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Meet the Indian behind the ‘Made in Qatar’ 2022 FIFA World Cup seats

Indian-born CEO of Qatari company Coastal will produce 100% recyclable seats for the 2022 World Cup

In 1978, as a seven-year-old boy in India on the verge of moving to the Middle East to join his engineer father, becoming associated with a FIFA World Cup would not have even figured remotely in his dreams.

But almost 40 years on and now the proud co-owner and CEO of Doha-based Coastal Qatar, that is the reality for Nishad Azeem after it was confirmed his company will manufacture seats for three 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar stadiums.

Nearly four decades since moving to the GCC region from Cochin in South India, Azeem and company have embarked on an exciting journey with the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) of manufacturing 500 seats a day – 15,000 a month – for three proposed 2022 FIFA World Cup stadiums: Al Wakrah, Al Bayt and Al Rayyan.