‘Excruciating’ delays and dashed hopes: Inside the World Cup volunteer disarray in Boston

Seduced by the chance to be part of soccer history, thousands of New Englanders raised their hands last year to volunteer for this summer’s FIFA World Cup in Boston.

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Many even waved pompoms.

But the experience for many has been a baffling conga line of communication breakdowns and bottlenecks, adding to a string of organizational miscues during preparations in Boston for the world’s largest sporting event.

With kickoff now only days away, many of the 1,500 volunteers who made the cut find themselves confronting unexpected questions. What, exactly, have they signed up for? And were the months of delays and confusion worth it?

“What should have been an awesome, once-in-a-lifetime experience was a frustrating mess,” said Diana Correia, a volunteer applicant from Peabody who received her rejection notice on Mother’s Day after a six-month wait.

More than a dozen applicants from New England described a cascade of logistical letdowns: canceled training events, rejection emails sent in error, incorrect birthdates that delayed their accreditation, vague or missing role descriptions, a pickup site for uniforms in downtown Boston with an unmarked entrance and no staff to greet arrivals, and large group “tryouts” where applicants were not given clear criteria for selection. Scores of complaints have poured in across online message boards and through messages shared via FIFA’s volunteer help portal.

That disarray mirrors broader challenges in Boston’s preparations. But the volunteer process, in particular, stands out for its dysfunction.

“The entire operation felt amateurish, like no one had ever done this before,” said Warren Lee, a retiree from Watertown, who withdrew from the process out of frustration. “It’s a major time commitment, and if I’m going to dedicate a week of my life to something, then I want to do it with people who know what they’re doing.”

Months of confusion and missteps have worn thin the patience of even the most devoted soccer fans — those who once thrilled at the idea of helping stage a spectacle that soccer’s global governing body, FIFA, projects will be viewed by some 6 billion people, or nearly three-quarters of humanity. Many volunteers remain in a fog of uncertainty, unsure of their roles in a tournament that is just days away. Others wish they had never signed up at all.

As in other host cities, Boston’s volunteer program is overseen by FIFA, though Boston Soccer 2026, the local host committee, has been involved — for example, staffing the local tryouts.

Boston Soccer 2026 referred questions from the Globe about the volunteer effort to FIFA, which is projected to rake in a record $11 billion in revenue from this year’s World Cup.

A spokesperson for the organization said, “FIFA is dedicated to support its once-in-a-lifetime community of volunteers through official support channels and engagement opportunities, recognizing their passion is vital to making the tournament a success.” The spokesperson suggested clicking on a FIFA FAQ website to learn more about its volunteer system.

The organizational problems in Boston are especially striking because volunteers are, in many ways, the backbone of the World Cup. More than 50,000 will be deployed across 16 host cities in North America, responsible for a dizzying range of critical functions — from crowd control and accreditation desks to greeting international visitors at the airport and assisting with anti-doping testing. FIFA president Gianni Infantino has described volunteers as “the heart, soul, and smile” of the tournament.

The contrast with other US cities hosting the World Cup is stark. While organizers in Boston struggled to get their volunteer program off the ground, many of their counterparts were already training thousands of recruits, opening high-profile volunteer hubs, and holding special events to build excitement.

In Boston, a hub for volunteers has yet to materialize. The closest approximation is a building in Boston devoid of signage with any visible mention of FIFA, the World Cup, or Boston Soccer 26.

The frustration expressed by volunteers is a far cry from the exuberance many felt last winter, when FIFA and Boston’s host committee launched the volunteer program with fanfare and hype.

On a frigid Friday in mid-December, the mood inside the Thomas M. Menino Convention & Exhibition Center in South Boston was buoyant for what was billed as a World Cup volunteer “tryout.”

More than 100 aspiring volunteers, some from as far away as Maine and South Carolina, streamed through the doors as images of soccer fans with faces painted flashed across a giant screen. “Sweet Caroline” blared from the speakers, and the crowd sang along. Pompoms were distributed for a cheering contest, and volunteers-to-be competed to see who could scream the loudest. Organizers then dumped pieces of a giant puzzle featuring Boston’s official World Cup poster (with a giant lobster) onto the floor, and teams raced to put it together.

The message from organizers was unmistakable: This World Cup was looking for enthusiasm and commitment.

“We could not put on this event without volunteers,” said a Boston Soccer 26 organizer at the meeting. “Volunteers are an extension of the [Boston 26] team.”

How that initial test of enthusiasm was officially recorded by organizers is unclear, as none of the applicants wore nametags.

Many who attended the packed tryouts said they were told to expect a decision by late January or early February. But winter gave way to spring, and still there was no word from FIFA or Boston’s host committee. As the silence stretched, some volunteers speculated the delays were tied to the bitter dispute between tournament organizers and the town of Foxborough over security costs — a standoff that briefly cast doubt about whether Boston’s World Cup plans would move forward at all.

