Sports Technology

Despite the 2022 FIFA World Cup being moved to the (northern hemisphere) winter to avoid summer temperatures as high as 50 degrees Celsius, Qatar has pushed ahead with its plans for new cooling systems for sporting stadiums.

According to a report in Doha News, a weather station has been installed at the under-construction Al Wakrah Stadium in recent weeks, including a sun tracker, a solar-powered device to monitor temperatures, humidity and other features, to help record the data needed to create the cooling technology needed.

Cooling expert Nelson Chilengwe said the system would record meteorological data every five minutes and air quality information every 15 minutes.

Chilengwe told Doha News "we usually get this information from data based on national weather station measurements, like the one at the airport, but for our program, we wanted to know exactly what the weather is like close to our stadium sites."

Qatar's Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, which is responsible for implementing the infrastructure required for the World Cup advised that similar weather stations also would be installed at the Al Rayyan and Lusail stadium sites, with data to be collected for at least three years.

The technology was a significant inclusion in Qatar’s bid to host the FIFA football tournament, which is traditionally played during the northern hemidphere summer.

But within days of the Arabian Gulf nation being awarded the event in 2010, there were calls for it to be moved to winter, with some doctors claiming the searing heat would affect the health of players, as well as fans who may be deterred from attending.

In February, FIFA ended four years of speculation over when the tournament would be scheduled, announcing it would be moved to November/December for the first time in its history.

The final is scheduled to be on 18th December 2022, with the number of playing days expected to be 28.

Qatar also has reduced the number of stadiums it plans to build for the event from 12 to eight.

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10th July 2014 - QATAR TESTS OPEN AIR WORLD CUP COOLING ZONES

19th August 2013 - QATAR HIRES MANAGERS FOR FIRST WORLD CUP STADIUM

26th April 2013 - QATAR MOVES FORWARD IN DEVELOPING SOLAR STADIUM COOLING

10th November 2011 - QATAR URGED TO SCRAP AIR CONDITIONING FOR WORLD CUP STADIA