The World Cup 2022 final match is scheduled to be played at the Lusail Iconic Stadium in Lusail, Qatar, on 18 December 2022, the national day of Qatar, and will be contested by the winners of the semi-finals.
When will the World Cup 2022 Final Be Played?
The 2022 World Cup final will be staged on Sunday, December 18. It is tradition that the World Cup final be held on a Sunday locally.
All but two World Cup finals, including the last 13 editions, have been held on a Sunday. The only two that were not held on a Sunday were the first World Cup final in 1930, which was played on a Wednesday, and the 1966 World Cup final, which was held on a Saturday.
The date is also the National Day of Qatar, or Al-Yawm al-Watani li-Qaṭar, also known as “Founder’s Day,” celebrated annually on the same date.
The holiday, commenced in 2007, was established to commemorate the rise to power of Sheikh Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani on December 18, 1878. He is credited with driving outside forces such as the Ottomans, the British, and other Arabian peninsula tribes from the land while unifying the Qatari tribes.
While the holiday isn’t quite equivalent to an Independence Day — Qatar would not gain its independence from the British Empire until 1971 — it does serve to celebrate the nation’s freedom from outside rule.
Where will the World Cup 2022 Final Be Played?
The Lusail Iconic Stadium, owned by the Qatar Football Association, was built as part of Qatar’s winning bid for the World Cup. The stadium was designed by British firm Foster + Partners and Populous, supported by MANICA Architecture. The stadium will be cooled using solar power and have a zero carbon footprint. Construction began in April 2017, and was planned to finish in 2020. However, the completion of the stadium was postponed, with construction ultimately finishing in November 2021. The stadium had its first match on 9 September 2022 with the Lusail Super Cup game, later than expected.
Lusail Stadium has a capacity of 80,000 people, but will be reduced to 40,000 following the World Cup, with the additional space converted to shops, cafes, athletic facilities, and other amenities. The goal for this is to create a stadium that will be usable beyond the 2022 World Cup, addressing an issue that arose with the now-derelict stadiums from the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.