Five Qatari footballers on Sunday conducted a coaching session with a number of volunteers, who are helping deliver the FIFA Arab Cup 2021. Organised by FIFA and the Organising Committee of the Arab Cup, the aim of the 60-minute session was to reward the volunteers for their continuous support to the volunteer programme.
The Qatari team included goalkeeper Meshaal Barshim, Jassem Jaber, Youssef Hassan, Nayef al-Hadrami and Khaled Muneer. During the session, players shared their experience with volunteers in the presence of Director of Volunteering Strategy at the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, (SC), Nasser al-Mogaiseeb and QFA’s media co-ordinator Ali al-Salat.
Al-Salat said that the participation of the Qatar players with the volunteers comes as an encouraging gesture from the team in order to motivate latter to present a distinguished tournament. He pointed out that volunteers are always considered one of the most important elements of success in most sports tournaments and other events.
Al-Salat explained that volunteers are always considered the cornerstone of a number of sporting events that Doha has hosted in the past years. “There are a large number of volunteers that Qatar has prepared some time ago, by providing them with the necessary experiences through their participation in the tournaments hosted in Qatar,” he said.
Nasser al-Mogaiseeb said that the strategy of the volunteering programme in SC revolves around achieving two main goals. “The short-term goal is to serve the FIFA World Cup 2022 with volunteers that come from different nationalities and different cultures to support this huge event. The second is a long-term goal, to help build and empower a database of volunteers that can support in the delivery of national events for next year’s tournament, and beyond,” he said.
Al-Mogaiseeb indicated that the total number of volunteers in the Arab Cup reached 5,000 volunteers, as more than 55,000 applications were received, and 9,000 volunteers were approved after they passed the tests, bringing the number we need to 5,000 volunteers and 4,000 who will be on the reserve list in anticipation of some circumstances, as well as some other things that may arise during the activities of the tournament, as the tournament witnesses the participation of 350 volunteers coming from outside Qatar from Arab and European countries, who were integrated immediately after their arrival in Doha. Al-Mogaiseeb said that the committee’s volunteering programme witnessed more than 380,000 applications to join the 2022 World Cup.      
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