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“You have to keep in mind that, for many people, [volunteering for the World Cup] is the biggest opportunity of their lives, and it just didn’t seem like they were ready,” said Rhonda Burnim, of Fairfield, Conn., who decided to drop out of the process after the volunteer tryouts.

Then came a new round of confusion. In late March, many volunteer applicants received emails from FIFA informing them they had not advanced in the selection process, while encouraging them to apply for future tournaments. Then moments, and in some cases weeks later, they received another message from FIFA that said the earlier rejection notices were sent in error. The episode touched off an outpouring of confusion and frustration on online message boards for volunteers, where applicants questioned whether organizers were on top of the process.

Octaviano Bororing, a lifelong soccer fan and father of three from Dover, N.H., described the months of uncertainty before learning he had been selected as “excruciating.”

By late April, Bororing said he had nearly given up hope of ever hearing back when an email from FIFA finally arrived: He had been selected as a volunteer. Ecstatic, he immediately called his mother in Indonesia with the good news. He took a photo of his acceptance note from FIFA and ran around his office showing it to his coworkers.

“It meant everything to me,” said Bororing, who is such a diehard soccer fan that he once took a month off from work to watch the European soccer championships.

Bororing is slated to work in crowd management at Gillette Stadium, yet organizers have provided almost no information about his specific responsibilities. His first in-person training session is scheduled for June 7 at Gillette Stadium, just six days before kickoff.

“It all seems very last-minute and chaotic,” said Bororing, 51, who is nonetheless thrilled at the prospect of volunteering. “The whole process has taught me a lot about patience. It wasn’t easy, though it’s definitely still worth it.”

Mollie Roque will be volunteering with VIP services at the stadium but wasn’t sure from the start she would get the posting.

Since Roque and everyone else at the tryouts were not wearing nametags, she could not understand how her attendance was evaluated.

The Plainville native considered some of the tryout team-building activities, like the puzzle assembly, “stupid” since they “didn’t really have anything to do with what we would be doing.” But overall, she is still supporting the process, saying she at least has enough information to work with — she was also among those accepted. And she believes the lack of organization with volunteers had to do with other issues, such as the delay in permits for watch parties.

“I think there could be more communication, but I also knew that there were so many issues with getting the town approval and everything that there wasn’t much people could do until they knew that everything was happening,” she said. “I know a lot of people are complaining about the communication or lack thereof. But I feel like I’ve had enough communication to make me comfortable in my role.”

FIFA said it expects to have approximately 1,500 volunteers in the Boston region through the final match on July 9. That’s roughly half the number organizers initially sought — a reflection in part due to the scaled-back ambitions for satellite events scheduled around the tournament, such as the FanFest watch party planned at Boston City Hall Plaza.

By comparison, Miami completed its volunteer selection process in February and began training 4,000 volunteers for their roles in March. Houston wrapped up selections in January and has assembled a corps of 4,100 volunteers. Kansas City, despite being much smaller than Boston, has recruited 3,500. Philadelphia has recruited 3,000 World Cup volunteers and will also draw on a standing army of 10,000 civic boosters known as “Phambassadors,” who will help welcome visitors and promote the city during major events, including the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration.

The differences don’t end with recruiting. Across the country, World Cup host cities have opened high-profile volunteer centers stocked with amenities and designed to build excitement and volunteer camaraderie.

In Philadelphia, volunteers report to a brightly lit, two-story hub in the city’s Fashion District, complete with foosball and teqball tables and dedicated uniform fitting rooms. In Miami, the downtown volunteer center serves as both a training site and a place to unwind between shifts, featuring a recreation area with fitness equipment and special tables for playing dominoes, a favorite pastime in Miami’s Caribbean community.

Yet Boston still lacks a central volunteer hub. Without a shared meeting place, volunteers said they feel disconnected from one another, and communication instead depends largely on FIFA’s online support channel — a system many volunteers describe as confusing and unresponsive.

One volunteer, a Boston schoolteacher named Henry, who declined to share his full name because FIFA prohibits volunteers from speaking to the media, recounted his confusion when he picked up his uniform at the Boston location in May. He had expected a clear setup — or at least a staffer in FIFA attire to greet him. Instead, he lingered in a dim entryway on a sidewalk lined with trash cans. A security guard eventually opened the door, checked his phone to confirm the appointment, and waved him inside to the building’s fourth floor.

“It’s baffling,” Henry said. “There are some people who have a lot of hope in this… and it just feels like [FIFA] is taking advantage of our free labor.”

Josh Dietch of Boston has come to terms with his rejection, which ultimately arrived a week after he was told to ignore the erroneous rejection email that he and many others received this spring.

“This isn’t going to be the crowning defeat of my life, put it that way,” Deitch said. “I thought it would be something interesting to do. I just was struck by the lack of organization.”

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