Let’s learn the history of Lusail – a city that is just under construction but will soon meet football fans from all over the world.

Lusail – a city built in the name of football!

A little more than ten years ago, there was a sleepy fishing village about 16 kilometers north of Qatar, and soon it will be the site of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

For the first time in history, the world championships in the sport will be held in the fall and winter instead of summer. In addition, instead of the initially planned capacity of 80,000 seats, Lusail will host 20,000 spectators. This event will be so glorious that it will attract fans of india casino bonus and just people who have never been fond of football before!

Of course, we will not see the Port Vale team at the World Cup, but no football connoisseur can miss this spectacle!

The history of the new city

Fast-forward to today, and in this village, a futuristic metropolis filled with the latest technology and engineering practices is being built and is nearing completion. Qatar made this city specifically for the World Cup?

Lusail (a planned city under construction in Qatar that began in 2006) is about ten kilometers north of downtown Doha. If you came here in the early twentieth century, you would have found a tiny fishing village and the fort of the then Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Jassim Al Thani. One visitor testifies to the following: “The Sheikh’s house is about 200 meters south of the village: it was built about 1901 and is a four-sided building with high stone and plaster walls adjoined by several courtyards and wings with a small mosque. It is affectionately called a fort, but it has no cannons.”

Lusail’s Past

If you were to return here a hundred years later, all you would find there would be a fishing village and an abandoned fort nestled among salt marshes and stony desert – and only three small farms, a cement factory, and a cell phone tower around. Then, local contractors would come to the place at night and secretly dump construction debris. Local boy racers would come to ride in four-wheel drive cars, but things have changed dramatically. On December 18, 2022, the Final 22nd World Cup will be played at the Lusail Iconic Stadium in front of 80,000 people in the middle of Lusail’s mini-megalopolis. Qatar, especially for the World Cup, has built a new city.

Qatari planners had their eye on Lusail as early as 2004, and in 2005, years before Qatar announced its bid to host the World Cup, plans for the new city were first outlined.

Making it a reality

When Qatar submitted its bid to host the World Cup and planned to hold the final in Lusail and then won the right to host the championship, the city of Lusail came off the drawing board. It began to become a reality at a dizzying speed.

A $45 billion master plan for the city was created-no; one could accuse Qatar of lacking ambition. 

The master plan contained the following elements: 

• A central business district with a group of impossibly tall towers and a central strip-shaped shopping plaza modeled after the Champs-Elysées; 
• Autonomous mini-cities, including energy cities (providing energy for the rest of the infrastructure) and an entire area designed only for the needs of the state oil company Qatar Petroleum;
• The plan also had an “Entertainment City” with a Six Flags theme park, giant waterslides, an indoor ski dome, and three kilometers of waterfront topped by a huge shopping mall shaped like five huge white rocks clustered by the sea.

And no new Gulf metropolis is without a vast golf course area. Lusail has two courses, a golf club, and special housing for those who want to be alone with nature.

Suppose everything may seem too urban and sandy. In that case, the Ketayfan Islands, artificially created islands in the Persian Gulf, are for you. Here you will find private luxury housing, a yacht club, a sailing club, and a mosque on the three islands.

Infrastructure

Beginning construction of Lusail practically from scratch, its infrastructure nevertheless differs significantly from most similar projects of the present time. The gas, electricity, and water systems of the metropolis are not just buried in the ground; they have their network of tunnels, which means that they can be maintained without disturbing the city systems located on the surface of the earth (without destroying the roads). Wastewater is handled by a network of pneumatic pumps and vacuum tubes. Instead of relying on conventional electric air conditioning, the cooling process in Lusail is based on the use of solar energy to cool the water, which will then be pumped through the city’s network of pipes.

Equally ubiquitous will be a network of surveillance cameras covering every meter of public space. The more traditional infrastructure has been addressed too. Lusail, with its light-rail system and highways, is connected to the Doha meter. In addition, dozens of kindergartens and schools have been built in Lusail, as well as a university and a zoo entirely dedicated to giraffes. Finally, a particular area adjacent to the stadium is equipped.

A real feast for soccer fans

In 2015, Lusail opened a sports arena for the Handball World Cup, spending $318 million. They did everything they could for the World Cup; they built a stadium called the Lusail Iconic, which seats 80,000 people and cost almost $1 billion. A metal facade surrounds the soccer arena with intricate geometric patterns that resemble the look of traditional lanterns and furniture of the Arab world. The stadium also has unique locker rooms for the team mascots.

After the tournament, the organizers plan to halve the stadium’s capacity more than, transfer it to local sports clubs and turn most of the hospitality area into public facilities. As a result, the city of Lusail will become an independent metropolis and home to nearly half a million people.

Qatar has done everything in its power to host the World Cup properly. Still, we should remember the problems in the relationship between the Qatari state authorities and the workers called upon to build it all. The above information gave an exciting insight into how far governments can go in promoting their global image, along with a total disregard for the human cost and the stories of the workers (primarily migrants) who paid an actual price for its creation.

Stadium

Lusail Ikonik is the last stadium to open for the 2022 World Cup. All other arenas have already been put into operation. Lusail is a whole ultra-modern city that was built specifically for the World Cup, 20 km from Doha. And the golden stadium, designed by the architectural bureau of Norman Foster, will become its center: 10 matches of the World Cup will be held here, including the semi-final and final.

The Qatari authorities understand that the country does not need an 80,000-strong stadium after the 2022 World Cup. Therefore, most stands will be dismantled and donated to sports projects worldwide. The capacity of the sports complex will be reduced to 20 thousand spectators. Lusail Ikonik itself will turn into a hub: according to the organizers, a school, a hospital, a shopping center, cafes, and restaurants will be located there.