After I watched my TV of the world cup football final between Argentina and France last night, I Googled to find out more about the football stadium which can accommodate 80,000 spectators. It is the largest football stadium in the world and it costs US$ 2.5 billion.

Lusail Stadium, jointly built by China Railway Construction Corporation, came into spotlight during the Qatar World Cup 2022. It is the first time a Chinese company has built a World Cup venue. The stadium is also the largest and most advanced one among professional soccer stadiums built by Chinese enterprises.

Lusail Stadium is featured on the new 10-riyal banknote of the country.

Covering a built-up area of 195,000 square kilometers, Lusail Stadium boasts a capacity of 80,000 people. Its design was inspired by the hand-crafted bowls found across the Arab and Islamic world during the rise of civilization, said Liu Dawei, person in charge of the project from China Railway Construction Corporation.

Lusail Stadium will hold the semi-finals, finals and closing ceremony of the World Cup.

In November 2016, HBK Contracting from Qatar and China Railway Construction Corporation won the bid to jointly construct the main venue for this year's World Cup.

“Lusail Stadium is a world-class facility that will capture the imagination of fans across the globe. It is built to the highest standards and is a source of pride for people in Qatar, the Middle East and Arab world."

Chinese products

Besides the Lusail Stadium, China also made many other products ranging from buses to air conditioners and  souvenirs for sale at the event.  

This year's World Cup returns to Asia after 20 years. The host, Qatar, has spent $229 billion on this, equivalent to four times the previous seven World Cups, known as the most expensive World Cup ever. And the "World Cup effect" is not limited to the host Qatar. FIFA President predicted that the number of people watching the World Cup this year will reach 5 billion, accounting for nearly 60% of the global population.

Driven by the World Cup effect, in various parts of the world, especially in countries and regions with a strong soccer culture, sales of related goods have been a round of explosion.

Data from global e-commerce platforms show that soccer, soccer shoes, soccer uniforms, soccer training equipment and peripheral products related to the World Cup became cross-border search keywords during September-November, with the number of global buyers of soccer shoes doubling year-on-year, trophy medals increasing 126% year-on-year, and soccer goalkeeper gloves increasing even more to 323% year-on-year.