THE QUICK CHAT WITH ‘DR COOL’

We get on the phone with Qatar 2022’s superbly nicknamed air-con wizard

Dr Saud Abdul-Aziz Abdul-Ghani of Qatar University is the man behind the ground-breaking air conditioning tech that will guarantee agreeable temperatures inside World Cup stadia. He is also known, quite excellently, as ‘Dr Cool’. We caught up with the good doctor to talk about his work, predictions for the tournament and his nickname. But mostly his nickname.

Who first dubbed you Dr Cool?

I was doing an interview with a lady for CNN. She called me Dr Cool, and it went from there.

It’s a pretty great nickname.

It comes with responsibility, though [laughs].

Responsibility to be cool?

No, to ensure that all my cooling projects meet certain sustainable goals. Tell us about the cooling systems you’ve introduced in Qatar’s stadia. We hear they’ll also eliminate body odour? Yes. A lot of people say: ‘The tournament is in winter, why do we need air-conditioning?’ But it’s not just about cooling, it’s also about the quality of the air. If you’ve got 80,000 people jumping and cheering, there will be a lot of CO2 and an increase in body odour. We offset that heat and odour.

So, this could be the least smelly World Cup ever?

I hope so. And now with VAR you have less chance of another ‘Hand of God’, which makes it less smelly, too!

Who do you think will win?

I would love Qatar to do well. But I think maybe a Brazil v Argentina final.

Finally, Dr Cool, in your opinion, who is the coolest person on Earth?

Someone in Antarctica. Stood beside a penguin [laughs].

Good answer.

Thanks. I want to say a quick hello to my mates in Nottingham, where I studied. The UK is really one of the best countries!