Qatar inaugurates the last stadium before the World Cup with a party

With the official inauguration of the last stadium that was under construction, qatar On the night of Friday, September 9, the deck of venues where the World Cup matches will be played was completed. The Lusail is the last of the eight stadiums committed to the FIFA which ends, just over two months before the start of the championship.

The inauguration had the excuse of a friendly match between the champions of the Saudi Arabian and Egyptian leagues, Al Hilal and Zamalek, respectively. “It is an exciting moment for us, the end of a 13-year journey,” Hassan Al-Thawadi, secretary general of the supreme organizing committee, told Bein Sports.

The match, preceded by a concert by the very popular Egyptian singer Amr Diab, was “the last test in the preparation of a stadium”, explained the general director of the organizing committee, Yasir Al-Jamal. It was a dress rehearsal, on a small scale, of what awaits the emirate, host of the Club World Cup in 2019 and 2020, and the Arab Cup in 2021. They highlighted the security measures and the good organization outside the enclosure, whose connecting tracks are not finished.

The event, which was called the Lusail Super Cup, was played with all the tickets sold and was sealed with a 4-1 win on penalties by Al-Hilal (directed by the Argentine Ramón Díaz), after a one-goal draw. at the end of ninety minutes. The 80,000 spectators enjoyed a game dominated by Hilal, in the stadium with the largest capacity that Qatar will have for the world championship, and whose construction cost some 700 million euros.

Between 1 and 1.2 million visitors are expected to travel to the World Cup in a country of nearly 3 million inhabitants (most of them expatriates, whose flags were seen this Friday in the stands). More than 2.45 million tickets out of the 3 million available World Cup host Qatar: Lots to do yet for human rights for the general public have been sold, before a final sales phase online and at the box office which will be completed this month.