The Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) recently participated in the European Stadium & Safety Management Association (ESSMA) Summit in Portugal. More than 375 delegates attended the event at Estádio do Dragão – the home of FC Porto – to network, share ideas and learn best practices.

The fifth edition of the event featured more than 30 speakers, including the SC's Al Thumama Stadium Senior Engineer, Khalifa Al Mana, who briefed attendees on 2022 FIFA World Cup™ preparations, including overall progress at the eight proposed tournament venues.

Al Mana highlighted the importance of engaging with communities around the stadiums and outlined the advantages of hosting a compact World Cup for players and fans.

"By engaging with the communities around each of our venues, we will guarantee a successful legacy use for all Qatar 2022 stadiums," said Al Mana. "Each of the arenas will have a different use after the tournament. Thanks to the modular top tiers, the capacity will be reduced in many of them so we can reuse this space in different ways after 2022."

Al Mana continued: "The future use of these arenas has been smartly planned to complement our compact tournament concept. The longest distance between venues is just 55km. That means no internal flights for fans once they arrive and more rest and training time for players."

Al Mana talked in detail about all the proposed host venues, with a specific focus on Al Thumama Stadium and its unique design, inspired by the 'gahfiya', a traditional woven cap worn for centuries by men across the Arab world. Al Thumama is also the first FIFA World Cup™ venue to be designed by a Qatari architect – Ibrahim M. Jaidah.

Al Mana also emphasised the importance of sustainability in the design of Qatar 2022 stadiums.

"Sustainability lies at the heart of the first FIFA World Cup in the Arab world – from design, to construction and legacy. This is why all of our stadiums are on track to achieve four-star GSAS certification, and are designed to consume 40% less energy and water during operation, among other things," said Al Mana.

The ESSMA Summit is organised in partnership with the European Club Association and has become a must-attend industry event for clubs, stadium operators, leagues and federations from all over the world. The next edition of the event will be held at Groupama Arena, Budapest, in January 2020.