As the curtains draw dawn today for the final World Cup game, social media is heaving with images of magnificent stadia being put up for the 2022 games to be hosted by Qatar.
The 22nd edition of the quadrennial international men’s football championship, Qatar 2022, will mark the first World Cup not to be held in May, June, or July.
The tournament which is scheduled for late November until mid-December will also be the first World Cup ever to be held in the Arab world and the first in a Muslim-majority country.
This will be the first World Cup held entirely in Asia since the 2002 tournament in South Korea and Japan.
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In addition the tournament will be the last to involve 32 teams, with an increase to 48 teams scheduled for the 2026 tournament.
It is to be played in a reduced timeframe of around 28 days, with the final being held on 18 December 2022, which is also Qatar National Day.
The stadia aim to employ cooling technology capable of reducing temperatures within the stadium by up to 20 °C (36 °F), and the upper tiers of the stadiums will be disassembled after the World Cup and donated to countries with less developed sports infrastructure.
They are being built with the highest sustainability and environmental standards. The stadia will be equipped with cooling systems that are environmentally friendly overcoming the challenging environmental nature of the country.
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See below, images of the nine stadia being constructed for the 2022 World Cup games.
