Half a million people signup to volunteer FIFA events

The FIFA volunteer programme, revamped in December 2020, is the largest of its kind in sport, allowing everyone who signs up on the registration portal to apply to take part in any future FIFA tournament.

Volunteer numbers have soared from 100,000 since October 2021, with the fast-approaching FIFA World Cup unsurprisingly proving the biggest draw.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino said, “This rise in people signing up to the platform truly is remarkable. The surge in numbers shows that our volunteer programme and platform are becoming a real, global community, with incredible interest in taking part in the FIFA World Cup in Qatar later this year.”

The spread of volunteers across all events is fascinating and, with the FIFA World Cup 2022 on the horizon, the regions closest to Qatar are strongly represented: 43.2% are from Asia and 40.2% from Africa. English is the most commonly spoken language among applicants (94.4%), while 23.8% speak French, 16.7% Spanish and 3.8% German. Almost half of volunteers – 48.9%, to be precise – speak a language other than the aforementioned four.

Overall, 53.1% of volunteers are in employment, while 34.4% are students. In terms of age groups, 24- to 34-year-olds lead the way (42.9%) ahead of 18- to 24-year-olds, who make up 36%, while 35- to 44-year-olds comprise 15.6% and 5.5% of volunteers are aged 45 or over.

Applications for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 volunteer programme – the largest such scheme in Qatar’s history – will close on Sunday, 31 July at 23:59 (Doha time).