University chancellors to be 2018 FIFA World Cup Volunteer Programme ambassadors

Ambassadors for the Volunteer Programme of the 2018 FIFA World Cup have been handed the key task of promoting and popularising the competition’s volunteer values among the students of Russian universities. The role has been entrusted to the heads of the universities that will act as bases for selecting and training the volunteers, who will be the driving forces of the FIFA Confederations Cup Russia 2017 and the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia.

The Chairman of the Local Organising Committee, Vitaly Mutko, said: "Hosting the FIFA World Cup is a unique opportunity to give a significant boost to the volunteer movement in Russia. The volunteers will be a uniting force at the competition and much depends on them, including the impressions that fans and players at the World Cup take away from our country and this wonderful event. We now have to prepare tens of thousands of volunteers, who can become the calling card of this huge footballing festival."

Here are the ambassadors for the Volunteer Program of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the chancellors of the universities where the Volunteer Centres were opened on December 10 in every Russia 2018 Host City:

Vitaly Borsch, acting chancellor of Moscow Automobile and Road Construction State Technical University

Sergei Vdovin from N. P. Ogarev Mordovian State University  

Viktor Grishin from Plekhanov Russian University of Economics

Andrei Klemeshev from Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University

Viktor Koksharov from B. N. Yeltsin Ural Federal University

Igor Maksimtsev from Saint Petersburg State University of Economics

Bessarion Meskhi from Don State Technical University

Natalia Pochinok from Russian State Social University

Galina Romanova from Sochi State University

Yuri Rubin from Sinergia Moscow University for Industry and Finance

Vasily Tarakanov from Volgograd State University

Anatoly Torkunov from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, belonging to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Evgeny Chuprunov from the N. I. Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod  

Evgeny Shakhmatov from S.P. Korolev Samar State Aerospace University

Yusup Yakubov from the Volga Region State Academy of Physical Education, Sport and Tourism

All Volunteer Centres undergo a certification process to prepare for the huge task of managing applications from would-be World Cup volunteers. More than 5,000 volunteers will be involved in hosting the FIFA Confederations Cup 2017 and more than 15,000 for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.