Event: ADIB Cup 2025–26 Final
Date: 1 May 2026
Location: Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Client: ADIB
Delivered by: Cueline Event Management
Role (Alexander Kotov): Lighting Design, Technical Drawings
Project Overview
The ADIB Cup final closes the UAE domestic cup competition. The 2025–26 final was staged at Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi, with the ceremony elements — walk-on, presentation and celebration — produced for live broadcast inside a full matchday.
Technical Scope
- Lighting design for the final’s ceremony and presentation sequences
- Technical drawings: plot, rigging positions, power and data distribution, focus documentation
- Levels and colour balanced against the stadium’s own sports lighting for broadcast exposure
- Positions planned for pitch-level presentation, trophy lift and crowd coverage
Key Challenges
The brief pulled in two directions at once: a rig that reads cleanly on broadcast — flat enough exposure and neutral enough colour for the cameras to cut between positions without correction — while still holding atmosphere for the live audience in the stands, who see the stadium, not the feed. The two requirements want different things from contrast and colour, and resolving them is where the design work sat.