Desert state Qatar is to grow 16,000 trees for the 2022 football World Cup to plant round stadiums as part of the tournament's "legacy", organisers announced Tuesday. The trees will be grown at an 880,000-square metre nursery in the northern part of Qatar, then replanted close to the football stadiums in the run-up to the tournament in six years' time.
More than 60 types of tree will be used, most prominently the Sidra, which has grown in the harsh Qatari desert for many generations, but also Ficus and Acacia. "This is a very ambitious project that we see as legacy," said Yasser Al-Mulla of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, the body overseeing organisation of the tournament in Qatar.