LUSAIL, Qatar — You thought the final of the Qatar 2022 World Cup was in Doha, right? Doha, the capital city of the tiny Gulf state, has been the central hub of this tournament, but it isn’t staging the final between France and Argentina on Sunday. That honour has been bestowed upon Lusail, Qatar’s second-biggest city, which is 14 miles north of Doha. It is unlike any city that has ever previously hosted a World Cup final or likely ever will.
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Qatar has dubbed Lusail the “City of the Future,” but as you walk down Lusail Boulevard, the official theme song of the 2010 World Cup is being piped out of the speakers, which are clearly everywhere, yet impossible to see. “Waka Waka — This Time for Africa,” Shakira sings. Ten minutes later, you hear it again. And then again.
By the time you reach the end of the boulevard, about a 25-minute walk from one end to the other, and stand under a metallic shark sculpture which is suspended from two skyscrapers — yes, that’s right, a shark — the “Waka Waka” ear-worm is now inescapable.
It is not unusual for the final to be staged away from the capital. Pasadena (1994), Yokohama (2002) and Rio de Janeiro (2014) have all hosted football’s biggest game and the 2026 final in the United States is expected to be played in Dallas, Los Angeles or New Jersey rather than Washington D.C.
Yet all of those cities are, well, cities. They are living, breathing, functioning areas of population, with communities, infrastructure and populations mostly in the millions. Lusail can claim to have none of those things. But it’s the city of the future, so the expectation is that all of the above will develop in time.
Right now, though, it is unquestionably the strangest, weirdest city to ever stage a World Cup final. But when you consider that Qatar itself has proven to be an unusual host nation, Lusail is perhaps an appropriate place for everything to come an end.
