Africa-Press – Eritrea. Fifa president Gianni Infantino is looking forward to the start of the 2022 Fifa World Cup on Sunday, with Qatar taking on Ecuador at 7pm.
Infantino, who marks six years since he became Fifa president in 2016, spoke highly of Qatar for being ready to deliver a modern-day World Cup, the first in the Arab world.
The Fifa president is impressed by the eight stadiums set to host the World Cup in Qatar.
“When it comes to the World Cup stadiums here in Qatar, [there are] eight state-of-the-art stadiums,” said Infantino in Doha.
“I mean, one is more beautiful than the other — it’s really difficult to choose and pick one. Of course, the Lusail [iconic] Stadium, where the final will take place, is special.”
80,000-capacity Lusail Stadium, located 20km north of Central Doha will host the Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022 final. Immense yet exquisite, the scale and splendor of this arena are a wonder, built to lie in harmony with its surroundings.
Infantino adds: “The Al Bayt Stadium, where the opening match is taking place as well, is the shape of a tent, of an Arab tent, and is extremely beautiful. The stadium we are [at] here is called the 974 Stadium because it’s built of 974 containers, and after the World Cup, the containers will be closed and the whole stadium will be shipped somewhere else.”
Stadium 974 made history even before its first match. Constructed entirely from shipping containers and modular steel, it is the first fully demountable covered football stadium — showing Qatar’s commitment to cost-effective sustainability and daring design.
“It’s part of this World Cup’s legacy as well, the sustainability of the World Cup, thinking about the environment and not just building white elephants that are not used thereafter. This stadium will be reused somewhere else in the world. And this will be quite a unique World Cup, because it’s a very compact World Cup with eight stadiums in 50km.”
The designated venues for the Fifa World Cup 2022 Qatar are Lusail Iconic Stadium in Lusail, Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, Al Janoub Stadium in Al Wakrah, Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium, Khalifa International Stadium and Education City Stadium in Al Rayyan and Stadium 974 and Al Thumama Stadium in Doha.
“You can watch more than one game per day, which, again, is unique, it’s never happened in any World Cup and it will never happen in the future as well, because everything is happening here in a small country with a big heart,” he added.
It will be the second time that the Fifa World Cup will be hosted in Asia after Japan and South Korea co-hosted the 2002 showpiece.
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