Qatar reveals details for fifth FIFA World Cup stadium

The Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy of the 2022 FIFA World Cup has unveiled plans for the fifth proposed stadium that will host the global football tournament, as fresh allegations emerged concerning Qatar’s securing of the event.

Led by architecture, design, engineering, and construction services giant AECOM, the 40,000-capacity Al Rayyan Stadium will be built on the site of Al Rayyan Sports Club’s former home. It has been designed to host group stage, round-of-16 and quarter-final matches during the World Cup.

The Supreme Committee said it will feature hospitality and service areas located outside the stadium in dune-like structures that aim to resemble the sand dunes that surround traditional desert tents.

The precinct surrounding Al Rayyan Stadium will include a range of facilities, including a mosque, aquatics centre, athletics track, cricket pitch, tennis courts and hockey pitch. The grounds will also feature a skate park, cycling track, running track and outdoor fitness equipment. A new branch of Aspetar, the region’s premier sports medicine facility and a Fifa Medical Centre of Excellence, will also be built in the precinct.

Located 20 kilometres km west of Doha, organisers are targeting a completion date of the first quarter of 2019 while, after the World Cup, the seating capacity of Al Rayyan Stadium will be reduced to approximately 21,000. The stadium’s modular upper tier will be donated to nations in need of sporting infrastructure. The downscaled stadium will become the new home of Al Rayyan Sports Club, which has historically been one of Qatar’s most popular and successful football teams.

Announcing details of the Stadium, Hassan Al Thawadi, Secretary General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, stated “unveiling the design of Al Rayyan Stadium is another important step forward in our preparations to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

“We will continue to work tirelessly as our vision for the tournament takes shape on the ground.

“As one of the most successful and widely-supported clubs in Qatar, Al Rayyan has always played an important part in our hosting plans. We are very confident that this impressively designed stadium and precinct will become a landmark for the Al Rayyan area and benefit the entire community.”

In related news, a just published book has made further allegations concerning claims over a vote-trading pact between former Asian Football Confederation (AFC) President Mohamed bin Hammam and Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) President Ángel María Villar Llona in the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

The Ugly Game, written by Heidi Blake and Jonathan Calvert, builds on a series of reports in UK newspaper the Sunday Times last summer about Qatar’s successful bid for the World Cup. The book provides further evidence for claims there was collusion between the Qatar 2022 bid and Spain/Portugal’s unsuccessful bid for 2018, which secured seven votes for each, detailing exchanges between Qatari Bin Hammam and Villar Llona, who remains on FIFA’s executive committee.

FIFA’s head of security during the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, Chris Eaton, told The Guardian newspaper that FIFA should look into the allegations.

Eaton, who left FIFA in May 2012 to head up the Qatari-funded International Centre for Sport Security, stated “if there is new evidence, whatever it shows and whoever it implicates, then FIFA needs to investigate it.

“That’s the proper thing to do. FIFA needs to remove the stain on its reputation that the lack of transparency has created.”

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