Education City Stadium Bids Farewell to World Cup, Leaves Sustainable Legacy

Education City Stadium

Qatar Foundation's (QF) Education City Stadium hosted Friday the last of the eight matches on its pitch, with Brazil playing against Croatia. In all, the stadium saw a cumulative attendance of around 350,000 people.

In this exceptionally inclusive edition of the FIFA World Cup hosted in the Middle East for the first time, fans with varied abilities enjoyed attending the matches at Education City Stadium thanks to the accessibility services that were offered - from the sensory rooms which hosted almost 35 fans, to the entertaining performances by artists with different abilities on the fan routes to the stadium, and the accessibility volunteers who ensured a seamless experience for all fans.

Out of the eight FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 stadiums, Education City Stadium was the only match host destination with dedicated accessibility volunteers. In each game, 1,000 volunteers were available to assist spectators, out of which about 15 were dedicated accessibility volunteers. A total of 247 accessibility volunteers were trained by QF experts to support differently-abled fans at the tournament as a whole.

Commenting on the fans' experience inside the stadium's sensory room, Alison Sarraf, co-founder of Sensory Souk and the manager of the sensory room staffing, said: "The sensory room played a vital role in enabling people with additional needs to experience matches whilst being provided the support that they needed. We have seen firsthand the positive outcomes of families using the sensory rooms and many who never thought that attending a world cup match would be possible together."

On non-match days at Education City, live match screenings were offered at Oxygen Park for all members of the community and their families, with 19,000 spectators who enjoyed watching the live matches on the outdoor screens so far. Live match screenings will continue at Oxygen Park, including the screening of the semi-final and the final games.

With the Morocco vs Spain match witnessing the highest attendance of 44,667.

Although the final whistle for this tournament was sounded at the Education City Stadium, the stadium will continue to serve members of the local, regional and international community in the post-tournament legacy stage, as the stadium will represent a student destination with the transfer of the headquarters of two schools affiliated with Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development to the vicinity of the stadium complex, it will also be a central destination for women's sports, and a learning space for people of all ages and abilities.

It is noteworthy that the Education City Stadium hosted confrontations: Denmark and Tunisia, Uruguay and Korea, Poland and Saudi Arabia, Korea and Ghana, Tunisia and France, Korea and Portugal in the group stage, a match in the round of last 16 and a match in the quarter-finals. 

(QNA)