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.
“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 stadium to be completed.
“It’s real, it shows you the progress you’ve been working
hard on is actually coming to reality.
“And you can see it and you can feel it, it’s tangible. It’s
a thrill.”
The stadium was first built in 1976 and has just gone
through its second refurbishment.
It will house 40,000 fans during the World Cup, hosting
matches played up to the quarterfinal stage.
Significantly, it will also host the 2019 World Athletics
Championships.
As part of its revamp, Khalifa includes technology that will
provide air-conditioning for fans.
Approximately 500 jet nozzles will blast out cold air,
keeping temperatures at around 23 degrees Celsius (73 degrees Fahrenheit), for
fans.
Chilled water is piped to the stadium from a cooling centre
about one kilometre from the stadium, then once it arrives, cold air is pushed
into the stadium.
The man responsible for the system, Qatar University’s Dr
Saud Ghani, said he believed Khalifa represented a world-first.
“There isn’t on earth, one open air, air-conditioned
stadium,” he said.
Dr Ghani said the system at Khalifa would use up to 40 per
cent less energy than other cooling methods
Ironically, it may not be used to regulate temperatures for
fans during the 2022 World Cup after FIFA decided to move the tournament to
Qatar’s winter in November and December.
Khalifa is the scene of one of Qatar’s major sporting
triumphs, the 1992 Gulf Cup victory.
It was also the stadium where Saudi Arabia secured their
first ever World Cup qualification, with a thrilling 4-3 win over Iran.
Khater would not give a figure for the redevelopment of
Khalifa, though one estimate puts the cost at $90 million.
Qatar is spending up to $10 billion on stadiums and training
grounds, officials have said previously.
However, Khater denied reports earlier this year that the
country has slashed its budget by up to 40 per cent, claiming the original
figure needed for stadiums was an estimate only.
In February, Qatar’s finance minister Ali Shareef Al-Emadi
said the country was spending almost $500m every week on major infrastructure
projects for football’s biggest tournament.
Khalifa’s
rebuild has not been without tragedy though. In January it was alleged that
Briton Zac Cox died in a fall at the stadium.
The
revamp has occurred as Qatar has been strongly criticised for the ill-treatment
of its migrant workforce — which numbers more than two million, claims the
country has largely rejected.
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