Qatar, the Middle Eastern country that won the bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, has revealed designs of its latest soccer venue - The Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor City. The design of the stadium is modeled after the Bayt Al Sha'ar - the traditional black and white tents used by the nomadic people of the region.
The Al Bayt Stadium will be the semi-final venue for the tournament and construction on the venue is expected to start soon.
The Al Bayt stadium will reportedly have 60,000 seats and employ the latest eco-friendly technology. Not only will it comply with the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and Global Sustainability Assessment System (GSAS) ratings, but will also use green building materials, reports Arabian Business.
The venue will have a detachable upper tier, seats of which will be donated to other countries once the tournament is over. The stadium will be left with 32,000 seats once the tier is removed.
The stadium has been designed by Dar Al Handasah and is the second venue to start construction after the controversial Al-Wakrah stadium, which has been designed by Zaha Hadid.
"The launch of Al Bayt Stadium ... the second proposed stadium for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, is another milestone of progress. By the end of 2014 we will have five stadiums under construction, demonstrating our deep commitment to delivering an amazing experience in 2022 and beyond," Hassan Al Thawadi, the SC secretary general, was quoted by The Telegraph.
Check out the renderings of the stunning stadium in a video below:
Qatar hopes to finish work on the Al Bayt stadium by 2018. In April this year, Qatari officials said that they had reduced the number of stadiums from the initially planned 12 to eight, on rising construction costs.
The total cost of the project is expected to exceed $95 billion. In March this year, the government revealed that it would increase spending by 3.7 percent.
The launch of the Al Bayt stadium comes amid accusations that Qatar had won the bid to host the prestigious tournament by bribing FIFA officials. FIFA has already commissioned a probe to look into the 2010 voting procedure. The investigation has already uncovered names of Qatari billionaires who seemed to be involved in the bribery and secret negotiations with Thailand, reports CNBC News.
That's not all. Qatar has also been entangled in a severe human rights war after the death toll of immigrant construction workers rose to alarming rates in the recent past.
However, officials are confident that Qatar will not be stripped off its host status because they are innocent. They have denied all the accusations calling them false.
"There is no question that the 2022 World Cup will be held in Qatar. The only thing that would be nice to know, still, is if the tournament will be held in the winter or the summer," a Qatari official told Al Jazeera.
