Work begins on the Lusail stadium, which will host 2022 FIFA World Cup final

Work on the Lusail Stadium, which will hoist the final of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, has started in full swing.

The 80,000-seater stadium is expected to be open for games by 2020, two years before the world’s second-biggest tournament comes to Asia, reported The Peninsula.

The stadium, situated 20kms from Doha, will also host the 2022 tournament’s opening game.

Project Manager Tamim Loutfi Elabed said work on the stadium had already begun.

“The ground is currently being cleared on the one million square-metre site. The foundations will go in later this year. If you dropped by to visit us the same time next year, you would be happy,” AFP quoted him as saying.

“In a few years, the world will see the Lusail Stadium in its full glory,” he added.

Allowing cameras onto the site for the first time, officials sounded confident about finishing work on time.

Despite the early stages, the pitch's centre circle has already been identified and marked out with barriers.

“This is ‘symbolic’ as well as ‘a surveying point.’ Eventually, we’ll have up to 7,000 workers employed here. Now we’re still in out early mobilisation stages. So we haven’t hit our first thousand worker number. We’re at about 50 staff now,” Middle East Online quoted the official as saying.

The stadium is being developed as a joint venture between a Qatari and Chinese company.

The design has not yet been revealed and is likely to be unveiled later this year. British architects Foster and Partners are in charge of the stadium’s design.

Lusail Stadium could potentially be used in 2021 as a venue for the Club World Cup, which Qatar is trying to win hosting rights to.