Education City Stadium () is a

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 ...

stadium which is located in

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 ...

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 ...

, and was built as a venue in time for 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 ...

held in Qatar. The stadium is located within several university campuses at the

Qatar Foundation Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development ( ar, مؤسسة قطر) is a state-led non-profit organization in Qatar, founded in 1995 by then-emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and his second wife Moza bint Nasser. Qatar Founda ...

Education City Education City is a development in Al Rayyan, Qatar. Developed by the Qatar Foundation, the property houses various educational facilities, including satellite campuses of eight international universities. History Education City was launched by ...

. Following the FIFA World Cup, the stadium will retain 25,000 seats for use by university athletic teams. On 3 September 2020, the stadium hosted its first official match, played in the 2020–21 Qatar Stars League season. The stadium is located about 7 km north-west of Doha.

Construction

The stadium is located on the outskirts of the capital

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 ...

and has a capacity of 40,000 seats. It has been given the nickname "Diamond in the Desert". With 20 percent of its building materials identified as green, the stadium is among the world's most

environmentally sustainable Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livin ...

stadiums. In May 2019, Education City Stadium received a five-star GSAS rating. The build contractor is JPAC JV, who appointed Pattern Design as the lead design architect, and

Buro Happold Buro Happold (previously ''BuroHappold Engineering'') is a British professional services firm that provides engineering consultancy, design, planning, project management, and consulting services for buildings, infrastructure, and the environment ...

for the engineering design. Like other stadiums built for the purpose of the 2022 FIFA World Cup it has been criticized for the working conditions for migrant workers, by

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

and certain media outlets. On 15 March 2022, FIFA president

Gianni Infantino Giovanni Vincenzo Infantino (; born 23 March 1970) is a Swiss football administrator with Italian citizenship and the current president of FIFA. He was elected President of FIFA during the 2016 FIFA Extraordinary Congress in February 2016. He ...

met with Qatar Minister of Labor,

Ali bin Samikh Al Marri Ali bin Saeed bin Samikh Al-Marri (Arabic: علي بن سعيد بن صميخ المري) is a Qatari human rights figure and politician born on November 30, 1972. He was appointed Minister of Labour of the State of Qatar on October 19, 2021. Bef ...

, and discussed the labor reforms taking place in the country. On 16 March 2022 Infantino said in an interview, “I am pleased to see the strong commitment from the Qatari authorities to ensure the reforms are fully implemented across the labor market, leaving a lasting legacy of the FIFA World Cup long after the event, and benefiting migrant workers in the host country in the long term.”

Human Rights Violations

According to
report
b
Equidem
migrant workers who worked on this stadium faced numerous labor rights and human rights violations: Nationality-based discrimination, verbal abuse, physical abuse, wage theft (unpaid overtime), overwork, illegal recruitment (recruitment fees), exposure to Covid-19, workers left without salary and food during lock down, and the inability to change employers.

2022 FIFA World Cup

The Education City Stadium was one of eight stadiums built, renovated or reconstructed for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar. The construction of the stadium was completed in June 2020, making it the third World Cup stadium to be completed. It officially opened on 15 June 2020.

History

On 30 September 2019, FIFA announced the Education City Stadium as the host of the third place match and

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

of the

2019 FIFA Club World Cup The 2019 FIFA Club World Cup (officially known as the FIFA Club World Cup Qatar 2019 presented by Alibaba Cloud for sponsorship reasons) was the 16th edition of the FIFA Club World Cup, a FIFA-organised international club football tournament betw ...

, with the tournament being held in Qatar. The stadium would also have hosted

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

’s first match in the semi-finals, but on 7 December 2019, the official opening of Education City Stadium was postponed until early 2020. Thus, Liverpool's opener, the final, and the third place match were all moved to the

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 of ...

. The 2020 FIFA Club World Cup was once again held in Qatar. The Education City Stadium was one of the venues. One second round match, one semi-final match, the third place match and the

between

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

and UANL all took place in the stadium. In 2020 the Education City Stadium hosted the East and West Zone matches of the 2020

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competition ...

. The stadium hosted five matches of the

2021 FIFA Arab Cup The 2021 FIFA Arab Cup () was the 10th edition of the Arab Cup, the Arab world's national team football tournament; it was the first edition under FIFA's jurisdiction. It took place between 30 November and 18 December in Qatar, as a p ...

. Like other stadiums constructed for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Education City Stadium has been subject to controversy on account of the treatment and status of

migrant worker A migrant worker is a person who Human migration, migrates within a home country or outside it to pursue work. Migrant workers usually do not have the intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work. Migrant worker ...

s employed at the construction sites. In a report,

criticizes Qatar for failing to investigate, remedy and prevent migrant workers' deaths.

Recent tournament results

2021 FIFA Arab Cup

2022 FIFA World Cup

Education City Stadium hosted eight matches during the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

References

{{2022 FIFA World Cup venues 2020 establishments in Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup stadiums Sports venues completed in 2020 Venues of the 2030 Asian Games Asian Games football venues