In June 2010, I will be off to Cape Town to work as FIFA volunteer for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

South Africa will be my third consecutive FIFA World Cup 'appearance'  as FIFA volunteer. I am truly grateful to have these life-changing experiences in my life and my journey to date has led to me create this website as a token of appreciation and as a way of 'giving back' to the world. My desire is to become a true "WorldCup Mate!" for the world, following every FIFA World Cup in my lifetime and helping people along the way.

FIFA World Cup 2002 Korea/Japan

In 2002, my FIFA World Cup adventure has begun. I had the privilege of working for the Korean Organising Committee of 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan™ as a volunteer. I was lucky to be one of few overseas (recruited outside Korea and Japan) volunteers chosen to assist the event. Initial assignment was a bilingual (English/Korean) IT analyst based in Seoul, the city which hosted the Summer Olympics back in 1988.

I started by working at the International Media Centre (IMC) for a period of two weeks. The International Media Centre (IMC), which is made up of an International Broadcast Centre (IBC) and a Main Press Centre (MPC), had an area of some 40,000 square metres. It served as ‘the nerve centre’ for global broadcast and print media coverage of the 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan™.

The MPC was the area set aside for all print media personnel to work on their articles. It provided all World Cup-related information including match results, photos, statistics and contents of FIFA

briefings and press conferences. As an IT volunteer, I was responsible for trobleshooting many IT issues relating to hardware configuration, network connectivity and operation of media equipments for journalists from all over the world. 

All volunteers had to complete an on-line training program prior to assignment. It was quite a detailed training which required many hours on a computer over a period of 4 months. But in the end it was all worth the effort!! Upon the completion, I was given an accreditation pass that allowed me 24/7 access to all 10 World Cup stadiums in South Korea.

After two weeks of work in Seoul, the Organising Committee invited me to work with a travelling team of IT specialists and interpreters, providing various support for all matches held in World Cup Stadiums located on the west coast of Korea (5 in total). On this assignment I travelled to the following Stadium Media Centres (SMCs), and supported the following FIFA World Cup matches:

Gwangju World Cup Stadium (1/6/02 - 5/6/02) Spain vs Slovenia, China vs Costa Rica
Jeonju World Cup Stadium (6/6/02 - 10/6/02) Spain vs Paraguay, Portugal vs Poland
Daejeon World Cup Stadium (11/6/02 -14/6/02) South Africa vs Spain, Poland vs USA
Suwon World Cup Stadium (15/6/02 - 17/6/02) Spain vs Republic of Ireland (Round of 16)
Seoul World Cup Stadium (25/6/02 - 26/6/02)  Germany vs Korea Republic (Semi-final)  

I was fortunate to watch all the above matches while working on my assignment.

FIFA World Cup 2006 Germany

Germany 2006 was my second FIFA World Cup as a volunteer since Korea/Japan 4 years ago. A strong team of 15,000 volunteers were chosen for the World Cup. I had the privilege to be one of the 5 volunteers came from Oceania (and was the only New Zealand national).

Each of the 12 World Cup stadiums was set-up with accreditation centres, issuing passes to more than 50,000 officials, teams, media representatives, partners, sponsors and FIFA employees. The official FIFA accreditation provides proof of eligibility to enter the stadium and other official facilities. As such, accreditation departments played a key role in project management and access control for the World Cup. I was an accreditation volunteer based in Frankfurt. Together with fellow volunteers, we ensured the smooth running of the accreditation process. It was very exciting to meet officials, journalists and broadcasters from all corners of the globe.

5 World Cup matches were held in Frankfurt: England vs. Paraguay (10-Jun-06), South Korea vs. Togo (13-Jun-06), Portugal vs. Iran (17-Jun-06), Netherlands vs. Argentina (21-Jun-06), Brazil vs. France (Quarter-final, 01-Jul-06). Each match presented a unique opportunity to interact with various fans, not to mention all the excitiement of matches themselves!! 

The Frankfurt Organising Committee also gave me a special one-off job to work as the principle translator for FIFA host broadcasting services for South Korea vs Togo match. For this role, I was given access to the field as well as the mixed interview zones. On the match day, I bumped into a BBC journalist who did a BBC Sport Blog article featuring me - what a day!! 

After the match, I provided translation support for fifaworldcup.com at the interview zone and took a photo with Ahn Jung-Hwan, the Korean striker who scored the match winner. It was great to be working with a such a talented, dedicated and diverse group of people during the World Cup. I am simply blown away (and forever grateful) for all the excitement, joy and incredible experiences I have had over the past 2 FIFA World Cup finals.