Aerial view of Aspetar Hospital in Baaya

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

Baaya Baaya ( ar, بعيا; also spelled as Baaja) is a district in the municipality of Al Rayyan in Qatar. It is one of the more developed districts in Al Rayyan, hosting Villaggio Mall, Aspire Park, and the Aspire Zone, all of which run along Al Waa ...

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 (city), Al Khor, it is home to m ...

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 secondar ...

) 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, and is adjacent to

Villaggio Mall Villaggio Mall is a shopping mall located in the Aspire Zone in the west end of Doha, the capital city of Qatar. It is located on Al Waab street between the Hyatt Plaza and Sports City and has over 200 stores, including many famous brands in the U. ...

, 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 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; it is the first Wor ...

bid submitted by the

Qatar Football Association The Qatar Football Association ( ar, الاتحاد القطري لكرة القدم, al-Ittiḥād al-Qaṭariyy li-Kurat al-Qadam) is the governing body of football in Qatar. President Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Bin Ahmed Al-Thani is currently ...

, 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 ...

matches. * Hamad Aquatic Center, 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