An incredibly motivated group of over 16,000 volunteers, joined by thousands who followed online from around the world, gathered at the Lusail Stadium for the official orientation event – a festive ceremony featuring football legends and FIFA World Cup 2022™ top brass.
CEO of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, Nasser Al Khater, said, “Volunteering and the volunteering program is a very important part of any mega-event, and for us, for the World Cup, the demand of people wanting to volunteer is huge. We have over 500,000 applications of people wanting to volunteer; this is a massive volunteering program.”
Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the ceremony, Al Khater said they have been screening volunteer applications for half a year through interviews and selection. Four thousand more overseas volunteers will join the program, aside from the 20,000 local volunteers.
Nationals of 180 countries from six continents, as well as people of all ages and genders, make up the volunteers. “They will be everywhere — in stadiums; they will be working in public areas where all the fans will be; you can see them in the FIFA fan festival, and airports as well. Volunteers are gonna be all around,” Al Khater added.
The CEO said the orientation event was also important as it was a “good test for the stadium”.
He said the volunteers had undergone basic online training and that yesterday’s orientation went into greater detail about their roles, responsibilities, and tasks. “It’s a continuous process that’s gonna take place until the World Cup. We have a great new volunteer training centre which is big, and it’s gonna be packed everyday for training.”
Yesterday’s event marked the first time that all selected volunteers were assembled together for the formal start of their training journey and a momentous opportunity to reflect on the road ahead.
A highlight of the evening was the official volunteer uniform reveal. Styled in the signature volunteer colours of black, white, mint and purple, the adidas-designed outfits bear the brand’s triple-stripe detail and a distinctive heart logo design to represent the volunteer spirit. Volunteers are fitted from top to bottom with a full wardrobe of caps, long and short sleeve tops, jackets, pants, socks and shoes, plus optional head scarves for female volunteers.