Inside Qatar’s Lusail Stadium at the 2022 World Cup

The 2022 FIFA World Cup has had its controversies – but few can disagree with the notion that it has captured the imagination of football fans across the world. The action on the pitch has been some of the best seen at recent World Cups, while the images of the fans decked out in national colours in those brand-spanking new stadiums have lit up living rooms across the globe. 

For those of us not lucky enough to be in those stadiums in person, here at mustard ID we’ve taken a closer look inside the tournament’s flagship venue – to summarise just what has made the experience so special for the hundreds of thousands of fans in attendance. 

The jewel in the crown is the spectacular, 89,000-seater Lusail Stadium, which has hosted 10 matches in total, including the final. The stadium was officially inaugurated in September and is located in the emerging town of Lusail, to the north of the state capital Doha. 

While lots of the talk around the Lusail stadium has centred on its luxurious-looking gold exterior, at mustard ID we’re more interested in what’s inside. 

Triangular openings in the exterior are actually designed to benefit the interior, in particular to light up the internal concourses via perforated screens, to help fans making their way around. 

Lusail Stadium was designed via a three-way collaboration between the designers Foster & Partners, structural engineers Arup and world-renowned sports architects, Populous. And one of the key factors in the interior design of the stadium was to create an immersive atmosphere with fans as close to the pitch as possible. 

“The arrival experience is intuitive and immersive,” Foster & Partners head of studio, Luke Fox, told Dezeen.

“Spectators enter the vessel between two tiers of seating that have been intentionally compressed to heighten the sense of drama as they emerge into the generous seating bowl flooded with natural light.”

One pre-tournament concern for fans was the heat in the Gulf state. Never before has a World Cup been hosted in the Middle East. Thanks to the ingenuity of the design Lusail Stadium has a ‘spoke wheel’ cable net roof along with an outdoor air conditioning system, both of which have been integral in keeping fans cool inside and outside. The entire stadium is cooled using solar power and according to the Qatari authorities, it has a zero carbon footprint. 

The interior of the stadium has also been designed with the future in mind. After the World Cup, Lusail Stadium is likely to be reconfigured into a 40,000-seat arena (half its current capacity). Proposals to fill the space vacated by reconfiguration include shops, cafes, education and athletic facilities and a health centre – meaning that its legacy will live on long after the World Cup ends.