Diversity & Inclusion in Clean Energy Industry: Renewable Green Leaders magazine, Sep2019

MIDDLE EAST NEWS
Advanced Stadium Cooling: Innovative
Technology Coming to the Qatar World Cup
Every stadium has it’s own unique form and structure
The 2018 World Cup marked the World Cup debut
of using the Video Assistant Referee, also known as
VAR, as the newest technological innovation
coming to the stadiums. According to FIFA, the
VAR system had a success rate of 99.3 percent and
many football analysts have praised the
introduction of VAR. In their opinion, the World
Cup was a perfect example of how technology can
work well for football, although it did show that
there are some risks involved in relying on the
technology.
In 2022, when the World Cup will be played in
Qatar, a newer and bigger technical innovation will
come to the stadiums. All host stadiums will be
air-conditioned, making it doable to organize the
World Cup in a country with extreme heats. Since
Qatar was announced as the competition’s host in
December 2010, many have been critical of the
controversial choice wondering how an event like
the World Cup could be organized in the desert.
In only one generation, Qatar has transformed
from a handful of poor fishing villages into the
richest country per capita in the world. It turns out
if you combine gas revenues with foreign labor and
the firm hand of the ruling monarchy, a country
can be transformed rather quickly. Now, Qatar is
taking on one of the biggest sports events the world
has to offer.
Because of the extreme heat, revolutionary
cooling technology is going to be used at the 2022
World Cup in Qatar after tests proved everything
is working as it should at the proposed World Cup
stadiums. The development is an important step in
the build-up to the tournament, which has
courted controversy since Qatar was announced as
the competition’s host.
The 2022 tournament is therefore being held in
winter for the first time, to avoid the searing
summer heat. With temperatures averaging 42
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