The Procurement process for the stadium conversion began in 2014. The stadium was built as a joint venture by HBK Contracting and the
China Railway Construction Corporation. Like the other stadiums planned for the 2022 World Cup, the Lusail Stadium is cooled using solar power and is claimed to have
zero carbon footprint. Construction began on 11 April 2017. Completion of the stadium was originally scheduled for 2020. It was then to host three friendly matches until the 2022 World Cup, but as the completion of the stadium was postponed, it is subsequently hosting 10 games including the final. Following the World Cup, it is expected to be reconfigured into a 40,000-seat stadium. Excess seating will be removed and other parts of the building repurposed as a community space with shops, cafés, athletic and education facilities, and a health clinic. Like other stadiums constructed for the
2022 FIFA World Cup, Lusail Stadium received a five-star rating on 16 August 2022 for its design and construction from the
GSAS. A 2021 investigation by
The Guardian revealed that over 6,500 migrant workers from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka died between 2010 and 2020 during construction of World Cup venues in Qatar. The figures used by
The Guardian did not include occupation or place of work so deaths could not be definitively associated with the World Cup construction programme. Commenting on the investigation,
Construction News recalled a 2014
BBC Newsnight investigation that claimed migrant workers were being forced to work in unsafe conditions and had wages withheld; nearly half of the deaths of Nepalese workers on the World Cup construction programme were blamed on heart attacks to avoid compensation payments. == Hosted events ==