With a little under 2,022 days until the Qatar World Cup kicks off, the tiny yet hugely ambitious Gulf state will officially unveil the tournament’s first completed venue Friday. The Khalifa International Stadium — complete with the much-talked-about cooling technology that was central to Qatar’s controversial bid for the World Cup — will host the country’s biggest domestic cup competition, The Emir Cup final. On the pitch it will be a battle between arguably the Country’s biggest teams, Al-Sadd, skippered by Barcelona great Xavi Hernandez, and Al Rayyan. But off the pitch, the stadium will provide a solid example of Qatar’s progress for the World Cup, a mere 2012 days before the tournament kicks off. “I think it is a source of immense joy and pride,” Nasser Al-Khater, a senior figure at World Cup organising body, the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, told AFP. “It’s a stadium dear to our hearts, Khalifa Stadium, so we’re happy that it’s the first s...
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