One of the great flags that Qatar 2022 is flying to conquer the hearts of millions of soccer fans around the world is that of innovation, as this edition of the FIFA World Cup will mark a milestone in the history of this tournament.
Never before has the FIFA World Cup been held in such a small country. Prior to Qatar 2022, the editions held on the smallest surfaces had been those of Italy in 1934 and 1990, and Switzerland in 1954. The host country of the edition to be played has an area of only 11,570 square kilometers. For the aforementioned reason, this is the first time that two matches will be played on the same day at the World Cup.
Also, Qatar 2022 will be the first edition to be held in the Middle East and to allow rosters of 26 players with 5 substitutions per match. However, there is one novelty that shook the world when it was announced: the date on which this FIFA World Cup will be held.
The calendar tradition to be broken in Qatar 2022
Since its establishment in Uruguay 1930, the FIFA World Cup has been held zealously every four (except at the time of the Second World War, from 1938 to 1947 approximately) in the months of May, June or July. However, in March 2015, the bomb exploded.
FIFA made it official that Qatar 2022 would not be held in the middle of the year, i.e. not in May, June and July, but from November 20to December 18. This forced all the world’s leagues to adjust their calendars to allow their players to participate in the upcoming World Cup.
Al Thumama Stadium, Qatar 2022, FIFA World Cup. (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
FIFA’s reason for playing the next FIFA World Cup at the end of 2022
The summer in the Middle East, and specifically in Qatar, delivers days with extreme temperatures, which would make it impossible to practice not only soccer but any sport: on average 106 degrees Fahrenheit, with the possibility of reaching temperatures of 132 degrees Fahrenheit.
While in the months of November and December, those attending the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 will experience temperatures ranging from 68 degrees Fahrenheit to 86 degrees Fahrenheit, just 41 degrees higher than the highest temperatures experienced during the Russia 2018 edition.
Lusail Stadium, Qatar 2022, FIFA World Cup.(David Ramos/Getty Images)
The technology that could have made it possible for Qatar 2022 to respect the tradition of holding the World Cup during the summer
Rarely in the history of the FIFA World Cup have the vast majority of the stadiums used to host the tournament’s matches been new or purpose-built. In Qatar 2022, 7 of the 8 stadiums meet this condition. And in all of them there are technological details that would impress even the greatest skeptics.
For example, almost all the stadiums used in Qatar 2022 will be reduced to half their capacity, and one will be completely dismantled. However, there is one technological advance that will be surprising to experience: climate control.
In the upcoming FIFA World Cup will use a system called directed cooling, which was created by the engineer and doctor Saud Abdulaziz Abdul Ghani Abdulaziz, whose purpose will be to maintain a temperature between 20 and 24 degrees inside the stadium regardless of the weather outside it.
“What we have done is to work on thermal comfort for the players and for 40,000 fans because it is not only a question of temperature. We have to be able to make sure that even if the temperature and the thermal sensation outside or the quality of the air is not good, inside the stadium vault it is,” the scientist shared in an interview forDiario AS.
The really amazing thing about the targeted cooling system, for which Saud Abdulaziz Abdul Ghani is already known in Qatar as the “Cold Doctor” is that it allows the stadium to be used 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, since its technology not only cools the air, but also purifies it.
“Thermal comfort is something with many details because each person inside the stadium has a particularity, is dressed in long-sleeved clothing, short, is more or less bulky. Each person perceives the temperature in a different way…. We control the temperature, the humidity, the air and the sensation that each person perceives. We have sensors scattered throughout the stadium because each area of the field is different….. Our obsession is not to cool the air, but to clean it. The most important thing is to keep the hot, dusty air outside and blocked, and the cleanest air possible inside,” said the “Cold Doctor”.
Thus, this advanced technology breaks FIFA’s argument that the Qatar 2022 World Cup will be played at the end of the year because of the impossibility of holding it in summer due to the high temperatures experienced in the host country. Regardless of the above, the fate has already been decided and the 22nd edition of the tournament will be remembered as the first time it was played at the end of the year.
Stadium 974, Qatar 2022, FIFA World Cup. (David Ramos/Getty Images)
