DUGOUTS used by footballers at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar have come all the way from Basingstoke after they were originally made for the town’s club.

The dugouts, used to provide shelter for players and officials, were first made in Basingstoke when local business MiniTec was asked to create them for Basingstoke Town Football Club in customised blue and gold.

The machine framing designer and manufacturer based in Houndmills was asked by Basingstoke Town Football Club to create the dugout shelters for the Camrose ground in 2006.

An article about the dugouts was then spotted by the organisers of the Asian Cup, and MiniTech was commissioned to make five official dugout shelters for the competition.

Gary Livingstone, managing director of MiniTech, said a team flew out to Qatar in 2010 to install the dugouts ahead of the football tournament in January 2011.

The dugouts, which were designed, built and installed by MiniTech, featured at five stadiums during the Asian tournament, each providing 23 seats for players.

Gary said he was surprised to see the exact same dugouts made by MiniTech repurposed 11 years later at the World Cup 2022.

“The people who worked for MiniTech at the time got in touch to say they had seen them. We spent two weeks out there putting them in,” he said, adding: “I didn’t know they still existed. We noticed they were at the World Cup after all these years.”

The shelters have been used by the England football team players, as well as other countries at four World Cup stadiums in Qatar.