Doha Stadium Plus

About Doha Stadium Plus

Doha Stadium Plus — known to its readers as DSP — is Qatar’s first and exclusive English-language sports weekly. Launched on 15 February 2006 from a small villa in Doha, it has grown into one of the most respected sports publications in the Gulf, chronicling two decades of Qatar’s extraordinary sporting journey: from an ambitious bidder for global events to the host of the FIFA World Cup 2022.

History: A Skeleton Staff and a Big Ambition

The first edition of Doha Stadium Plus rolled out on 15 February 2006 with a skeleton staff of four journalists and two part-time graphic designers, operating from a small villa. Printing was outsourced, and the young weekly relied on a photo-sharing agreement with its sister Arabic publication. What it lacked in resources it made up for in backing: the Aspire Zone Foundation, its parent organisation, provided unstinted support.

The timing was shrewd. Qatar was already bidding for — and winning — international sporting events, and the country’s leaders had identified sport as a pillar of national development. A dedicated English-language sports weekly could serve the expatriate professionals, diplomats, athletes and sports administrators who were arriving in growing numbers, as well as English-reading Qataris.

Within three years, DSP had moved into its own office building, which also houses the state-of-the-art Aspire Printing Press, where the weekly has been printed ever since. The collective experience of the journalists, photographers and graphic designers in its newsroom grew to exceed 150 years.

The Aspire Connection

The Aspire Zone Foundation — home to the Aspire Academy for Sports Excellence, Aspetar sports medicine hospital and the Khalifa International Stadium — is one of the most significant sporting institutions in the Middle East. As DSP’s parent organisation, it gave the weekly both stability and access: to athletes, coaches, administrators and the venues where Qatar’s sporting story was being written.

The weekly has been careful to distinguish professional journalism from public relations and marketing — a line the publication’s own anniversary editorials have described as “wafer-thin” in the modern media environment. DSP credits its parent organisation’s support for allowing it to maintain editorial independence while covering the institutions around it.

Coverage: From the Qatar Stars League to the World Cup

DSP’s bread and butter is football — the Qatar Stars League, the national team, the AFC Champions League — but its remit spans the full sporting calendar: athletics, handball, tennis, motorsport, basketball and Olympic sports. The weekly built its reputation on access journalism done properly: exclusive interviews with players and coaches, tactical analysis, and preview packages that drew international attention.

The weekly was a media partner of the Soccerex Asian Forum in Doha, one of the leading business events for the global football community, where figures from across world football gathered to discuss major-event planning, sports marketing and the future of stadia.

The Sister Publication: Stad Al Doha

DSP’s sister publication is the Arabic sports title Stad Al Doha — also an Aspire Zone publication — giving the group a bilingual sports voice: Arabic and English, side by side. Together they form the most complete sports publishing operation in the country, covering the same events for two distinct readerships.

Eleven Years — and Counting

In February 2017, Doha Stadium Plus celebrated its 11th anniversary — “Qatar’s first and exclusive sports weekly,” as its own anniversary editorial put it, looking back on a journey from a four-person startup to “one of the best sports weeklies, not only in the region, but also beyond.”

The anniversary editorial also carried a message about the region’s media: a call for more nationals to take up media jobs, arguing that media plays a vital role in nation-building and influencing public opinion.

Digital Presence

The weekly’s online home is staddoha.com, where DSP content appears alongside the group’s digital sports coverage — a bilingual platform carrying news, interviews and analysis. The site’s DSP magazine archive preserves the weekly’s long-form journalism, from cover stories to editorials. As of 2026, the title continues to publish, with its latest news appearing across digital platforms.

Covering the Road to 2022 — and Beyond

No publication was better placed to cover Qatar’s World Cup journey than the sports weekly embedded in the country’s sporting heartland. DSP documented the twelve-year road from the December 2010 vote to the 2022 tournament: the stadium construction programme, the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy’s preparations, the test events and the national team’s own development.

The weekly’s journalism was regularly picked up internationally. When the Secretary-General of the Qatar Olympic Committee discussed a possible Qatari bid for the 2028 Olympic Games at the 79th AIPS Congress in Doha, it was Doha Stadium Plus that carried the interview — reporting that the bid process could start as early as 2019. International outlets from Nigeria to Europe quoted the magazine’s reporting.

The Newsroom

From four journalists and two part-time designers, DSP’s newsroom grew into a full sports desk: reporters, photographers and graphic designers whose combined experience exceeds 150 years. The weekly’s own account of its growth emphasises the craft — match reporting, photography, design and the weekly discipline of producing a complete sports paper every seven days, printed on the Aspire Printing Press in its own building.

That newsroom culture produced journalism with personality. When the editors wrote about maintaining “absolute independence” in an environment where journalism, PR, marketing and advertising increasingly blur, they were describing a working philosophy, not a slogan.

Position in Qatar’s Media Landscape

Within Qatar, Doha Stadium Plus occupies a unique position: the only English-language sports weekly in a market where sports coverage is otherwise dominated by Arabic dailies’ sports pages and the bilingual digital platforms. For the English-speaking sporting community — coaches, athletes, administrators, fans — it has been the paper of record for two decades.

The weekly’s lifespan maps almost exactly onto Qatar’s sporting golden age: launched four years before the 2010 World Cup vote, it covered the entire journey — the stadium construction, the Qatar Stars League’s growth, the Asian Games legacy, the handball and athletics world championships, and finally the World Cup itself in 2022.

Facts

• First edition: 15 February 2006
• Type: English-language sports weekly
• Also known as: DSP
• Parent organisation: Aspire Zone Foundation
• Headquarters: Doha, Qatar (own office building housing the Aspire Printing Press)
• Language: English
• Frequency: Weekly
• Sister publication: Stad Al Doha (Arabic)
• Coverage: Football, Qatar Stars League, athletics, handball, tennis, motorsport, Olympic sports
• Milestone: 11th anniversary celebrated February 2017
• Digital: staddoha.com
• Distinction: Qatar’s first and exclusive English sports weekly