All but one of Qatar’s eight World Cup stadiums had to be built from scratch, with the other undergoing huge renovation work.
The cost of the construction work an eye-watering £3.35billion means this will be the most expensive World Cup ever.
The eight stadiums are all situated within a 21-mile radius of the capital Doha, making it the most localised World Cup.
Each new pitch required 50,000 litres of desalinated seawater every day in the summer, with ground staff blasting them with chilled air during September to make the surfaces durable.
Organisers also had to ship hundreds of tonnes of grass seed on climate-controlled planes from the US to Qatar.
A state-of-the-art cooling system, where cold air is sent through grills in the stands and nozzles on the pitch, will keep players and fans comfortable in the heat.
The crowning jewel among stadiums is the Lusail Stadium and that is the venue that will play host to the World Cup final.
The 80,000-capacity stadium, which is just 10 miles from Doha, only opened this year, very much behind the original schedule, but is a thing of beauty.
The design was inspired by the ‘interplay of light and shadow that characterises the fanar lantern,’ architects said.
At the end of the tournament, most of the seats will be removed and donated to developing countries as the new £33billion city of Lusail ‘will not need its own football stadium’ after 2022.
Rather than the Lusail Stadium, which will host 10 matches across the tournament, England begin their bid for World Cup glory at the Khalifa International Stadium.
The 45,416-capacity stadium was one of the only stadiums to have been opened before the World Cup was awarded to Qatar, as it was initially built in 1976.
It has been the country’s national stadium since it opened and has been extensively renovated to host the World Cup.
It has previously hosted the Asian Games, the Gulf Cup and the AFC Asian Cup and hosted the IAAF World Athletics Championships in 2019.
England played Brazil there in an international friendly back in 2009 while Liverpool won the FIFA Club World Cup at this venue 10 years later.
Wales’ World Cup begins at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium, previously known as the Al-Rayyan Stadium, which is 14 miles away from Doha.
Al Janoub is one of the most controversial stadiums, with its design compared to a vagina
