Zayed Sports City

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

As part of a greater vision to nurture and host major sporting events in the United Arab Emirates, the FIFA Club World Cup competition was held in Abu Dhabi in 2009 and 2010. One of the two stadia used for the event was the impressive Zayed Sports City Stadium, built in 1979 as a multi sports venue and seating up to 43,000 spectators. The brief was to refurbish key areas within the stadium, to provide state of the art facilities meeting FIFA requirements and breathe new life into the building.

Populous received local support from Atkins, which helped to ensure that this project was done within programme and budget, delivering a revitalised venue in time for the Club World Cup competition, and providing a facility for future years that Abu Dhabi can be rightly proud of.