EURO volunteer hopefuls put through their paces

Volunteer recruitment for UEFA EURO 2012 took a significant step over the weekend as 628 applicants, hailing from as far afield as Nigeria and Venezuela, were interviewed in Kyiv and Warsaw.

The drive to round up 6,000 volunteers was launched in mid-June and has received massive interest from both within Poland and Ukraine, the co-host nations, and outside their borders. Indeed, while most of the 288 candidates screened in Kyiv were there in person, a few had only a digital presence as they fielded questions over the internet from Nigeria, Canada, Ghana and Venezuela, among others.

All the candidates met the basic requirements of fluency in English and commitment to the UEFA EURO 2012 project, but varied from students to pensioners and managers of major corporations. "The candidates were very excited if a bit stressed," said Ewa Niewożewska, Volunteer Personnel Coordinator in Warsaw. "There was a lot of enthusiasm and high skill levels. I am glad we have people of all ages."

Niewożewska's team interviewed 340 applicants at Polish LOC headquarters, doing their best to calm visitors with highlights of UEFA EURO 2008, copies of Alive magazine and a lot of coffee.

Over in Ukraine candidates were invited to sign a good luck T-shirt for volunteer programme ambassador Vitaliy Klitschko. The boxer has expressed his desire to conduct interviews himself. This Saturday's fight against Poland's Tomasz Adamek in Wroclaw meant that, this time at least, he could not, but he is determined to do so over the coming months.