Joburg leads the pack of people applying to volunteer for the Festival of Champions. In all, nearly 40 000 people applied from the four host cities.

MORE than 16 000 Joburgers have volunteered to be part of the FIFA Confederations Cup South Africa 2009™.

Applications to volunteer during the cup closed on 31 August, with 37 408 South African residents responding to the call. Johannesburg had the largest number of applicants out of the four host cities, at 17 262. It was followed by Mangaung/Bloemfontein with 7 401 applications, Rustenburg with 6 764 applications, and Tshwane with 5 981 applications.

Volunteer applications opened on 1 July, and the process has been described as phenomenal by the 2010 FIFA World Cup Organising Committee (OC).

"We are humbled and greatly encouraged by the incredible response from South African residents who have responded to our call for volunteers for the Confederations Cup," said the OC's chief executive, Danny Jordaan.

The 16-match tournament - billed as the Festival of Champions as it pits the champions of the six FIFA Confederations, reigning world champions and next FIFA World Cup hosts against each other - will take place from 14 June to 28 June 2009.

It will be played at Johannesburg's Ellis Park, Pretoria's Loftus Versfeld, Bloemfontein's Free State Stadium and Rustenburg's Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace.

South American champions Brazil, European champions Spain, African champions Egypt, 2006 FIFA World Cup™ champions Italy, 2010 hosts South Africa, Asian champions Iraq and CONCACAF champions the United States have qualified. The Oceania champions will complete the line-up.

Enthusiasm
Jordaan said the wonderful response to the request for volunteers showed the enthusiasm of South Africans regarding the success of the Confederations Cup. "The volunteer process provides an ideal opportunity for South Africans to open their arms and to embrace the world."

A total of 4 030 volunteers will be needed in the four Confederations Cup host cities to help in operational areas such as accreditation, administration, information technology, language support, logistics, transport, information services, media and marketing during the tournament.

All the applications will now go through a pre-selection and selection process, running from September to November. All successful applicants will be contacted for volunteer interviews.

During the tournament, the volunteers will get their own event-specific uniforms and specialised event training. After the competition they will get a certificate of acknowledgement - and will have had an unforgettable life experience, according to the OC's communication department.

Recruiting Confederations Cup volunteers is the first step towards recruiting about 15 000 volunteers for the World Cup the following year. Applications to volunteer for the latter tournament will open in July 2009.

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Related links:

FIFA Confederations Cup South Africa 2009™