Orientation evening in Qatar for the 20,000 volunteers

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 programme 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 programme.”

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 programme, 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".