Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy has invited consultants to express interest in project managing the construction of three stadiums, including the flagship Lusail stadium that will be used for football’s World Cup final in 2022.

The other two stadiums are known as stadiums 3 and 4. It is understood that stadium 3 is in the airport area of Doha.

The 80,000 seat capacity Lusail stadium is the most high-profile building project planned in Qatar, and is expected to be an iconic design that reflects modern Qatari culture.

The project management contracts were tendered before, and it is understood that a contract award was close to being finalised before the client decided to retender the deal.

In April, the organising committee invited architects to submit designs for the Lusail stadium in mid-May. It is understood that about four leading international design firms will submit proposals for the stadium, which will be used for the World Cup final in 2022.

The design competition will replace an earlier tender that the committee decided to scrap because the designs for the stadium did not adequately reflect Qatari design and culture. To ensure the fresh design meets expectations, architects will attend workshops with the committee ahead of the mid-May deadline.

Doha had initially planned to spend $4bn on building nine new stadiums and expanding its existing Al-Rayyan, and Al-Gharafa stadiums as well as Khalifa Stadium for the tournament.

Qatar’s organising committee for the 2022 Fifa World Cup recently stated that it is considering reducing the number of proposed host stadiums to an amount that better reflects the ‘size of the country’.

“The process of selecting the final proposed line-up of host venues is ongoing in consultation with Fifa,” the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy said in a statement given to MEED in late April. “Given the size of our country, Fifa and the Local Organising Committee decided to look into reducing the originally proposed 12 venues to fit the country’s specifications while ensuring best playing conditions for all 64 matches. Generally Fifa requests a minimum of eight stadiums for hosting the Fifa World Cup.”

The organising committee will submit its proposal for the number of host venues to Fifa by December 2014, with approval expected to be given by March 2015, the statement added.

Doha had initially planned to spend $4bn on building nine new stadiums and expanding its existing Al-Rayyan, and Al-Gharafa stadiums, as well as Khalifa Stadium for the tournament.

In early April, Qatar awarded the first World Cup stadium construction contract to a joint venture of Belgium’s Six Construct and the local Midmac Contracting Company.

The estimated $300m contract involves upgrading the existing Khalifa Stadium and increasing the seating capacity of the stadium to 60,000, from the current 45,000. The 24-month contract will also include the renovation of the museum at the surrounding Khalifa Sports City.

The consultant is Lebanon’s Dar al-Handasah. The client is Aspire Academy for Sports Excellence.

Consultants have been appointed for other stadiums. In February this year, Qatar appointed US-based Aecom as project manager and Denmark’s Ramboll as design consultant for the Al-Rayyan stadium.

The Al-Rayyan stadium will seat about 40,000 people during the football World Cup in 2022. Following the tournament, the stadium’s modular top tier will be disassembled and used to build football facilities in developing countries that lack sporting infrastructure, in coordination with football’s governing body, Fifa.

The stadium will also contain an open-air, natural grass pitch that can be cooled to 26 degrees Celsius, with shaded spectator stands that can be cooled to between 24 and 28 degrees Celsius.

In May 2013, Aecom was appointed design consultant and the local office of Kuwait-based KEO Consultants as project manager for the Al-Wakrah stadium project.

The stadium will have the capacity to seat 45,000 people during Fifa’s football World Cup in 2022. The top-tiers of the stadium will be modular and following the tournament, the capacity of the stadium will be reduced to 20,000, with 25,000 seats removed. Like the Al-Rayyan stadium, the plan is for these seats to be donated and re-constructed in developing countries.

US-based CH2M Hill is the programme manager for the stadiums.