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World Cup 2022

Celebrations for the anniversary of the inauguration of the Al-Janoub stadium

The Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy is celebrating the opening of the stadium which has a capacity of 40,000 spectators and boasts a 92-metre retractable roof.

Celebrations for the anniversary of the inauguration of the Al-Janoub stadium
FIFA

One year ago, Qatar's Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy was focused on the major efforts for the inauguration of the Al-Janoub stadium, one of the venues ready to host World Cup Qatar 2022, and which was officially opened in May 2019. The Committee turned to Twitter to publish a series of videos of the inauguration, together with a question for their followers: who had attended the opening? The comments reflected the recognition and praise felt for the effort in completing the stadium, the first venue finished of the eight to be built from scratch, starting in 2014, for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The Al-Janoub stadium took five years to build; whereas the Al-Khalifa International stadium, the first of the World Cup venues to be inaugurated, was completed after a series of renovations to meet the highest FIFA standards, ready to host games for the World Cup.

Al-Janoub stadium: ready for 2022

Al-Janoub is located in the city of Al-Wakrah. It originally took the name of the city, until the day of its inauguration when the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, tweeted the new name of the stadium: Al-Janoub. The stadium follows the design of the late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid, who died in 2016, and who was inspired for the design of the stadium by the traditional boats used by Qatari fishermen and pearl divers. The Al-Janoub stadium is one of Zaha Hadid’s final projects. She was the first woman to win the Pritzker Prize for Architecture, in honour of her innovative designs.

A world record stadium

A world record was set by the laying of the turf at the stadium, with the grass being installed in just nine hours and 15 minutes. Al-Janoub has a capacity of 40,000 spectators and will host games at the World Cup Qatar 2022 through to the quarter-finals; it will then return to being the home of Al-Wakrah football club. What’s more, after the World Cup the upper tier of seating will be dismantled and donated to developing countries in need of sports infrastructure.

This World Cup venue has a 92-metre retractable roof, which is able to provide shade from the sun for the entire ground – protecting the fans from the extreme conditions and helping increase the efficiency of the temperature-lowering technology in the stadium.

The city where Al-Janoub is located, Al-Wakrah, is on the south-east coast of Qatar, between the cities of Doha and Mesaieed. Previously it was a sparsely populated area, where fishing and pearl-diving were the main activities, however in recent years the city has experienced a boom, with the population expected to reach 100,000 by 2022.