Some have renovated their national stadium to host the World Cup. Some have built a new stadium from scratch to host the opening match and especially the World Cup final. Others have gone so far as to rebuild an entire area of ​​their capital to give fans the best possible experience with the new stadium they are building there. But no one built a whole city for the World Cup. Until Qatar does. This year.

Where others see visions in the desert of oases thirsty for water, Katharini saw in the desert a vision of a new city, essentially from scratch, clearly thirsty… The Middle Ages of work, the number of complaints and reactions that swell stigmatize the event even before it starts.

Thus was born Lusail, the city of the World Cup, which, among other things, will host the final of this year’s World Cup, in mid-December. The first city built for PC. – and it will go down in history as the city of the World Cup, as desired by the emirate of the Persian Gulf.

It is indeed an ambitious project with an initial budget of 40 billion rials (about 11.4 billion euros) to create a city with a capacity of 450,000 inhabitants, of which it is estimated that more than 250,000 will be permanent and about 190,000 workers and visitors.

Qatar’s new urban center, when fully developed, will cover an area of ​​38 square kilometers, roughly the size of the entire island of Anafi. It is located on the seafront, about 23 kilometers north of the center of Doha, the emirate’s capital. A century ago, it was just a small village with a few buildings, as well as a favorite vacation spot for the Qatari royal family. Mostly, however, it was pure desert.

And just as the Bedouins imagined blooming oases, the Qatari authorities imagined a city named after the local plant al-wasail. The scheme dates back to 2005 when it was first announced and was not associated with the World Cup at the time. But it quickly became central to Qatar’s bid for the 2022 tournament, which ironically (carefully, then FIFA president Sepp Blatter) was awarded to the emirate a full 12 years ago, in 2010, along with the 2018 World Cup awarded to Russia.

Lusail is being built by the state-owned development company Qatari Diyar with international partners such as American Parsons and Germany’s Dorsey Group. Elite houses are now being sold in the city, or rather rented out for 99 years, even to foreigners.

An ambitious project with an initial budget of 11.4 billion euros, a capacity of 450,000 inhabitants and an area of ​​38 sq. km.

Many infrastructure projects are still under construction or under completion, such as apartment buildings, roads, parks, hotels, shopping malls, shops, offices, schools and universities, museums, hospitals, telecommunications, public parking, luxury marina, impressive beach a promenade with palm trees, like in Doha, as well as a golf course and even an ice rink!

Unfortunately, the cost of human labor is considered enormous, especially for foreign workers who are supposedly working in slave conditions, many of them to death, and already Denmark has announced that it will compete with its inconspicuous shirt coat of arms, wanting to protest against all this.

Lusail’s informal name is “City of the Future” and it will have an overground railroad, a connection to the Doha metro, a network of water taxis and bike paths, and is also supposed to be the only city in Qatar that is completely green.

Its main attraction is a pharaoh-sized structure with two giant swords crossing in the air, a monument already visible from all sides of the newly built city.

However, it does not seem to have any sights reminiscent of the World Cup or football in general, except, of course, a large stadium, which is already completely ready. The goal now, in the remaining weeks, is to organize the Fan Zones as best as possible so that visitors can feel like they were at previous World Championships.

Lusail, however, has created its own football club since 2014, bearing the name Lusail Sport Club and the colors of the country’s flag, apparently in an attempt to unite the emirate’s fans around it. But not much success yet…

In any case, Lusail will be the flagship of Qatar’s fleet of expensive projects for this expensive event. Many talk about the lack of financial solutions to accommodate the fans who will march in November and December from Qatar, as there are few options for those who are not going to spend a fortune to stay in Qatar during the World Cup. This is also a big question for Lusail.

Indeed, after the event, he will rightfully claim a place in the history books as the first city built in the name of the “round goddess”.

State-of-the-art stadium, but with serious flaws

The biggest attraction in Lusail and obviously the rest of Qatar during the 2022 FIFA World Cup will be the Lusail Iconic Stadium, a giant stadium that was opened just three weeks ago and will crown a new world champion on December 18.

It is modern, with a capacity of 86,000 seats (although only 80,000 are expected to be available during the World Cup), rich in facilities, and will be the largest stadium at the upcoming event.

The new stadium will host, in addition to the final, nine more World Cup games, starting with Argentina’s match against Saudi Arabia (22/11).

Thanks to the architecture of the British firm Foster & Partners and significant assistance from many foreign companies, including the China Railway Technology Corporation, the Lusail Iconic stadium is equipped with air conditioning that consumes solar energy, a water recycling system to irrigate numerous plants. surround it, while it is predicted to have no environmental impact.

The plan for its use after the World Cup is to transform it into a smaller stadium, half the capacity (about 40,000 seats) by removing additional seats, and the remaining vacant seats are supposed to be used for other purposes: residential buildings. , educational institutions, canteens, shops, a medical center and, of course, sports facilities will be created.

From an architectural point of view, the shape of the field resembles … a lantern, beautifully playing with light and shadows. The groundbreaking polytetrafluoroethylene (PTTF) roof construction protects the pitch from the relentless sun, hot wind and dust while letting in enough sunlight to allow the grass to grow properly on the playing field.

Completion of this large stadium was scheduled for 2020, but the pandemic pushed back the schedule by a year, causing the stadium to open its doors in November 2021, a year before this year’s World Cup in Qatar.

However, the official opening and the big test, as they say in Qatar, was the organization on September 9 of the so-called Lusail Super Cup, which, in fact, was a final between the best Arab teams, Saudi Al-Hilal and Egyptian Zamalek. . But not everything went well…

According to both local and international media reports, there have been many problems at the stadium and the time before the start of the World Cup seems to be very short. The dress rehearsal of the FIFA-sponsored match received many complaints from 77,575 spectators, as well as journalists covering the event.

As reported and written, there was not enough public transport to the stadium for the match, and the air conditioner seems to have… taken its day off. In addition, there was no water pressure for half of the half, apparently due to increased demand in the toilets.

According to Doha News, the buses connecting the parking lots to the stadium were not running, and one family said they had to walk for 45 minutes in the unbearable heat. Soft drink vending machines quickly ran out of water, Reuters reported, and one father told Doha News he couldn’t find water for his five-year-old daughter unless a kind stadium volunteer offered him one from his own bottle.

The representative of the organizing committee claimed that it was for these reasons that the dress rehearsal was held, in the hope of correcting all the bad lyrics …