Aerial view of Aspetar Hospital in Baaya

Aspire Zone, also known as Doha Sports City, is a sporting complex located in the Baaya district of

Al Rayyan Al Rayyan (; also spelled as ''Ar Rayyan'') is the third-largest municipality in the state of Qatar. Its primary settlement is the city of the same name, which occupies the entire eastern section and largely surrounds Metropolitan Doha and funct ...

, a suburb of

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the coun ...

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

. Owned by the Aspire Zone Foundation, it was established as an international sports destination in 2003 and in the following year an educational centre for the development of sporting champions (

Aspire Academy Aspire Academy ( ar, أكاديمية أسباير, Akādīmiyat 'Asbāyr) is a sports academy based in the Aspire Zone in Qatar, founded in 2004 with the goal to scout and help develop Qatari athletes, whilst also providing them with secondary ...

) was opened. The complex contains several sporting venues, mostly constructed in preparation for the

2006 Asian Games 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

. Aspire Zone is also home to Doha's tallest structure, the

Aspire Tower Aspire Tower, also known as The Torch Doha, is a skyscraper hotel located in the Aspire Zone complex in Doha, Qatar. Designed by architect Hadi Simaan and AREP and engineer Ove Arup and Partners, the tower served as the focal point for the 15 ...

, and is adjacent to Villaggio Mall, the most popular mall in Qatar. The complex is an important feature in the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international association football, football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022 ...

bid submitted by the Qatar Football Association, and was central to the

Doha bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics Doha, the capital city of Qatar, bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics. It was one of two cities in the Arab World, along with Cairo, Egypt to mount a serious bid. Doha's bid was eliminated from consideration when it failed to make the Candidate city s ...

put forward by the

Qatar Olympic Committee Qatar Olympic Committee ( ar, اللجنة الأولمبية القطرية, IOC code: QAT) is the National Olympic Committee representing Qatar. History The QOC was formed in 1979 and was granted full recognition by the International Olympic ...

Sporting venues

Aspire Zone's sporting venues include: *

Khalifa International Stadium Khalifa International Stadium (, , ) is a multi-purpose stadium located in Al Rayyan, Qatar, around west from the centre of Doha. Its ground comprises a running track and a grass pitch. Opened in 1976, the stadium was named after then-Emir ...

, a 50,000-capacity stadium primarily used for

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

matches. *

Hamad Aquatic Center Hamad Aquatic Centre is a large swimming pool complex in Doha, Qatar. The centre is housed in the Doha Sports City complex along with other buildings dedicated to sports in Qatar including the Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum, the Aspire Tower, Khal ...

, an

Olympic-size swimming pool An Olympic-size swimming pool conforms to regulated dimensions that are large enough for international competition. This type of swimming pool is used in the Olympic Games, where the race course is in length, typically referred to as "long cour ...

. * The

Aspire Dome The Aspire Dome is an indoor multi-purpose arena based in Qatar. It is located in the Aspire Academy in Doha and has the capacity to host 13 different sporting events simultaneously in a climate controlled arena, in addition to a full-sized indoo ...

, which is the world's largest indoor multi-purpose sports hall and contains 13 different playing fields.

Aspire Academy

, a sporting academy for youth, is located in the center of Aspire Zone.

Aspetar

Aspetar, a specialised orthopaedic and sports medicine hospital, is among the facilities of Aspire Zone. Commencing operations in 2007, it was the first-ever sports medicine hospital in the Middle East region. It earned accreditation as a

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

Medical Centre of Excellence in 2009. The hospital publishes a journal entitled ''Aspetar Sports Medicine Journal''.

References

External links

* Sports venues in Doha Event venues established in 2003 2003 establishments in Qatar Aspire Academy {{Qatar-sports-venue-stub