already been revealed, with completion dates all set for between the 2018 and 2019.
All seven of the new stadiums are already under construction, with the eighth, the Khalifa International Stadium, already built as this mammoth project continues.
Packaged by Lanre Olabisi
