250,000 people across Canada applied to volunteer at the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Toronto. CBC's Dale Manucdoc spoke to some team members about the excitement at the new volunteer centre at Humber Polytechnic’s Lakeshore campus.

Toronto

Toronto is gearing up for the 2026 FIFA World Cup by recruiting 3,000 volunteers to support various aspects of the event, including fan experiences, accessibility, and logistics. Humber Polytechnic's Lakeshore Campus has been designated as the central volunteer centre, where candidates undergo a multi-stage selection process that emphasizes experience, motivation, and diversity.

Out of 400,000 applicants nationwide, 8,000 have been shortlisted, and 350 have already been chosen as part of the 'starting lineup.' Selected volunteers will receive training from March to May before the tournament, with many describing the opportunity as a dream come true and a chance to be part of soccer history in their city.

It's a 'dream come true' for these 2026 FIFA World Cup volunteers

We're under seven months away from kicking off the FIFA World Cup 26 in Toronto. We're here at Humber Polytechnic's Lakeshore Campus, which will serve as the central volunteer centre. Let's take a look inside. Now, they're going to be recruiting about 3,000 people. That's going to be done by FIFA 26 Canada and the City of Toronto. Now, these volunteers, they're going to be tasked with supporting fan experiences, accessibility services, media operations, logistics, and more. And there's very stiff competition for these roles. There was about 400,000 people who applied across all of Canada. About a quarter million want to be part of the six games here in Toronto. They've already whittled that down to 8,000 people. And 350 have already been picked as part of what's called the starting lineup. Now, this is the welcome area in the volunteer centre. And then the next phase is to come to the waiting area. That's where the members of the starting lineup will gather some of these hopefuls and bring them up to the second floor. For me, it's kind of like a dream come true. This is like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Like I kind of mentioned to you, soccer's been a passion throughout my entire life. So just being a part of that game that I love and having it here in my city is, I'm so excited. This is the second floor exhibition space, which is a bit of a museum where some of the volunteer hopefuls can soak up all of the World Cup vibes. Check out some really cool memorabilia, a lot of which has ties to Canada. Now, after this, they get sent up to the third and fourth floor, where they'll have 10 to 20-minute conversations to talk about their previous experience and their motivations for wanting to be part of this sporting event. What talents do they bring? Have they volunteered for other events? We definitely want the volunteer pool to reflect the diversity of Toronto. So that will be an element we'll be looking at. This is the final spot, the activation centre. There's a lot of cool stuff down here, including this, which encourages people to leave their legacy. So volunteers are supposed to write a message on this plastic ball, pop it in to be part of the history of World Cup volunteers. They got a selfie station in the corner of the room, and once those pictures are printed out, members of the starting lineup have already put them up here, which is a very, very cool moment for them. It means the world just to be involved with, you know, one of the biggest sports events in the world. It's everything. It's everything. After the roll offers go out, volunteers will be trained from March until May, and then they'll get their uniforms, and it's all systems go. Dale Minuktaq, CBC News, Toronto.

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