The volunteer application process for the FIFA Confederations Cup South Africa 2009 closed this weekend, with a whopping 37 408 South African residents responding to the call for volunteers. The process opened on 1 July 2008 and closed on Sunday August 31, with the 2010 FIFA World Cup Organising Committee South Africa (OC) inundated with tens of thousands of applications from South African residents wanting to volunteer to be part of the first major FIFA event in the country – and for the chance to write their names in the history books.

Joburg residents led the pack with 17 262 volunteer applications by the time of the closure of the process, followed by Mangaung/Bloemfontein with 7 401 applications, Rustenburg with 6 764 applications, and Tshwane/Pretoria with 5 981 applications.

The 16-match tournament - billed as the ‘festival of the 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 at Ellis Park, Loftus Versfeld, Free State Stadium and Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace in the four South African host cities.

While the application process for the FIFA Confederations Cup was only available to South African residents, the Organising Committee received numerous queries from Germany, Brazil, USA, Ghana and Australia, showing the worldwide interest in and popularity of the Confederations Cup and 2010 FIFA World Cup, the first being held on the African continent.

“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. After the end of the Beijing Olympics the world's attention will shift to South Africa and the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The wonderful response to the volunteer application process shows that our people are enthusiastic about playing their part and getting involved in the success of the Confederations Cup and the World Cup. The volunteer process provides an ideal opportunity for South Africans to open their arms and to embrace the world,” said Dr Danny Jordaan, the Chief Executive Officer of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Organising Committee South Africa.

The Confederations Cup will definitely be a festival of football as reigning FIFA World Champions Italy will be competing with the newly crowned kings of Europe Spain, the Pharoahs of Africa Egypt, and the sexy samba style football of South American champions Brazil. The other teams who have qualified for the Confederations Cup are CONCACAF champions United States and Asian champions Iraq, with hosts South Africa and the incumbent Oceania champions completing the line-up of teams vying for the title of “Champion of Champions”.

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

All submitted applications will now go through a pre-selection and selection process during the period from September to November 2008. All successful applicants will be contacted in order to attend volunteer interviews.

Unfortunately, due to the volume of responses received, the 2010 Organising Committee Volunteer Programme will not be able to individually contact all applicants to inform them of their application status. If the 2010 OC Volunteer Programme has not contacted an applicant who has applied by the end of November 2008, it will therefore mean that the application was not successful.

The Organising Committee, however, would like to reiterate its extreme gratitude for all applicants and encourage the public to again apply during the volunteer application process for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.