World Cup Stadiums: Homes of the Beautiful Game

Qatar 2022: Doha Port Stadium
Qatar's extraordinary bid — it is the smallest country to host the tournament — involves the construction from scratch of nine surreal new stadiums, at the cost of tens of billions of dollars of the nation's considerable petrowealth. The structures will be powered by solar panels — a good gesture for the environment given that the Qataris intend to air-condition all the complexes to combat the Persian Gulf state's soaring summer temperatures. (FIFA has also said it would support moving the tournament to the winter because of the heat.)

• A Brief History of the World Cup
• What Becomes of Olympic Stadiums?