Doha. Although the water cycle is established in the winter, the temperatures are high in Qatar.
The arenas have air conditioning which cools the air – almost too much for parts of the audience.
– I think it was cold in the stands, but for us players it was just perfect, said England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.
Complaints really started coming in after the first World Cup show between Qatar and Ecuador.
American Mario Sanchez, who lives in Chicago and is therefore accustomed to the “real” winter, was one of those who ended up in the stands of the Home Stadium, thus having an air conditioner pipe blown into his neck.
– It was very cold tonight, but that’s because of a heavy storm, Sanchez told the Associated Press.
When the sun goes down during the day, the temperature in Doha is around 30 degrees. After that, in the evening it drops to about 20 degrees.
hat on
For those sitting near the air conditioner, it can become an almost unbearable experience if an extra jacket is not packed. In England and Iran (16:00 local time), a Sportbladet emissary sat in one of the back rows and shivered, while everywhere people wore everything from hats to knitted sweaters.
A little further away from everything more fun. It’s the best conditions for the players, says Jordan Pickford.
He’s very healthy on the field. I think it was cold in the stands, but for us players the temperature was perfect, the goalkeeper said.
– Now we play the next game at 10 pm, but I feel fine (with AC).
At home in England, temperatures are currently between 10 and 12 degrees.
– It’s a little warmer here, yeah. But it works fine. It’s not too hot to be unbearable with the air conditioning on.
Double or triple budget
FIFA called arena air conditioning a “miracle solution”. For the host country, it has become a technological challenge.
Then there is the environmental aspect. According to the regulator, the air conditioning system accounts for only 20 percent of the total electricity consumption in the yards. The exact cost was never made clear, but Saud Abdelghani, the engineer responsible for the technology, told The Guardian in 2019 that the budget had been “doubled or tripled”.
Morgane Colombert, a doctoral student in urban engineering at Lab’Urba Gustave-Eiffel University, wouldn’t describe the solution as environmentally friendly.
– Air conditioning in the open is an inevitable loss. The relevance must be questioned, Colombier tells Le Monde.
